Play like Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton's blues guitar is all about phrasing: singing bends, smooth runs and phrases that answer each other, from his early blues records to "Crossroads" with Cream. This chapter teaches the core of the Eric Clapton style in A, mostly in box 1 of the minor pentatonic scale.

You start with box 1 phrasing and the famous "woman tone": neck humbucker, tone knob rolled almost off and an overdriven amp, used for call-and-answer phrases with in-tune bends. Repeating pentatonic runs show how one four-note figure with a pull-off turns into a fast, liquid flurry. Mixing major and minor teaches the C to C# rub that switches a phrase from tough to sweet over a major blues, and the turnaround licks lesson gives you tidy endings for a 12-bar blues, with a pedal note over a falling chromatic line.

Each exercise is a tab that plays in your browser with a click and a tempo ladder, and every lesson ends with a checkpoint. By the end you'll play blues solos that breathe, with fewer notes and more voice.