Guitars have always defined the sounds of the blues style of music. Blues music originated in the Mississippi Delta in U.S during the 1890′s. It continued to improve for the next 20 years and came to a mature stage in 1910.  Initially the blues had powerful vocals accompanied by the acoustic guitar and were sung by the slaves and the white people as a sorrow songs.

The style was given the name “blues” in 1925. Today with the style being so popular, many people are trying to learn and become a blues guitar player. Other than buying electric or acoustic guitars with strings, try to listen and learn from some of the greatest blues guitarists if you wish to become an excellent blues guitar player.

The blues has a deep history with different artists contributing their own style. There have been a number of great blues guitarists who heavily influenced the style and captured the public imagination. Listening to their songs and music will definitely help you learn the art of playing the blues in an easy way.

Born in 1911, Robert Johnson was an initial blues guitarist whose music still makes an impact today. Having a short period of performance, Johnson contributed a lot to Mississippi Delta blues tradition and was the first one to start the slide guitar technique in blues guitars. His songs like “I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom” and “Crossroad Blues” are very popular and can be used to learn the right way of playing blues guitar.

Second in the list of greatest blue guitarist is B.B. King. Being a legend guitarist B.B. King had a crisp guitar style, which is perfect for beginners to start with. He had developed his own style including various blues traditions like a slide guitar. His songs like “The Thrill is Gone” and “Everyday I Have the Blues” can help the new blues guitarists to learn from his crisp individual style.

Another popular artist in the blues genre is Eric Clapton. He came during the revolution in the British Blues in 1960′s. Clapton used heavy slide guitar techniques to develop his own individual style, which was close to Blues-rock. His songs like “Layla” inspire and influence most of the budding new blues guitarists.

Blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan is also a famous name. His style had a combination of a number of blues guitar styles. His guitar style became popular for including some elements of jazz guitar and a heavy use of vibrato. Stevie’s songs like “Pride and Joy” or “Little Wing” are very popular.

For becoming an exceptional blues guitar player you must study the greats. Listen to their music and watch their vintage videos. You can search for the videos on YouTube or at your local libraries. Include simple and easy songs of other blues stars like Son House, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Charley Patton to begin with. Examine and study the work of these blues guitar legends in an attempt to learn about specific styles of play. This will surely benefit every student in beginning blues guitar and becoming the next best blues guitar player.

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Slide guitar playing in blues music had been popular for many years but not many people understand how this guitar playing style originated and the techniques used to produce this fascinating guitar sound. In the early twentieth century many American blues players began their careers playing music on a single string instrument called a diddley bow. This was a kid’s toy consisting of a wire stretched between two screws. It seems logical that without access to store bought instruments the emerging adult musicians would develop an instrument based on what they played music on as children. Of course the early blues players did use conventional guitars but a guitar played with a slide made from a knife or a bottle neck more readily complemented the vocal style and blues harp techniques the people used to express their lives in music.

Blues guitar players who took up slide guitar and influenced other musicians to do so were Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Both of these guitarists were driven by the music of Robert Johnson, built on his legacy and further influenced electric blues players like Johnny Winter and Duane Allman. Elmore actually started his musical career on the diddley bow when he was twelve years old. A confirmed individualist, he played a modified acoustic guitar to sound like a solid body electric.

Many students of blues slide guitar think that Earl Hooker is the greatest slide guitar player ever. He sometimes uses wah-wah with his slide playing and often amazed other musicians with his ability to make the slide guitar “sing”. But Earl Hooker did not need electronic effects to make his playing great as people who played music with him praise his technical skills. Elmore James’ song, “The Sky Is Crying” was covered by modern blues legends Albert King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and George Thorogood.

Arguably one of the most high profile slide guitar players is Ry Cooder. He is a skilled guitarist who enjoys injecting his own personality into traditional songs of many genres but he is remembered for his slide guitar on the soundtracks of “Paris Texas” and “Crossroads”. For these contributions alone he must be included in any list of blues slide guitar players.

Duane Allman was a great blues player of the late sixties to early seventies probably most widely known for being the “other” guitarist on the Eric Clapton song, “Layla”. His mastery of blues music is undisputed and there is a story of the joy he expressed the day he discovered how well a Coricidin bottle could be used as a guitar slide. The story goes he had never played slide guitar before but after that day his slide playing became an indispensable part of The Allman Brothers Band repertoire.

If you want to learn how to play blues slide guitar, you will probably need to learn to play using open tunings, maybe even get yourself a guitar with heavy gauge strings and a high action specifically for open tunings. But to learn slide guitar techniques you can begin with any steel string electric or acoustic guitar using standard tuning. You will need your index finger to damp strings that you do not want heard so experiment with your slide fitted to your middle, ring finger or pinky. You will also want to try out finger picking style playing combined with slide techniques.

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When spending time in Louisiana, you can look forward to hearing some excellent and authentic Cajun, Creole, and Jazz music.  Whether you are looking to have some fun dancing to a snappy Cajun beat or relax and absorb moody Jazz, you can find your place in the southeast. There is no question that Louisiana has a rich music history worth exploring.

As far back as 1755, settlers from Nova Scotia came to live in Louisiana, and they continued their tradition of telling tales of life in the New World at gatherings through song.  Cajun music was born.  Often these musicians sang a cappella, with clapping and stomping providing rhythm.  When possible, the fiddle became the instrument of choice and families and friends would dance for hours.  Through the 19th century, their music was influenced by blues, African and Native American styles, and improvisational singing techniques.  For many years, and still today, the fiddle was central to Cajun melodies, but in the early 1900’s the accordion was introduced and impacted musicians.  It became popular as its volume could carry across even a packed dance floor.  However, it had a much more limited range of keys so some tunes were changed or could only be played with the fiddle.  Today, both instruments continue to be an important part of the genre.

During this time period, African Americans developed another type of music that impacted Cajun music and our country’s history.  Much of what influenced Creole music in these early years was the fact that its makers were recently freed slaves, many still living in poverty.  Their songs pulled rhythms from the Caribbean, a feel of soulfulness from the blues, and were also connected to the Cajun music also developing in the area.  Dances were common and held mostly in houses with several singers and fiddles.  Creole men and women would move to the emotional music for hours into the morning while singers often reached high pitches to carry the words across the dance floor.

Almost every American has experienced Blues music at some point and felt its intensity.  What many may not know, however, is the birthplace of the blues was Louisiana.  Beginning from the hymns and work songs of African Americans, these songs spoke of injustice and pain, while expressing the joy of overcoming adversity.  These blues roots blended with church, military, folk, and African drumming music in New Orleans giving rise to Jazz as we know it.  Louis Armstrong, historic coronet player, was a huge influence on Jazz in the early 1900’s, giving rise to the key ingredient of improvisation.  A central part of the genre, musicians create the music as they go, playing together from printed music but taking turns with incredible solos throughout the song.  Few types of music can compare to the impact of Jazz on America and its music history.

This is simply a brief glance at the history of music in Louisiana.  The rich and varied cultures that settled and still live in the southeast blended to give our country much to enjoy.

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Beginning blues guitar instruction is a great way to really hone your skills as a guitarist. One obvious reason is that the blues is a wonderfully passionate style of music that has been shared by many different musicians, but another great thing about working on this style is the fact that it can teach any guitar player so much about the construction and melodic changes of a song and solo.

Beginning blues guitar lessons is also a great way to really start understanding and making sense of scales, starting with the major and minor pentatonic scales of course. Its one of the best and easiest forms of music to train yourself to solo with, but there is one problem. Because the blues is so enjoyable to play, a lot of guitarists find themselves getting stuck with in the genre. This isn’t to blame blues music, as this can happen with any genre that you pursue. However, if you find yourself in this position, this may be your first time experiencing something that is difficult for more experienced guitarists to get past.

You will learn much from this style, including phrasing, but perhaps you will soon find your musical ideas getting stale. What you do is try to incoporate what you are learning about a style such as the blues, and apply it to another type of music. Going from blues to Latin is definitely one of the best moves, because the dorian mode, which is commonly used in Latin music and the pentatonic scales go so well with each other. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then perhaps you’ve heard of Santana? what a great sound! Imagine getting into something kind of borderline.

From here you could keep expanding and learn so much about music, but the point is that you have to take it one step at a time. Figure out what makes one little difference between two styles of music. Then decide what IS common between them. Its very possible to cross styles, get out of a rut, discover so much about how music works, and further develop your own sound and style. Beginning blues guitar lessons is a great way to accelerate your playing, but remember that unless you want to play the blues your whole life, that you’ll need to nudge yourself in order to get going with something new.

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Many people think that jazz is the music of the elite and well-established people. But, if you look into the roots of jazz, you will see the opposite. Jazz is an art of expression in the form of music. Jazz music is the fundamental music in human life.

Jazz tradition evolved from the lifestyle of black community in America who has been oppressed. Initially, the tradition began from the influence of tribal drums and gospel music, blues and field hollers (the shouts of cultivators). Its birth process has demonstrated that jazz was closely related to the life defense and expression of human life.

The interesting thing from jazz music was that the origin of the word “jazz” was derived from a vulgar term used for sexual acts. Most of rhythms in jazz were ever associated with the brothels and the women with an unfortunate reputation.

Then, in the journey of jazz, it eventually became an art form of jazz music, both in the specific composition and improvisation, which reflected the spontaneous melodies. Jazz musicians usually expressed their feelings that were uneasily explained because this music should be felt within the heart.

Jazz legend began in New Orleans and grew into the Mississippi River, Memphis, St. Louis, and finally Chicago. Of course, jazz was influenced by music in New Orleans, African tribal drums and the structure of European-style music. Jazz background could not be separated from the facts in which jazz was influenced by a variety of music such as spiritual music, cakewalks, ragtime and blues.

One of jazz legends who was believed was the legend around 1891. An owner of hair shaving shop in New Orleans, named Buddy Bolden blew his cornet and the time became the beginning of jazz music as a new breakthrough in the music world. Half a century later, American jazz music gave many contributions to the world of music. Jazz was also studied at university, and eventually became a serious music and was calculated by the world of music.

Jazz as a popular art began to spread to almost all of American society in the 1920s (known as the Jazz Age). Jazz was more widespread in the swing era in the late 1930s and it peaked in the late 1950s as a modern jazz. In the early 20s and 30s, “jazz” has become a common word.

The influence and development of blues music could not be left when discussing jazz music in the early years of its development. Expressions that shined when playing the blues were in line with the style of jazz. The ability to play the blues music became the standard for all jazz musicians, especially to be used in improvisation.

Blues music itself, which was originated from the southern region, had a very broad history. Blues players usually used guitar, piano, and harmonica, or played together in a group who played his own musical instruments.

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