The use of Harmonic minor very much depends on the musical situation. I honestly don't use this much, but it is a very stylistic scale that works well in some musical situations and equally not so much in others. Like all other scales, don't feel confined to use it in a strict way; as conviction and a creative ear can make something you didn't think was practical work very well. Christopher has some great videos on this stuff. Take what you learn from him, and mix it with your own interests. Be creative and more importantly, have fun!
To be more emotional? There are many, many ways to integrate bending and other techniques that make you sound more like a vocalist. But, only you can inject the emotion into the solo that you want. One thing you can try and do to evoke this idea is to transcribe singers. Tre Anastasio from Phish used to learn Billie Holiday (famous jazz singer) songs and would learn all her vocal lines on the guitar. With the blues, the solo is a conversation piece. The deeper connection between the human voice and the guitar is, to me, what demonstrates the clearest emotion. Also, if you want to play like that put yourself in a state where you are thinking about something that clearly brings out something in you. Eddie Hazel played one of the greatest solos ever on Parliament Funkadelic's album "Maggot Brain" on the title track (in my opinion.) While in the studio, George Clinton asked Hazel while soloing to picture a scenario where his mother has just died. This resulted in a solo that evokes a whole slew of emotional noise. You can check out that song at the link below.
Parliament Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Douglas Showalter
