Lessons Archive - Riff Ninja Academy

zShop

Section 7: Bring It All Together — Your Soulful Blues Solo

This is where you take everything you’ve learned — scales, riffs, techniques, and feel — and use it to create your own solo that flows naturally over the progression.

You’ll learn:

✅ How to blend all your tools into a solo that sounds authentic and personal

✅ Tips for structuring your solo so it builds and resolves with impact

✅ How to keep experimenting, refining, and growing your soloing skills

By the end of this section, you won’t just know what to play — you’ll know how to play it in a way that’s expressive, confident, and uniquely yours.


Jam Track:

Section 6: Add Color — Chromatics and the Blues Note

Time to spice up your solos! In this section, you’ll learn how to add tension, flavor, and that unmistakable blues sound using chromatic passing notes and the classic flat 5 “blues note.”

You’ll learn:

✅ How to use the flat 5 to add bite without losing the groove

✅ Where chromatic passing notes fit naturally into your phrases

✅ How to emphasize tension and resolve it for that true blues feel

These ideas give your solos the edge and emotion that make listeners’ ears perk up — it’s the secret sauce of great blues guitar.


Jam Track:

Section 5: Build Your Solo — Combining Riffs, Scales, and Feel

Now it all comes together. In this section, you’ll see how to take the riffs, scales, and techniques you’ve learned and start crafting a complete, expressive solo.

You’ll learn:

✅ How to shape a solo with a beginning, middle, and end

✅ How to leave space and use dynamics so your solo breathes

✅ How to connect riffs with scale runs and target strong notes at the right moments

This is where you stop thinking “parts” and start playing music — crafting solos that tell a story from start to finish.


Jam Track:

Section 4: Add Feel — Hammer-Ons, Pull-Offs, and Slides

This is where your solo gains personality. In this section, you’ll learn how to add expression and fluidity with techniques that make your playing sing.

You’ll learn:

✅ How to use hammer-ons and pull-offs for smooth, connected phrases

✅ Where slides fit naturally into your riffs to create that vocal, bluesy feel

✅ How to combine these techniques with your scales for endless creative possibilities

These tools help you move beyond just playing the right notes — now you’re shaping a solo that feels good.


Jam Track:

Section 3: Foundational Riffs & Techniques — Build Your Solo Vocabulary

With the scales under your fingers, it’s time to turn them into music. This section teaches you the essential riffs and techniques that form the heart of a soulful blues solo.

You’ll learn:

✅ Classic string bends that give your solos emotion and voice

✅ Simple, powerful note groupings you can shape into countless licks

✅ How to experiment with timing and phrasing so every riff sounds like your own

This is where your solo starts to take shape — not by memorizing licks, but by building your own sound from timeless blues ingredients.


Jam Track:

Section 2: Essential Scales — The Notes That Bring Your Solo to Life

Now that you know the progression, it’s time to explore the scales that will fuel your solo. In this section, you’ll lock down the core patterns that let you solo with confidence — no more getting stuck in one spot!

You’ll learn:

✅ The A minor pentatonic and how to make it your go-to safe zone

✅ The 3-position “climb” scale that opens up the fretboard

✅ How to practice these scales musically over the loop — not just as boring exercises

This is where you start connecting the dots, so your fingers and ears work together when it’s time to play.


Jam Track:

Section 1: Know the Progression — The Foundation of Your Solo

Before you can build a great solo, you need to understand what you’re soloing over. In this section, you’ll lock in the classic chord progression that forms the backbone of your solo — inspired by Ain’t No Sunshine.

✅ The progression:

A minor → E minor → G major → A minor (played twice)

E minor (or E minor 7) → D minor (bridge-style lift)

✅ What you’ll learn:

  • Open and barre chord shapes that drive the groove
  • How the progression moves, and where the key changes open space for your solo
  • How understanding the chords helps you phrase your solo musically and with confidence

This is where your journey starts — with a solid, musical foundation that makes everything that follows feel natural.


Here’s the jam track to play along with:

Progressions

In this section we’re going to go deep into 12 bar style progressions, which are incredibly common in the blues. Plus, we’re going to talk about how to transpose them – once you start seeing your progressions from this perspective, transposing becomes a relatively simply procedure.

Deeper Into The Chords

In this section, we’re going to take a closer look at our chords, how we can pick them with different techniques, and we’ll also get into rhythm riffs.

1 2 3 6