Archive for April, 2011

Birth of the Blues Guitar

In the late 19th and early 20th century, African Americans who worked in the fields and work camps created the blues. Although the blues went in many different avenues, the most significant was created in a very special part of the United States, in an area of the Mississippi also known as the Delta. The area near the Mississippi River in between the Yazoo River, Memphis, and Vicksburg, the cotton growing regions are responsible for many of the early blues players. Although the area known as the delta is well known as the area in the Mississippi it is not limited to just that area. Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas also developed important artist as well. These areas helped develop the term know now as the Delta blues.

The blues now over 100 years old has become one of the most successful genres of music today, and as a result still packs night clubs, concert halls, and stadiums. We can all thank current musicians today for keeping the blues alive and active.

The blues is still so popular and considered one of the more important styles of music because the songs deeply touch human feelings in a way no other music can. It captures the sole and essence of people which is missing in today’s pop, rap, rock and digital music. It identifies and touches real people, with real life issues, and talks about real life lessons. No music today will ever come close to providing the kind of emotions and feelings the blues can give.

It is said that the blues is custom made for the guitar so it is a natural progression when learning the theory and development of playing the guitar that the blues is usually one of the first and most important steps in your journey and in the creation of any guitar god. While some music today sounds great without the guitar, it is very rare that you will ever find a successful blues band without one; it truly is the sole and voice of blues music and cannot be replaced by any other instrument.

The blues will never die and is in good hands with today’s generation. There are many young players out there today that are developing the skills and creating new techniques that would pay respects to the blues guitar elders. They are keeping the blues alive and flourishing for the next generation of blues players.

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Blues Guitar Tabs

Blues guitar tabs are easy to learn, allowing them to be played by both experience and amateur musicians. These tabs generally begin with bass notes which are followed by chords. Once, these have been understood by the guitarist they can move onto playing licks and solos on their blues guitar. The technique of reading blues guitar tabs is not to learn how to play like an experienced musician but to add soul to the music that is played. The tabs are not enough to teach the musician what they plan to learn. Training the ears to understand and appreciate the music is an important aspect of learning blues guitar tabs.
Necessities to learn Blues Guitar Tabs

There are certain things that every musician must learn to understand the blues style they wish to play. It does not matter if the blues guitar tabs are for an ordinary campfire song or a professional renowned song, there are certain fundamentals that must be followed. The first is learning how to tune the guitar to ensure that the tabs sound correct. The second and most important basic is learning how to read the tabs. Blues guitar tabs are musical notations which are easy to read, compared to the traditional notations. Lastly, the guitarist must learn to play the basic blues guitar tabs.
Acoustic Blues Guitar Tabs

Blues guitar tabs are presented are written for both electronic and acoustic guitars. It is for this reason that the musician must determine which tabs they are practicing on their guitar. Most acoustic blues guitar tabs begin with an open tuning on the instrument. Most of the lessons taught for the acoustic guitar follow a similar pattern. However, those playing on the acoustic must ensure that the blues guitar tabs are played on a standard tuning.
Finger picking in Blues Guitar Tabs

Finger picking is a large part of blues guitar tab notations. This is because this technique is common in all blues music. This type of technique need not be applied to the guitar alone but can also suit other stringed instruments. The finger style is used for different genres and not blues alone. This type of style is included in blues guitar tabs along with chords, hammer-ons and pulling off. The finger style in blues guitar tabs includes pedal points, this style originates from the music played on a piano and is alternated with the chords to create blues music

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Becoming a Legendary Blues Guitarist

The blue style of music has been popular since the early decades of the twentieth century. The blues was born in the Mississippi Delta during the 20th century. Initially, songs were played by slaves and the poor white folks as sorrow songs. Today with blues being the most popular style of music many people aspire to become blues guitar players and are keen on learning. Here are a few suggestions if you desire to know “How can I learn to play Blue Guitars?”

 

If you want to learn to play the Blue Guitar try and get an electric or acoustic guitar having strings other than nylon having a standard tuning. Pick up a small chord book from any guitar shop. You should also know how to read tablature and have some basic knowledge on how to play a few chords on the guitars.

 

Pick up some popular of Blue classics albums of your favorite singers like B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robert Johnson, Son House, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy or Charley Patton. Now search for a good guitar teacher or check out Blues Guitar Online Video Lessons. The Blues Guitar Online Video Lessons are the most popular and easy way to go to the next level of playing blues guitar. The guitar teachers have a clear, concise and focused teaching style, which helps them to turn the most complicated musical lessons to an easy to learn lessons.

 

To make the lessons easier to understand you can find slow paced instructions and demonstrations. These videos also teach the split second technique, and focus upon the left and right hand close ups and on-screen tablature for making it easier to learn and apply. Check out these online video lessons to discover the real blues music. Other than teaching how to improve your finger picking techniques, these lessons also cover many standard keys, Texas blues, ragtime blues and open G bottleneck style. The lessons cover a truly effective material in an easy-to grasp manner making it easy for you to become an excellent blues guitar player.

Learn the authentic tricks used by the classic bluesmen through these online video lessons. Instructional videos are full of valuable tips for playing the Blue music in an efficient way. Many people have found an easy access to acoustic blues styles through these classes. Easy to understand, these videos add a new dimension to old blues and rag songs.

 

Many blues guitar teachers have a talent of playing genuine old time guitar and a gift of sharing that knowledge with others in an easy way. Everybody learns differently, some just need to pick up a guitar and start plucking away when beginning blues guitar . Others need to understand sheet music in order to move forward and become proficient.

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Where To Begin?

If you are contemplating learning to play blues guitar music, you will need to learn a little music theory but you will also need to learn when to leave it at the door. If you have the kind of brain that thinks there is an “always play this note at the start of the bar”, then you need to let go of that mindset.

The so-called “blue note” is a case in point. The blue note is the flattened fifth of the scale you are working in and when to play it does not follow nay rules. Your own musical feeling will tell you when you should play it or leave it out. To start you off as a blues guitar player, all you need is your pentatonic scales and some time to learn some licks from CDs.

Get some blues music onto your computer or your ipod and try to play along with the guitar. First, try and work out what key you should be in, then work on getting some approximate version of some of the licks you are hearing. You don’t have to be one hundred percent accurate at first. You will improve as you go along.

What kind of guitar you choose to play blues music is a question that needs some serious thinking. You can play a Stratocaster or a Telecaster or a Gibson ES 35. The Tele sound is bright and the Gibson has a warmer sound. If you really don’t have a clue and don’t want to think about it too much, get a Strat. You can get a reasonable version of the Stratocaster for not too much money, so you can always change your mind when you have had a little experience.

A question that you don’t hear discussed very often is the role of bass in blues guitar music. Some newbie guitar players find themselves attracted to the bass guitar but blues music does not give them too many role models to get a handle on how to play.

All the same, the bass does fulfill a significant function in blues music which can give a bass player plenty of scope for improvising solos. The main function of the bass is really to draw the melody and the rhythm together by adding some color to the rhythm section.

So, what are some good songs to start playing blues guitar with? The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi Hendrix, Pride And Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Right Next Door by Robert Cray and I Looked Away by Derek And The Dominoes give you a wide assortment of blues styles to study. Other artists you could look at are Albert King, Muddy Waters, Roy Buchanan, Robert Johnson and B.B. King.

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Online Blues Guitar Lessons

Learning to play blues guitar should not be boring or mind-numbing, but like all courses of music study, blues guitar lessons contain new ideas, the language of music and a whole new repertoire of physical movements to come to terms with.

In the early twentieth century blues guitar lessons were taken from a friend or relative, maybe using a borrowed guitar, or maybe using a single string on a broomstick. These lessons had no theory and paid no attention to how you sit or stand while you play the guitar, or whether prolonged guitar practice was going to damage your back or your hands.

These days you can get blues guitar lessons online which benefit from the musical knowledge and experience musicians have accumulated over nearly a hundred years. If you want to learn blues guitar you don’t need to be steeped in the traditions and folklore of the people of your region. You just need to download lyrics and tabs for blues songs and learn to play them on an acoustic or electric guitar.

Blues guitar lessons online will not only teach you how to play the blues but also how to read guitar tabs and chord charts, how to adjust your tone control and pickups to get you sounding like a real blues guitar player, and basic stuff like how to keep your guitar in tune.

If you enjoy listening to blues music, but do not know much about the guitar, a typical course of online guitar lessons would make sure you knew the basics of handling and maintaining your instrument before teaching you songs in your favorite genre. Before you start learning to play blues songs and guitar solos, you would be taught some strumming patterns, how to hold the pick, and perhaps a finger picking pattern or two.

Unlike the early blues songs which would have utilized open chords, modern blues numbers make use of barre chords, power chords and exotic scales and modes. Also the sophisticated playing techniques developed over the past fifty years, like string bending, trills and slides have a big role in blues music.

Today’s musical environment also produces guitar players who have devoted themselves specifically to becoming music educators, so if you take blues guitar lessons online you won’t be getting a guy who spent a few years in a garage band and then branched out into teaching, you will be learning from a guitarist who is also a composer and seasoned professional musician who has learnt how to pass musical know-how onto students.

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