BB King Guitar Tab Books, Instruction DVDs, Solos, Licks, Transcriptions, Video Lessons

B.B. King - Blues Guitar Legend!
Compiled & Edited By Steven Herron

    Among my favorite blues guitar players has consistently been blues guitar music legend BB King! He is probably the most historically important and undoubtedly the most renowned blues guitar player in history. Other famous guitar players such as Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons and Michael Bloomfield have all acknowledged their individual debt of gratitude to BB King. And, BB King's playing today remains just as fresh, amazing, and alive as ever!

    Riley King was born in Mississippi in 1925 to Albert and Nora King. His mom left her husband for a different man when BB was only 4 years of age and he was sent to stay with his maternal grandmother who likewise lived in Mississippi - without any objection from his father. Nora had 2 other husbands and BB was back and forth between them and his grandmother.

    His musical education began when he started singing in the Sanctified Church, whose pastor Archie Fair was his uncles' brother-in-law. Archie Fair strummed some gospel guitar tunes and provided the curious youngster his first exciting taste of picking the strings. BB's mom passed away in 1935 but thankfully not before she could call her 9 year old son to her bedside prior to passing away.

    Afterwards, BB left to go back to reside with his grandmother and attended the Baptist sponsored Elkhorn School where he continued strengthening his young voice in the sacred music choir. When his grandmother passed away in 1940, the 14 year old tried tenant farming on her land until later that year when he left for the Delta to live with his father and extended family for the next 2 years.

    By the age of 15 he was already playing guitar on street corners. He had discovered that he could make much more cash in tips in one day of playing guitar than he often made for a total week's work of harvesting cotton! Soon thereafter he was doing vocal commercials on Memphis radio stations and from there he moved on to getting his own show. It was at this time that he was handed the nickname "BB" which was an abbreviation for "Blues Boy".

    His appeal continued to grow and at some point he was signed to the RPM record label. His very first hit "3 O'Clock Blues" proceeded to go to Number 1 on the rhythm and blues charts and heralded the arrival of a blues guitar playing superstar. BB continued touring and recording all through the fifties, but it was not until the sixties that his name ended up being familiar to white audiences.

    In 1970 he won a grammy award for his now legendary hit "The Thrill Is Gone". To this day, he continues to tour over 200 days a year and to make records with his group and with various other performers as diverse as Larry Carlton and U2. His numerous TV and movie appearances together with a variety of awards continue to strengthen his stature as an all time blues guitar playing great!

    Stylistically, what separates BB King from his peers is his deep rooting in jazz music along with the blues idioms. One of BB's important heroes was jazz guitar player Lonnie Johnson, who was one of the initial guitar players to think of the guitar as a single-line solo instrument. BB also listened a lot to Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and to horn players such as Lester Young, Johnny Hodges and Bobby Hackett.

    His blues guitar technique comes primarily from T-Bone Walker. BB softened Walker's considerably more strident approach, adding a vibrato which he developed while trying to copy the bottleneck slide guitar sound of his cousin Bukka White. The rest is authentic BB King, which is a mix of factors that has produced one of the most special blues guitar players ever!

    BB draws from a large pallet of harmonic and melodic techniques. Although he is mainly called a single line guitar player, he does play chords - especially triads and double stops which he uses to dress up his solos. Have a look at his chord intro to the song "Please Love Me" and his rhythm chord comping during the saxophone solo in the tune "You Upset Me Baby".

    Most likely the most identifiable attribute of BB King's guitar playing is his "Bee-Sting" vibrato. He does his vibrato entirely from his wrist, as he shakes his entire hand rapidly and steadily. Although that is a significantly copied sound, only BB can make it "sing" the way he does. BB's knowledge of jazz harmony allows him to present harmonic ideas into his soloing that are far more subtle than the standard pentatonic principles used by most blues guitar performers

    The most distinctive quality of BB King's sound is his unique ability to mix jazzier elements with a rock solid blues sensibility. I was fortunate enough to hear BB King and his big band play in concert at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland back in 1969. His stage band was astonishing - a real wall of sound - and BB's guitar playing simply "wailed" and filled the Civic Center with some of the most exciting blues guitar tunes I've ever heard.