Blues music has been famous for a long time and there are many renowned artists in the music industry who are responsible for making it this way. There are many young and old people across the world today who are so influenced by this kind of music that it is the only source of their inspiration. There have been many artists on the rise who have tried to become great blues musicians however, no one can really beat the power of the blues musicians from the 90s era.

They were some of the best and are so regarded even today. Many of them were even awarded well and have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their music still sells worldwide and their concerts are something people would still give so much to attend. These people have really carved a niche for themselves and created a very powerful kind of genre for the world of music.

Blues is very soulful music and it is something that touches the heart. Over the years, there have been a number of variations of this kind of music as it has slowly descended from the nineties into the two thousand era.

But even then, till about fifty years ago, there was a man by the name of T-Bone Walker who is solely responsible for making some of the best blues music that people have ever heard and even today in many bars, pubs and cafes, his music is widely played and acknowledged. It is also a source of inspiration for many young people all around the world because his unique style of playing blues music incorporates the use of the electric guitar as well and is not all soft and harmonious.

If you want to learn to play the blues guitar then you must learn to take inspiration from people like him. He has been known for his music, and if anything, you will definitely learn the art of making music and new compositions by listening to his stuff.

He himself has taken a great amount of his inspiration from people like Jimi Hendrix and BB King and if you go along his footsteps then the music you make yourself will be bound to have a lot of variation of fresh tunes and grooves.

You can easily learn how to play guitar by taking up beginner guitar lessons either on the internet or by joining some guitar tutorials in your area. This way you will also meet a number of people interested in the same kind of music and it will be easier for you to jam with others and come up with new compositions and lyrics all the time.

Blues music has made itself popular over the years and great credit goes to all the blues artists who have come up so well and established this genre of music, and it made it renowned among people. There are many artists who are responsible for putting this form of music on the map and for making more than half the world fall in love with it.

Blues music is very soft and hits the soul instantly. One can even dance and sway to it with a great amount of enthusiasm. Some of the best known blues artists have all taken their inspiration from the country side and from the melodious tunes that they can gather from there.

People like Blind Lemmon Jefferson are now known all over and their music is still played and listened to in many pubs and bars all around the world where blues music still prevails.

Blind Lemmon Jefferson was popular in the early nineties and that was the time when blues music also began to put itself in view of other listeners of music. He recorded a number of albums, some of which are great hits even today. His music has always provided inspiration to many young and old people alike.

Most of the youth that is into blues music would have heard of him because of the wonderful tunes that he created in his time. They still take inspiration from him and it is great to be able to hear his music and look at his videos even today because those itself are a great source of inspiration and many people are able to make their own compositions by just taking a tiny bit of help from his works.

If you are someone who is greatly into blues music and would love to learn to play the blues guitar, then the time is now, because if you do not learn it now, you will be putting it off for later which will cease to come and blues music is something that has to be learned when your heart and soul is completely in it. If you want to learn how to play like the great Blind Lemmon Jefferson blues guitar itself, then you must practice and take a good look and hearing to his music on the daily.

If you are wondering that learning how to play the blues guitar is tough, then you must think twice. These days everything has become so easy with the advent of the internet and you will find blues guitar lessons and tutorials on the internet itself, free of cost. Thus, what are you waiting for? You should instantly just pick up that guitar and get into the groove.

The blues is a form of music that can be vocal, instrumental (blues guitar) or both. It uses the ‘blue’ notes which are based on a ‘minor pentatonic’ scale most of the time, otherwise known as the blues scale.

Blues music was derived from the African-American communities in the U.S. out of work songs, spiritual songs, field hollers, chants, shouts and simple ballads that rhymed. A lot of aspects of the blues are indicitive of African influence.

The call-and-response aspect of the music came directly from African roots and there were a lot of lines that would get repeated twice or more. This later evolved into a line repeating twice and then on the third time around there would be an ‘answer line’. You can still find these characteristics of early blues in modern day music, especially hip-hop.

The term ‘The Blues’ refers to the ‘blue devils’ which means down spirits or sadness.

The blues guitar plays a heavy role in blues music as well as modern music. It has influenced Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Bluegrass and even Rock N’ Roll tremendously.

The original blues of the early 1900′s, otherwise known as “poor man’s blues” was normally associated with hard times, oppression from white folk, cruelty of the police, gambling, economic depression, floods, magic, farming and dry periods. This music was fueled by a lot of heartache and depression. Usually a lost loved one or an overall harsh environment inspired the lyrics and the tone of the blues guitar.

After the world war, you began to see blues songs that were about relationships and sex. Also, humor was added to the mix. Here is a funny example:

“That must be your woman, cause mine don’t look like that…
I said That must be your woman, cause mine don’t look like that…
Have you seen my baby? She’s so big and fat…”

The blues guitar style emerged from the American South’s instruments of the time which were the banjo and the Diddley Bow. This was a home made one stringed instrument that was popular in the early 20th century. Figures such as Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Son House and Blind Willie McTell were a part of the delta blues style which used a lot of finger picking techniques and slide guitar innovations.

Eventually, after WWII ‘electric blues’ became increasingly popular where the blues guitar was played on electric guitars as were the bass guitars. This was most prevalent in the Chicago area.

Blues music today has become a multi-cultural genre with artists playing Blues in every corner of the world. Texas-born Stevie Ray Vaughan set the music world on fire with his modern combination of Blues and Rock until his untimely death in 1990. Other modern Blues artists making a mark are: Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Cray, Taj Mahal, Charlie Musselwhite, and the North Mississippi Allstars .

The history of blues guitar and poor man’s blues is rich with culture and stories of good times and bad. I could go on for days about the history of the blues guitar but let’s make this part 1 so you don’t fall asleep on me!

Jazz, rock music and country and western are just some of the styles that owe a lot of their progression from the original blues. The contribution of Blues music to the development of many other genres of music is very significant. Blues was originally grown out of the hardships endured by many generations of African Americans, and first arose from the rural Mississippi region, around about the time of the dawn of the 20th century. The style developed from work shouts (known as arhoolies), and became the vocal narrative style that we associate with blues music today.

Blues was originally grown out of the hardships endured by many generations of African Americans, and first arose from the rural Mississippi region, around about the time of the dawn of the 20th century. The style developed from work shouts (known as arhoolies), and became the vocal narrative style that we associate with blues music today. The contribution of Blues music to the development of many other genres of music is very significant. Jazz, rock music and country and western are just some of the styles that owe a lot of their progression from the original blues.

As industry progressed and developed in to the 1920’s, so did the everyday lives of the people it affected, and by this time Blues music was also developing. By the 1920’s it had developed a very particular style, based around a number of three-line rhymed stanzas. These stanzas contained one line of verse that was repeated, and finished with a final line of rhyming verse.

The style at this time included a repeating blues chord progression, which then formed the basis for the harmony. Although there were variations, the usual rule of thumb was a 12-bar pattern utilizing the 3 major chords of a scale. The text was set to a 12-bar chorus, and typically was between four and eight stanzas in length.

In typical cases, the melody is formed by flattened third, fifth and seventh notes of the major scale. The outcome is the ‘bent’ notes that lend Blues music that distinctive sound – the bittersweet emotional impact that lacks in other genres. For the majority of blues music the focus is on the vocals – contradicting the fact that performers will often improvise instrumental solos over the Blues chord progressions.

Country Blues
This style arose from the Southern rural experience, and was particularly influenced by the impact of emancipation. Country Blues are often referred to as Delta Blues, a nod towards the Mississippi Delta where they first originated. There were many itinerant workers (mostly men) traveling from community to community, singing songs about freedom, love, the general sorrows of life and, of course, sex.

Classic Blues
African Americans began to migrate, mainly looking for work – it led to Blues music becoming much more urban-orientated, as areas such as Memphis and New Orleans began to become more populated. The music evolved as their way of life evolved. Male or female vocalists began to appear more regularly, and there was now the addition of a single piano.

The audience also grew, and Blues became more mainstream. Throughout the country as a whole, Blues music could now be heard in dancehalls and barrooms. The music industry as a whole started to take note, and more and more compositions and marketing arrangements emerged, as people began to take notice. The popularity of this kind of music grew exponentially. What would become known as Classic Blues became so popular that many songs were released with the word ‘blues’ in the title to capitalize on this, even though they bared little or no relation to the style of music.

Electric Blues
The appetite for the style of music known as the Blues was quite voracious. Its center, previously clustered around Memphis and New Orleans, began to migrate, and soon cities such as Chicago became the central point of much of the music.

With the end of the Second World War, there was a renewed revival to the genre, and there was a lot of development in the music, the most notable changes were the extra emphasis on the bass drums and the cranking up of the guitar sounds. By the time the 1950’s rolled around, the music was no longer centered solely around the African American community, and had an equal number of protagonists across all races. Artists like Bill Haley and Elvis began to incorporate the genre into their own brands.

The incorporation of the Blues style into different genres still exists today, and Blues music in its own right continues to go from strength to strength – many top selling artists maintain the original styles. The influence that Blues music has had on the music industry as a whole is undisputed, and yet Blues music is still evolving, still developing, and still evoking the stirrings of the soul to anyone who cares to listen!