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By Zagadka
#14557076
King of Blues BB King dies
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32747861

The "King of the Blues" guitarist and singer BB King has died aged 89.

King, known for his hits Lucille, Sweet Black Angel and Rock Me Baby, died in his sleep in Las Vegas.

Born in Mississippi, King began performing in the 1940s, going on to influence a generation of musicians, and working with Eric Clapton and U2.

Once ranked as the third greatest guitarist of all time, he had been suffering ill health in recent months.

He was recently taken to hospital with a diabetes-related illness.

A former farmhand, King was awarded his 15th Grammy award in 2009 for his album One Kind Favor.

He was also inducted into both the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rolling Stone magazine placed him behind only Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman in its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.

Until recently, King performed in at least 100 concerts a year.

He fused together both jazz and blues on his beloved guitar, a Gibson ES-344 he lovingly dubbed "Lucille".

In the early part of his career, he played to exclusively black audiences, but his heartfelt vocals and undeniable talent saw him embraced by a much broader fanbase as time went on - touring Europe and topping the charts.

Younger musicians such as Clapton and Steve Miller, who admired his work, introduced him to a new generation of fans in the late '60s with hits like The Thrill is Gone.

Albums such as Live at County Cook Jail and BB King in London followed.

His career was reignited in the late 1980s when he duetted with U2 on When Love Comes To Town.

At the turn of the millennium, aged 75, he once again achieved major commercial success with the Eric Clapton collaboration Riding With the King.

"King's is now the name most synonymous with the blues, much as Louis Armstrong's once was with jazz," critic Francis Davis wrote in his 1995 book The History of the Blues. "You don't have to be a blues fan to have heard of King."
#14557090
Blues guitarists always cite King as the man who invented blues guitar as a genre and most metal guitarists somehow introduced his style to heavy metal music as well. Yngwie Malmsteen's "Blue" is clearly a tribute to this legendary blues guitarist and Malmsteen had to learn blues guitar as an adult to broaden his horizons. I personally learned the basics of blues guitar known as the 5 pentatonic scale shapes before moving onto more difficult materials and every guitarist owes something to the "King of the Blues".

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In order to learn how to solo and improvise in blues and rock you must know the 5 pentatonic scale shapes. A lot of blues players tend to get stuck in the first pentatonic scale shape, but to be truly free and improvise across the entire fretboard you need to know all the shapes. And it’s not just about that. Every shape gives it’s own sound and feeling to a guitar lick. This is where the magic happens. This is where the coolness and the beauty comes through all these different shapes. They all got their own personality. Learn all the shapes thoroughly and when you do also learn them in different keys. It is a lot of work, but it is important that you do, so take your time with it. Practice with focus and dedication. The examples below are all in the key of A, but you can play these shapes in every key, just move the shapes up and down the neck. If you want to play the shapes in the key of G for example, all you need to do is move them 2 half steps down. (a half step is a one fret distance) If you want to play the shapes in the key of E move up 7 half steps, etc, etc.
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Last edited by ThirdTerm on 15 May 2015 09:54, edited 3 times in total.
#14557091
Please don't soil a thread about BB King with Yngwie Malmsteen. Particularly not a video of him wrecking one of Jimi Hendrix's best songs.
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