This article is from the Jamzone. Make sure to read up on the links referenced there to better understand the scales discussed here.

For this solo we are going to use an adapted blues scale. This is a great little scale and works well with blues, boogie and rock music. You can think of this scale a number of ways... A blues scale with an extra 7th note or like a pentatonic minor scale, with 2 extra notes:

Pentatonic Minor: E G A B D E
Blues Scale: E G A Bb B D E (one extra note: Bb)
Adapted Blues Scale: E G A Bb B D D# E (another extra note: D#)

Basically, as you can see in the table above, for this adapted scale we are just adding another note to the blues scale, or 2 to the pentatonic.

The solo starts by playing through the adapted blues scale for E (repeat 4 times over the backing music which is playing through the E bars of the boogie 4 times):

E - G - A - Bb - B - D - D# - E

We then play the adapted blues scale for A twice (as the backing music shifts to A for 2 bars):

A - C - D - Eb - E - G - G# - A

Then back to the E scale again for 2 bars. Familiarise yourself with the fingerings for these scales. They are easy scales to learn and work very well with the 12 bar format, especially in boogie, blues and rock styles.

After the intro scale runs...it's down to licks and phrases using these scales. Plenty of bends, double stops and vibrato to keep those fingers busy! Even if you don't follow the scale theory, enjoy learning the licks - there are some classic bending techniques and phrases which will serve you well in your own solos!