Double Stops and Sixths

Listen to almost any classic blues or soul rhythm part and it is not single notes and it is not full chords. It is two notes at a time.

Double stops sit exactly where a solo and a rhythm part meet, which makes them the most useful thing in this path for anyone who plays without a second guitarist. They fill space like a chord but move like a line.

The most useful interval for this is the sixth. Play the D string and the B string at the same fret and you get a major sixth — the two strings are spaced so the arithmetic works out on its own. Slide that pair around and you have an instantly recognisable sound.

Mute the strings in between with the underside of your fretting fingers. Nobody plays these cleanly with a pick alone; use your fingers, or a pick plus your middle finger.

Sixths on the D and B strings, in A

Both notes at the same fret, moving down: A and F sharp, then G and E, then E and C sharp, then D and B. Let each pair ring.

e
B
G
D
A
E

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--7---5---2---0---|
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--7---5---2---0---|
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This track is a blues in A, and the sixth pairs above are drawn from its key.

Use them as a rhythm part first — play a pair on beats two and four for a whole chorus and nothing else. Then use them as a solo, sliding between pairs instead of picking single notes.

The test is whether a listener can tell which one you are doing. In the hands of most good blues players, they genuinely cannot, and that ambiguity is the point.

A blues in A. Rhythm part first, then solo with the same pairs.