You want to learn a full 12-bar blues solo? Good. I’ve put together a five-part challenge that’ll get you there — inspired by Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac’s “A Fool No More.” It’s in the key of E minor, and we’re building the whole thing from two scales you can learn today.

This is Part 1 of the Slow Blues Solo Challenge. We start with what matters most — the scales.

The Key of E Minor

Everything in this solo lives in E minor. Not one of those sit-on-the-fence blues keys with dominant 7th chords — this is pure minor. Bluesy as all get out, but minor. The basic chords are E minor, A minor, and B minor. That’s your 1, 4, 5.

We’ll get into the chord progression in Part 2. Right now I need your fingers in the right places.

E Minor Pentatonic at the 12th Fret

There’s no solo that exists without a scale behind it. Same goes for chord progressions. So let’s get this one down.

The E pentatonic minor sits at the 12th fret. Five notes, one position. Simple enough on paper — but here’s where most guys go wrong. They cheat with the pinky. When you get up where the frets are closer together, the temptation is to use your third finger where your pinky should be doing the work.

The rule is four fingers, four frets. First finger handles the 12th fret. Second finger on the 13th. Third on the 14th. And your pinky takes care of the 15th fret. No shortcuts.

Practice with alternating pick strokes — down, up, down, up. When you reach the highest note, don’t repeat it. Just come right back down. If you do it correctly, you’ll land on a downstroke at the 12th fret. If you end on anything else, your alternating got off somewhere.

The Three-Position Climb

The second scale is what I call the ultimate solo scale. Still E pentatonic minor, but it moves through three positions on the neck instead of staying put in one spot.

You start below the tonic on the D note — 10th fret, sixth string. First and third fingers. Then you shift up two frets with your third finger leading, and again two frets higher. Each position change is that same two-fret jump. By the time you reach the top, you’re at the 17th fret on the first string.

On the way down, your first finger leads into each position change. It takes some practice, but once you get it, these two scales overlap beautifully. Together they give you everything you need for this solo — and plenty of other solos too.

Know Your Tonic Notes

The tonic is the root note of the key — your home base. In E minor, that’s E. Between the two scale patterns, you’ve got E at four spots on the neck: 12th fret sixth string, 14th fret fourth string, 12th fret first string, and 17th fret second string.

Memorize those. When you’re in the middle of a solo and you feel lost, those tonic notes are where you land safely every time. They’ll save you over and over.

Practice With a Backing Track

Don’t run these scales dry. Play them over a backing track so you can hear how the notes sit against the chord changes. Get creative with it — double up notes, change speeds, break the scale down two strings at a time. The idea is to get familiar enough that your fingers find the right spots without you having to think about it.

I’m asking for 45 minutes. You can break that into three 15-minute sessions if you need to. But bank the time, because everything we do from here builds on these scales.

Once you’ve got a good feel for both patterns, head over to Part 2 — Your First Riffs and we’ll start putting notes together into actual solo phrases.

For more lessons like this, check out the full Blues Soloing section.