[Applause] the first step towards improvising with the blues is to learn the pentatonic blues scale to play the pentatonic blues scale in a play the fifth fret of the bottom e string with the first finger then play the eighth fret on the bottom e string with the fourth finger then play the fifth fret of the a string with the first finger the sixth fret of the a string with the second finger the seventh fret of the a string with the third finger the fifth fret of the d string with the first finger the seventh fret of the d string with the third finger the fifth fret of the g string with the first finger the seventh fret of the g string with the third finger the eighth fret of the g string with the fourth finger the fifth fret of the b string with the first finger the eighth fret of the b string with the fourth finger the fifth fret of the top e string with the first finger and the eighth fret of the top e string with fourth finger step two memorize and speed up the pentatonic scale playing the scale upwards and back down step 3 play the pentatonic blue scale with a backing so you can get used to how it should sound the fourth and final step play the notes of the pentatonic blues scale out of order with the backing track don't be scared to use your imagination or experiment don't feel you have to move up and down the scale too much you can get a good effect with just two or three notes repeated don't do big jumps between the notes in the scale for any length of time this can sound quite poor so even if you've been playing for a while and you can play quite quickly it's a good idea to hold a note this gives you time to think and consider your next move to summarise the four steps step one learn the pentatonic blues scale both up and down step two speed up the scale and commit it to memory step three try the scale with the backing tape so you can get used to how it should sound the final step step four play the scale out of order with the backing tape not being scared to use your imagination or experiment in order to make it easier to navigate this video has been split down into two parts the second part of this video is three backing tracks to experiment with