Blues came first

Gales grew up in a family of musical brothers where blues and gospel were everyday sound. That mix, plus soul and R&B, became the foundation for how he plays.

“blues and gospel played a big part in our lives and provided a strong foundation for me as a musician”

He studied the kings

He and his brothers worked through B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King and T-Bone Walker, borrowing from all of them while hunting for a sound of his own.

Play like you sing

His first example is a medium-slow shuffle in B, built on B major pentatonic phrases with chordal accents like B9 and E7. He keeps a vocal mindset so the lines speak.

“maintaining a "vocal" mindset helps me to stay focused on speaking in a musical way”

The guitar is upside down

Gales takes a right-handed guitar, flips it, and plays it left-handed, the way Albert King and Otis Rush did. His late brother Little Jimmy King played the same way.

“I choose to play the guitar "upside down."”

Bends pull down, not up

Bending a treble string means pulling it downward instead of pushing up. It also opens odd voicings, like an F7#11 where his thumb wraps the neck to fret the high B at the 7th fret.

“Playing this way completely changes the riffs, phrases and chords that are available to you.”

Chase the chord tones

Over the I-IV-V in B, he targets each chord's tones: B, D#, F#, A over B7, then E, G#, B, D over E7, then F#, A#, C#, E before resolving home.

“Having a firm grasp and understanding of the blues lays an essential groundwork for all guitar players”