JAMTRACKCENTRAL.

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Lesson notes: GUTHRIE GOVAN ON THE JOE
SATRIANI STYLE JAM TRACK FROM ROCK BLUES

GENERAL THEORY

This jam track is in the key of D, and although its partly ambiguous, the horns are playing dominant 7
chords, so it works as a standard major-key blues. That still gives us plenty of options, though. The
obvious scales are D major pentatonic (D E F# A B) and D Mixolydian (D E F# G A B C) but dont forget
that you can also use (with care!) certain minor scales over a major blues, such as D minor pentatonic
(D F G A C), D blues scale (D F G Ab A C) or D Dorian (D E F G A B C).

SPECIFICS
Bars 1-5
There are plenty of opportunities to work on your bending technique in this solo. For the one in bar 2,
bend immediately up a wholetone (F to G) and then slowly push up another wholetone to A. Then, in bar
5 you get a full range of bends as you go through the solo, try to distinguish between bends that have
a melodic purpose (going from one note to another) and bends that simply add expression (usually
quarter-tone bends that create tension in between two notes).

Apart from the B note at the very beginning, Guthrie is using the minor pentatonic here.

Bar 9
Guthrie uses a static shape (9-10-13 frets) to create an outside sound. The 10 and 13 on both strings
are already part of the minor pentatonic, but the 9 on the B string is the b5 (from the blues scale) and
the 9 on the E string is the major 7, not normally heard in a blues context.

Bar 10
In some parts of this solo, Guthrie changes scale according to the underlying chord. Over the A7 here,
he uses a mixture of A major pentatonic (A B C# E F#) and A minor pentatonic (A C D E G). Then, over
the G7, he switches to a kind of G minor pentatonic (G Bb C D F) pattern for just the first beat, before
switching back to the D blues scale.

Those quick hammer-ons between the G, Ab and A (3-4-5 on the E string) in bar 11 are reminiscent of
the sort of thing Stevie Ray Vaughan used to do. The Ab is the b2nd, so its an outside note use it
carefully!

The Dm9 arpeggio between beats 3 and 4 is something weve seen quite often in Guthries playing, but
the two-tone bend at the end makes this example particularly difficult.

Bar 13
Once again Guthrie moves into an A scale for the A chord. Remember how you can use both major and
minor scales over a major-key blues because of the ambiguity? The lick at the start of this bar uses the
rd th th
major 3 (C#, 14 fret on the B string) and the minor third (C, 13 fret on the B string).

By the way, this track is in 12/8, which means you can have a lot of notes in each bar. When youre
playing in 12/8, you dont usually count 12 beats per bar you treat it as 4 groups of 3. In effect, its a
very slow swing feel ONE-two-three TWO-two-three THREE-two-three FOUR-two three. So when we
talk about the second beat of the bar, were talking about number 2 of 4, not number 2 of 12!

Bar 14-17
rd th th
And heres the same major/minor 3 concept moved to D (so the two notes are F and F# - 10 and 11
frets). This is probably the hardest part so far Guthrie is moving a fast legato pattern up the fretboard,
but hes also playing it in a 2:3 pattern. So for each beat of 3 pulses, Guthrie plays the pattern twice!

In bar 16, tremolo-pick the B note while gradually bending it.

Bar 25
nd rd
There are some surprising notes on the 2 and 3 beats here. The four-note sweep creates a kind of
th
A7b9#5 sound (although the 7 is missing) and Guthrie then follows up with a lick also containing the F
note.

Bar 26-29
A lot of this solo is all about dynamics compare the aggression in this section with the softer notes at
the very beginning. When you jam, try not to play everything with the same intensity you can vary it
from note to note, bar to bar, or section to section.

Bar 34
Coolest lick in the solo? Well, maybe its a nice A9 (A C# E G B) arpeggio, and Guthrie also does a
cheeky little slide up to the b9 (Bb) at the end of the first beat.