TAKE FIVE

Kingfish delivers his top guitar tips.

- JOE BOSSO

1. IT ALL STARTS WITH THE PENTATONIC SCALE “If you want to play good blues, the pentatonic scale is the foundation. It all comes from there. Listen to guys like Albert King, Stevie Ray and, of course, B.B. King — they’re based on the pentatonic scale. If you want to go other places and get into other scales, that’s cool, but you want to start with solid ground below you.

“I started out just listening to all the players I loved. I wasn’t getting too technical about it. It wasn’t until later that I found out they used the pentatonic scale and that I had been sort of playing it all along. It’s great for building phrases and licks. Everything you need is right there. You can do so many things with it, so I tell players all the time to get familiar with it.”

2. CONTROL YOUR BENDING “I like to be in total control when I bend strings. I notice a lot of players go too fast and crazy when they bend, and their notes always go sharp and don’t sound good. It’s like they’re not even thinking about what they’re doing. They’re just playing wild. I like to go slow and have good control so that I get a nice clean sound. I make the note sound like it should.