➧ C H O P S ➧

94 GUITAR PLAYER MAY 2003

IF THERE’S ONE FISTFULof notes that never getsold, it’s the blues scale.

Once it finds its way into thehands of a young, inspired gui-tarist, it typically stays there for alifetime. Though the blues scale istimeless, many players yearn forways to import new melodic colorsinto their blues-based solos. Thesimplest way to do this is to changeone note of the blues scale, result-ing in a soulful sound you mayhave heard in the playing of Hol-lywood Fats, Duke Robillard, Char-lie Christian, and Larry Carlton—asound often referred to as the“voodoo” blues scale.

In EExx.. 11aa you’ll find a typical Eblues scale—a pentatonic scalewith the bluesy b5, or Bb, added.Morphing this universal shape intothe voodoo blues scale is easy: Justlower each b7 to the natural 6 by

replacing every D with a C#, asshown in EExx.. 11bb. Play through thismutated blues scale a few times,and see if you can come up with al-ternative fingerings such as EExx.. 11cc,a pattern Stevie Ray Vaughan usedin his immortal blues extravagan-za, “Rude Mood.”

EExx.. 22 is an SRV-approvedvoodoo maneuver that uses Ex. 1c’sfingering and sounds mean over aswingin’ E7 shuffle—even thoughit doesn’t actually tag the b7. (In-stead, it nails the 6, C#—remem-ber?) And for yet another voodoofingering, try EExx.. 33. It has a similarflow to the previous example, butoccurs lower on the neck and fea-tures a Charlie Christian-style slidefrom the b3 up to the 3 (G to G#) onthe first string’s 3rd and 4th frets.

When you’re ready for the ul-timate voodoo blues lick, try EExx.. 44.In the key of E, this phrase contains

elements of voodoo blues, country,and jazz. Begin in the fourth po-sition. Follow the fingering andstring markings closely. RobbenFord—another master of thevoodoo blues scale—showed me

the meaty E9,13#11 grip that closesthis example, and I’ve been playingit ever since.

For more wicked Steve Trovatolicks, click to stevetrovato.com. g

B Y S T E V E T R O V A T O

The Voodoo Blues Scale

➧

E Voodoo Blues Scale

XII

Standard E Blues Scale

XII

= root

E Voodoo Blues Scale

IX

Ex. 1a

Acoustic cowboys—Trovato (left) and Johnny Hiland mesmerize a crowd at the B-Band booth, Winter NAMM 2003.

TAB

=================& #### 44E7

ö ö ö 3

=

= 144öö öb ö ö ö# ö ö w

5

4 1

7 6 5 3 4 5

6

e nEx. 3

TAB

=================& #### 44ö ö ö öb ö ön ö ö w4

4 1

12 12

9 11 10

12 9 11

9

E7

ö ö ö 3

=

= 116öe

Ex. 2

PHOTO: JUDE GOLD

Ex. 1b Ex. 1c

TAB

==============================& #### 44E7

= 144ö

ö ö ö ö ön ö# ö ö# ö ö ön ö# ö ö ö ön ö# ö ö ö ö ö ö ö ö ön ö öö#öööönö

wwwwww1

1 1 2

1

2

4 6 5 7

3 4 5 5

6 7 3 4

4 5

5 7 6 4 2

4 4

1 2 2

4 3 0 0

5 6 6

6 7

B1/2

E9,13 11

V

#4 2 1 3 2

ö ö ö 3

= e

PHOTO: PAUL HAGGARD guitarplayer.com MAY 2003 GUITAR PLAYER 95

EExx.. 44.