12-bar · 12/8 feel · key of A

Slow Blues
in A

A long, low-key slow blues to improvise over. Hit play to jam in the browser, or load the MIDI file into your DAW to loop it as long as you like.

01Backing track

Now playing

Chorus 1 · bar 1 of 12 — press play

Tempo 56

56 bpm pulse — classic slow-blues drag

02The form

A7 — the I D7 — the IV E7 — the V

Bar 2 jumps to D7 — that's the "quick change", keep it. Bar 12 is the turnaround back to the top. The track runs four choruses then a final A7 tag; treat each chorus as a paragraph that builds on the last.

03Improv toolkit

Home base — A blues scale. A minor pentatonic with the flat-5 added. Slide through the blue note, don't park on it.

Aroot

Cmin 3rd

D4th

E♭flat 5

E5th

Gflat 7

The major / minor blur. Over A7 you can also pull in the major 3rd (C♯) — bend the C up a half-step to reach it. Mixing the minor 3rd for grit and the major 3rd for sweetness, with a bend connecting them, is the core blues vocabulary and the Landau / Robben Ford sound.

Chord targets. Over A7 stay home, major or minor 3rd both fair. Over D7 aim at D F♯ A C — the F♯ is the note that says "we changed." Over E7 reach for tension, an E7 arpeggio pulls hard back home.

Phrasing is 80% of it. Play a short idea, then leave space and let it ring. Call low, answer high. Vibrato slow and wide, added after the note lands. Bends slow and in tune. Phrase a hair behind the beat — lazy, dragging. Start a chorus quiet and low; save the screaming high bends for chorus three or four.

04Licks to get going

A vocal opener — box 1, 5th fret · over A7

e|--------------------------------------|
B|----------8b(10)~~~-----8---5---------|
G|--5h6--7-----------7--------------7~--|

b = bend ~ = vibrato h = hammer-on

The major / minor move — min 3rd up to maj 3rd · over A7

e|-----------------------------|
B|--------5------------5-------|
G|--5b6~-------6--5h6----------|

the C → C♯ bend — your money note

Turnaround for bar 12 — descending double-stops into E7

e|--5--4--3--2----------|
B|--5--5--5--5-----0----|

land on the open B as E7 hits, then back to the top