10 BB King Guitar Licks Part 1 - 10 Intro Licks for 12 Bar Blues with Tabs


Published on 13 February 2017
In this lesson, I show 10 intro licks with tabs in the style of the great BB King. All licks are in the key of B. It is important to have a set of basic blues licks to use for an intro to a basic 12 bar blues. BB King's intro licks are absolutely classic, and are copied in some way by all the great blues guitarists. Guys like Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, Jimi Hendrix - these guys all borrow from the basic concepts shown in these licks. Because the first chord in a 12 bar blues is a major chord (in these examples , B Major), the scale used is the B major pentatonic scale. When learning to play the blues, this is a great convention to follow: play the major pentatonic over the "1" chord. There will be other BB King lessons that show licks over the other parts of the basic 12 bar blues. There will be lessons for both minor BB king licks, and licks over the turnaround. Bu,t before you get to those, get these intro licks under your fingers. You'll be surprised how far some of these simple licks can take you. And, you'll probably hear some licks you've heard before, but didn't know were BB's! Enjoy these awesome and simple intro blues licks!