I stumbled across this blues scale guitar lick from Marty Schwartz the other day, and it stopped me mid-scroll. One idea, repeated across three octaves of the fretboard. Simple concept. But the sound it produces is anything but simple.
What makes this lick interesting is the major third hammer-on mixed into the standard blues scale shape. That one extra note changes everything. It takes a pattern you’ve probably played a thousand times and gives it this sophisticated, almost jazzy edge that sounds way harder than it actually is.
Video: Marty Schwartz — Marty Music
The Core Idea: Blues Scale Meets Major Third
Marty builds this in the key of E, starting at the 12th fret on the high E string. The lick descends through the E blues scale, but with one twist: on each string pair, he hammers on from the flat third to the major third. That hammer-on is the whole secret.
Here’s the pattern for the first octave. You start on the 12th fret (root), drop to the 10th fret on the high E, then play 12-11-10 on the B string. Standard blues scale territory so far. But then comes the move: 8th fret to 9th fret on the B string, hammering into that major third. Your ear knows it immediately. It’s the note that makes a dominant seventh chord sound like a dominant seventh chord.
Marty nails the explanation here. If you don’t know theory, don’t worry about the labels. Your ear will recognise the sound. That little half-step hammer-on from 8 to 9 just sounds right over a blues progression.
Taking It Through Three Octaves
The clever part is that the pattern doesn’t change as you move down the neck. Same fingering, same intervals, just different positions.
Second octave: Start on the 9th fret of the G string. The descending pattern is 9-7 on the G, then 9-8-7 on the D string, with the hammer-on from 5 to 6 on the D string. Exact same shape, exact same sound, one octave lower.
Third octave: Now you’re on the A string. 7th fret, descending 7-5, then 7-6-5 on the low E. The hammer-on here goes from 3 to 4 on the low E. And then you land on the open E string, which is your root note. The whole thing resolves right there.
Marty demonstrates something cool at this point. He plays the lick ascending too, flipping the whole idea on its head. Once you’ve got the descending version locked in, the ascending version is basically free. Same notes, reverse order.
Why This Works Over a Blues Progression
This isn’t just a scale exercise. Marty plays it over a basic 12-bar blues in E and it sounds immediately musical. The major third hammer-on is what gives it that authority. Most blues scale licks stick to the minor pentatonic with the flat fifth. Adding the major third creates tension and resolution in a way that plain pentatonic playing can’t.
Marty also shows how the same pattern works when the chord changes to the IV chord (A7). You just shift the whole thing to the corresponding position for A. Same fingering, same concept, different root. That’s the real power here: one idea that works across the entire chord progression.
Practice Tips
Start with just the first octave. Get the fingering clean before you try to string all three together. The hammer-on from the flat third to major third needs to be crisp. Sloppy hammer-ons will kill the whole effect.
Once the first octave feels solid, add the second. The transition between octaves is where most people stumble. There’s a position shift that needs to be smooth, not jerky. Practice that transition point on its own until it feels natural.
Speed is the last thing to worry about. Marty plays this at a conversational pace in the video, and it sounds great. You don’t need to blaze through it. The lick has more impact at a moderate tempo where every note rings clearly.
After you’ve got all three octaves connected, throw on a blues backing track in E and start experimenting. Try starting from different octaves. Try mixing ascending and descending. The whole point of learning a “device” like this (Marty’s word, and it’s a good one) is that it gives you raw material to build your own licks from.
Where This Fits
This lick lives right in the heart of blues guitar licks territory, but the major third concept crosses genre lines. You’ll hear the same move in jazz, country, and classic rock. If you’re working on connecting your blues scale positions across the fretboard, check out our pentatonic blues run breakdown for a different angle on the same idea.
Now go make some noise.
