Shadowing Practice: How To Get Started With Blues Solo on Guitar - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hey, how you doing?

Justin here.

Today we are checking out a beginner's blue solo complete with a turnaround and an intro.

It's mostly using the minor pentatonic scale, but there's a couple of other little sneaky notes.

As you progress along your guitar journey, you'll find that you kind of base things around scales, but you can add in plenty of other stuff if it sounds good.

I'm going to break it down into little sections for you.

The first bit we're going to look at, strangely, is the intro, which is a great little intro for this particular range, but you could use it for any blues in the key of A.

OK, so we're starting with what essentially is a D7 grip.

But with the first finger, it's going to be in the 8th fret.

So the 8th fret of the 2nd string, 1st finger, 2nd finger's going down the 9th fret on the 3rd string,

and 3rd finger's going on the 9th fret on the thinnest string.

This is actually an A7 chord.

Another way of playing A7.

So we're gonna play that twice, probably 2 downstrokes, and just playing those thinnest 3 strings.

Then we're gonna move it down 1 fret and do another 2 downstrokes.

Move it down another fret, and another 2 down strokes.

Then we're gonna play, the 1st finger's gonna bar the thinnest 2 strings at the 5th fret.

And then we're gonna play 8th fret on the 2nd string, followed by 5th fret on the 2nd string.

You could use your little finger there, or your 3rd finger, it doesn't really matter.

Now, first step would be just getting the chords right, getting the shape okay.

You should be fairly confident with that if you've already checked out your D7.

It's not a particularly hard shape.

Once you've got the actual kind of the notes under your fingers you need to start thinking about the rhythm.

Now this is actually starting on beat 2.

So you're going to count 1,

2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4 and then the rest of the blues song will start.

Okay?

So again, we're going to start on beat 2.

3, 4, 1.

2 and 3 and 4 and 1.

2 and 3, 4.

Now, I want you to just stick with that, but if you're a bit more confident, you've done something like this before, you can muck around with these notes.

. Or .

You could use any order of those.

As long as you stick with those notes, you could have a little bit of a play around and see if you can come up with something else.

The next phrase we're going to look at is played over the A chord.

It's two bars long.

It goes like this.

Okay, straight down the minor pentatonic, which I'm hoping you're familiar with a bit by now.

1st finger, 5th fret of the thinnest string.

3rd finger, or a little finger, on the 8th fret of the 2nd string.

1st finger on the 5th fret, still on the 2nd string.

Continuing down the scale, 3rd finger, 7th fret on the 3rd string.

1st finger on the 5th fret of the 3rd string, we're gonna play that twice.

Before finishing on the note A, 3rd finger, 7th fret, 4th string.

This is starting on beat 1, we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, and 3,

4, 1, 2, and, there with the first finger, that's on beat 1, 2,

and, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, and 3, 4, okay?

Try and keep that count.

Keeping in time is really important.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, and 3, 4.

The next phrase that we look at is kind of an answer to the first one.

Pretty simple.

So starting with the 1st finger, 5th fret, thinner string.

3rd finger or little finger on the 8th fret, same string.

Back to the 1st note.

8th fret on the 2nd string.

And back again to the root note.

1, 2, 3, 4.

2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Okay?

Let's put those 2 together now.

So, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

1, 2, and 3, 4.

1, 2, 3, 4.

At this point, the chord changes to a D, so make sure that you're at that spot.

If you happen to be jamming with somebody else, you want to hear that chord change, and then you know you're in the right spot.

Next phrase goes like this.

Okay, 7th fret, on the 3rd string, with the 3rd finger.

Play it again, 1st finger, 5th fret, and then back.

1, 2, and 3, 4.

The 2nd half of the phrase starts exactly the same, But then we go 1st finger,

5th fret, 2nd string, 1st finger, 5th fret, 3rd string.

So you've got to skip over there, and then we're finishing on our root note again, the 7th fret of the 4th string.

That whole phrase together, 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1,

2, and 3, and 4, four, one, two, three, four, and.

And then we're just adding this little bit here, first finger on the fifth fret of the thinner string, either third finger or little finger,

it doesn't matter, on the eighth fret of the second string.

It's just like a little...

little answer in the gap there.

So, that four bars, which is where it moves to the D, and then back to the A chord, is gonna be this.

3, 4, 1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, 2, and 3,

and 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 1, 2, 3, 4.

We're at the last 4 bars now, so the chords are going to be going E, D, A, and E for 1 bar each, and the lead guitar is going to play this.

OK, so we're starting 1st finger, 5th fret, 2nd string.

Then 3rd finger or little finger on the 8th fret of the 2nd string again.

1, 2 and 3, 4.

Now same as we have before.

1, 2, and 3, 4, okay, 7, or 3rd string this is, 7, 7, 5, 7, 5,

1, 2, and 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3.

Okay, so we've got here, we're going from the 7th fret with the 3rd finger, 1st finger playing the 5th fret, this is all on the 4th string,

down 1 fret, down 1 fret, and we've got 4 picks there when the 1st finger reaches the 2nd fret.

1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and 3, 4.

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I would recommend that you practice each of the chunks individually before you start trying to piece it together.

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Once you're confident with all of the bits, have a go at playing it through and trying to keep the tempo as even as you can.

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Remember, ideally you want to play it with a backing track, or another human being.

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So, the first step to that is trying to keep the tempo as consistent as you can.

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Before you try playing it with a backing track, you want to be able to do it on your own, and try and recognize if there's any bits where you may be slowing down a little bit, because a backing track won't stop.

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And, you know, you want to try and practice it with a consistent tempo, your own consistent tempo, registering where you might be a little bit wobbly.

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practice those bits and then practice again playing the whole thing.

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So don't always feel like you have to practice from the beginning to the end.

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You want to just try that and if there's a bit that's really difficult, go back and work on that one little bit and then go back to playing it all of the way through.

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So once you've had, you're confident with the bits, just have a go real slow maybe.

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two three four one two and three and four

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and one two and three four one two three four one two

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and three four one two three four one two three 4,

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1, 2 and 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3 and 4,

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1, 2, 3, 4 and 1,

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2, 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3,

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4, 1, 2 and 3, 4, 1, 2 and 3,

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4, 3, 4, 1, and 2, and 3, 4.

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At this stage, you shouldn't worry too much about the picking.

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You can use all down picks if you want to incorporate some upstrokes as well.

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That's totally fine.

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Doesn't really matter.

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Important things are trying to get the notes right to pick the right strings

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and not let the open strings be ringing out all of the time

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and hitting the wrong ones and making sure you stay in time.

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Now, that said, this is supposed to be an example of a blues solo.

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It's not really a set thing that you have to learn.

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If you want to play around with it a little bit, experiment by changing up the rhythm, adding in some extra notes, all of that sort of stuff is cool.

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In fact, it's to be encouraged, but I would recommend having a go at playing it as written, first of all.

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Okay, let's have a go at playing it through at 60 beats per minute.

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The original is 94, so let's have a go at doing that now.

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Thank you.

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So really important is that first stage of actually being able to play along at whatever tempo.

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Now 60 is kind of a good amount that you should be able to handle fairly confidently, fairly soon.

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But then you gradually want to work your way up to playing it at full speed.

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Now one thing that I want to mention that I noticed myself doing

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that even though I'm trying not to is adding things like vibrato and little curls on the notes, little inflections.

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I don't recommend that you start off exploring that sort of stuff.

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It could get a bit confusing, it's not something we've really covered yet, we will be covering it very soon.

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but I think a lot of people get hung up on that a little early and it can cause a few problems.

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So I'd recommend just not worrying about it.

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Don't try and shake the guitar around and perhaps practice a technique the wrong way.

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Just try and get the notes right.

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Think about your touch, think about your tone.

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Try and make it sound and feel as good as you can.

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Don't be afraid to experiment once you've got the original one down

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and we're going to be talking about actually making up your own version, like properly improvising, very, very soon.

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The second guitar part is a 12 -bar blues shuffle riff, which is something that we're covering in this lesson as well.

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So if you happen to have a jam buddy, a fantastic thing to do is to practice playing this.

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So one person's gonna be doing the rhythm guitar, the 12 -bar blues shuffle riff.

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The other person would maybe play this set solo, then improvise for a couple of rounds, and then you would swap over.

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For most beginners, that will involve stopping.

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As you get better, you might be able to find that you can, whoever's playing the lead guitar can kind of join in on the rhythm so it becomes seamless, but that's not something I would expect most beginners to be very comfortable doing.

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So it's okay to play for a little bit and then stop and take turns.

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Whatever you do, if you get into doing this playing with somebody else, make sure that you share out the soloing, okay?

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Nothing worse than when you have a jam with someone

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and they take a solo for ages and they don't want to play the rhythm part.

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That's not cool.

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So make sure you play even Stevens there.

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So if you take four times around doing a solo, then you make sure you play rhythm four times around for whoever it is that you're playing with as well.

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I'm sure you're going to enjoy this loads of fun, and I'll see you for plenty more very soon.

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You all take care of yourselves.

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Bye -bye.

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284 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “How To Get Started With Blues Solo on Guitar”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: fret, finger, string, note, guitar. This video has 43 sentences and 1846 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:51. The speaker talks at a steady 124 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding. 7 of its 43 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
finger noun	/ˈfɪŋɡɚ/	A slender jointed extremity of the human hand, (often) exclusive of the thumb, and the corresponding part, irrespective of including a thumb, in many other…
string noun	/stɹɪŋ/	A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.
guitar noun	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
chord noun	/kɔɹd/	A harmonic set of three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously.
thin adjective	/ˈθɪn/	Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite.
phrase noun	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	A short written or spoken expression.
tempo noun	/ˈtɛm.poʊ/	A frequency or rate.
consistent adjective	/kənˈsɪs.tənt/	Of a regularly occurring, dependable nature.
intro noun	/ˈɪntɹoʊ/	An introduction.
experiment noun	/ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/	A test under controlled conditions made to either demonstrate a known truth, examine the validity of a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of…
beginner noun	/bəˈɡɪnɚ/	Someone who is just starting at something, or has only recently started.
tone noun	/ˈtəʊn/	A specific pitch.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
technique noun	/tɛkˈniːk/	The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements.
encourage verb	/ɪnˈkʌɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/	To mentally support; to motivate, give courage, hope or spirit.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
check out verb		To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
come up with verb		To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go back to verb		To stem from; to originate in.
go down on verb		To perform oral sex on (someone).
make up verb	/ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/	To constitute, to compose.
play around verb		To behave in a silly, childish, or irresponsible way.
ring out verb		To sound clearly and loudly.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've already checked · you've done · you've had
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	intro, which is · bars, which is · riff, which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is played · be encouraged
Advice with “should” should + verb — saying what is a good idea	should be · shouldn't worry

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 76 contractions and reduced forms, such as gonna, we're, wanna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thin /ˈθɪn/, ninth /naɪnθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, shuffle /ˈʃʌfəl/, inflection /ɪnˈflɛkʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: experiment /ɪkˈspɛɹ.ə.mənt/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, individually /ˌɪndɪˈvɪd͡ʒ(u)əli/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, ideally /aɪˈdi.ə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like finger, string, guitar.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: How To Get Started With Blues Solo on Guitar - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?