Blues by the Numbers
Play the blues as a melody, not a box pattern on the fretboard.
$24.99
Most blues soloing stalls inside the minor pentatonic box. Tim opens up what he calls the blues pool, the wider set of notes that gives blues its voice: the major third alongside the minor, the sixth, the ninth, and the bent blue third that sits between the two thirds.
Why you'll love it...
One sound, not two scales
Tim is explicit that there is no strict switch between major and minor pentatonic. The blending is the sound, and once you hear it that way the box stops being a box.
The note between the notes
Bending from the flat third up to the blue third, the spot that is neither minor nor major. Singers and horn players hit it without thinking, and it is learnable on a guitar.
Melodies, not licks
The emphasis is on melodic lines you can carry through a 12-bar form, rather than patterns that only fit over the one chord and fall apart at the change.
Notes that do two jobs
The same note can be the third of one chord and something else entirely over the next. Tim shows how that dual role is what lets a line travel through the changes.
Rooted in the tradition
The vocabulary comes from the players who built it, with the jazz and gospel edges that have always been part of blues rather than added to it later on.
Widens what you already play
The sixth and the ninth arrive as extensions of the shapes you know, so your existing pentatonic playing gets bigger instead of being thrown away and replaced.
What's inside
- 2 videos, 37 min in total
- The blues pool: the notes blues melody actually draws on
- Why the major third matters as much as the minor
- Blending major and minor pentatonic without switching
- The blue third, and bending up to it from the flat third
- Tension and resolution built from the two thirds
- Adding the sixth and the ninth to your vocabulary
- Chromaticism and interval movement in blues lines
- Melodic lines that travel through the 12-bar changes
- How one note can serve two chords at once
Is this for you?
Yes, if…
- You solo from the minor pentatonic box and want out of it
- You can bend accurately and want to use it musically
- You want blues to sound like singing rather than patterns
- You play blues and are curious about its jazz and gospel edges
Maybe not, if…
- You have never soloed and want a first blues scale
- You want tab for licks to memorize and repeat
- You are looking for rock or metal lead playing
What the blues pool means...
Almost everyone learns the blues the same way. One box, five notes, minor pentatonic, and it works straight away. That is exactly the problem. It works well enough that most players never leave it.
Tim’s way in is a phrase of his own, the blues pool. Not a scale, because no single scale covers the ground, but the collection of notes that blues melody actually draws from.
Two thirds, and the space between them
The heart of it is the relationship between the flat third and the natural third. Blues lives in the play between them, and often in a note that sits somewhere in the middle: the blue third, reached by bending up from the flat third and stopping short of the top. It is the sort of target singers and horn players hit without thinking, and it is entirely available on a guitar once you know to aim for it.
The blue third isn’t quite the minor or the major third, it’s that sweet in-between spot where the blues lives.
Melodies rather than licks
The other shift is in what you are learning. A lick tends to fit one chord and come apart at the change. A melody travels. Tim works on lines that move through the whole 12-bar form, including the trick where a single note serves as the third of one chord and something quite different over the next.
The sixth and the ninth arrive as widening rather than replacement, and the jazz and gospel edges of the vocabulary get their due, because they were always part of the blues rather than imported into it.
The blues is more than a box pattern on the fretboard. This is the lesson that makes that concrete.
Questions, answered
Do I need to read music?
No. Everything is played and explained on the guitar. The lesson works from sound and from the fretboard, so you can follow it by ear and by watching where Tim puts his fingers as he goes.
Is this only useful for 12-bar blues?
The 12-bar form is the vehicle, but the thinking is about melody rather than a fixed structure. The same blending and the same blue third work anywhere a blues feeling is wanted, including jazz and gospel settings.
How accurate does my bending need to be?
Accurate enough to control where a bend stops, since the blue third is a target between two frets rather than at one of them. If your bends currently land roughly, this lesson gives them a reason to get precise.
Is this included in the membership?
Yes. It sits in the Workshop library, so members already have it along with everything else. Buying it here is for players who want this one lesson outright rather than taking on a membership.
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