Have You Ever Loved A Woman Guitar Lesson

Jed breaks this solo down lick by lick but before we dive into that we need to know what we're playing over. As Jed mentions, it's a straight 12 bar blues which follows this form:

| I | IV | I | I |

| V | IV | I | I |

| V | IV | I | V |

And we're in the key of Db, which means the I chord is a Db, the IV chord is Gb and the V chord is Ab.

Licks breakdown

Now we know what we're playing over it's time to start learning the licks! Over the first four bars we're on the 9th fret with box 1 of Db minor pentatonic, and we go into box 2 too. Here are those shapes:

It's also worth noting that the solo kicks off with a pickup bar which means we're starting a little bit before the first chord of the progression. It's a nice lead run up into the solo.

Chromatic BB Box

Freddie King also makes use of some really nice chromatic runs and bends to add even more tension to his playing - before a beautiful resolution of course! In this solo we can use the high notes of box 2, commonly known as a BB Box thanks to BB King! And we add in the major 3rd at the top to give a nice chromatic run like this:

And after that we have a slow bend while continually picking the string, so you can really hear that note climb up. With this kind of bending it's really important to bend with a rotation of your wrist, not just with your fingers. That will give you a lot more control over the pitch of the note, which is essential here!

From there we're still in Db minor pentatonic with the BB box (aka box 2) and box 1.

In the two bars of I before we get to the V chord there's a really nice run that uses a bit of chromatics, and some pentatonic major too at the end of the phrase. This is what gives that lick a really interesting sound. We're still based in that box 1, but with some additions (the 2 and the 6 are from the major pentatonic, the 7 is a chromatic passing note):

Over the V chord we're sticking with that major sound that was hinted at in the previous run. Once again we're in box 2, but the position has shifted to make it land on the Db major pentatonic notes. Here's the shape - note that we've dropped our shape down the fretboard:

And at the end of the phrase we're back into our trusty box 1 Db minor pentatonic.

From there we are in a mixture of B major pentatonic box 2, and Db minor pentatonic box 1 and Jed takes you through the licks in the video!

There we have it! Thank you so much to Jed for taking on this tricky solo for us! Remember, as he says in the video, this is as much about the feel, and the way you're playing as it is the specific notes and licks.