Blues improv

[rhermansky]

Willie,
It is my understanding that when improvising in blues the general 'rule' is to stay in the tonic key throughout all 12 bars even when the chord changes to the IV and V. IE: When playing in the key of C the improvisation remains in C even when the chords change to F and G. I either heard this on one of your lessons or dreamed it. Can you clarify?

[williemyette]

Yes, this is correct. However, be careful of the notes that you play. Obviously, F# on the F7 chord will be a bit tense ;-)

[leadbird]

Hi

I'm a little confused about this aswell. When you play a lick (the Professor Longhair one) like you did in the New Orleans video, you change scale when you do it on the IV and the V chord? So is the rule that when you play the blues scale you stay on the I, but why not use the IV blues scale when your on the the IV chord? Is this something special for the blues scale only?

Cheers