Most guitar players have a handful of licks they reach for constantly. Not flashy showpieces — just solid, reliable phrases that fit the feel and keep things moving. A bread-and-butter blues lick guitar players can use in almost any A minor blues context. This is one of those.

In the video above, I walk through a short lick built around A pentatonic minor. It’s only a few moves, but each one carries its weight. Let me walk through what’s happening and why it works.

Starting From the Blues Note

The lick opens by approaching from the flatted fifth — the so-called “blues note.” In the key of A, that’s an Eb sitting between the fourth and fifth of the minor pentatonic scale. It’s not part of the basic pentatonic pattern, but it’s the note that gives blues its tension and color.

The move here is a slide from the 4th fret up to the 5th fret on the 2nd string. That’s a half-step, and it’s a classic way to approach a target note — you’re landing on the 5th fret with a little momentum and attitude. Your first finger does the slide.

The Double Stop

Immediately after that slide, your first finger stays at the 5th fret on the 2nd string, and you add the 5th fret on the 1st string. Those two notes ring together — that’s your double stop. Let them both sound at the same time before you move on.

Then you move up to the 7th fret on both the 2nd and 3rd strings with your third finger. There’s a real bite to this voicing — two notes that are close enough together to create tension. That dissonance is part of what makes this lick feel like blues rather than just scale practice.

The Bend

From that double stop position at the 7th fret, you bend both strings up a half tone together. That’s a double stop bend — not the easiest thing to control cleanly, but that slight roughness is fine. Blues isn’t about clinical precision.

Here’s the part that trips people up: at the top of the bend, mute the strings. Then come back down without releasing the pressure. Hit those same two strings again while they’re still held bent. That re-pick while held adds a kind of stubborn, grinding quality to the phrase.

Finishing the Phrase

After the bend, you walk it down. 5th fret on the 3rd string, then down to the 7th fret on the 4th string. That last note is the tonic — A. You’ve come home.

The shape of this lick is tension, more tension, and resolution. The flatted fifth builds anticipation. The double stop bend cranks it up. The walk back down releases it. That’s the basic grammar of a blues lick.

Why Bread-and-Butter Licks Matter

The term “bread and butter” means it works almost everywhere. You’re not pulling this out for a dramatic moment — you’re using it to fill bars, answer phrases, and keep the conversation going. A good soloist has five or six of these ready to go without thinking.

The flatted fifth is at the heart of what makes a blues lick guitar phrase sound authentic rather than generic. Pentatonic minor on its own is rock and pop. Add that b5, add bends that go somewhere, add the double stop tension — and you’re in blues territory.

If you want to build more vocabulary like this, my Box 1 Blues Soloing course is built around exactly this kind of material. Lick by lick, concept by concept.

And for a broader foundation, the blues guitar lessons hub is a good starting point — everything from the 12-bar structure to soloing technique.

A few related lessons to explore once this one clicks:

gnarly blues guitar lick