If you are new guitar player who wants to make a career or a hobby out of playing blues guitar, then this essay will give you the basic points to get you on your way as a player and interpreter of the blues. Or maybe you have no intention of specializing in blues guitar playing. In that case my essay will give you the bare bones of musical interpretation using the guitar. These basic points can be applied to any genre of guitar music.

So, let us start with a minor pentatonic scale. Whenever you see the word pentatonic you know the scale has just five notes. This is the A minor pentatonic scale starting at the root note – A at the fifth fret of the sixth string:

E———————————5–8—-

B————————–5–8———–

G——————-5–7——————

D————-5–7————————

A——5–7——————————-

E-5-8————————————-
If you are used to playing barre chords, just barre the fifth fret and use the third and fourth fingers to play the notes at the seventh and eighth frets. As the first note in this scale is the root note, all you need to do to play this scale in other keys is to slide your first finger up or down the guitar neck. So now we move the barre up to the eighth fret which gives us the root note C. You will notice that now we have added some extra notes. This is the blues scale in the key of C. The notes we have added to the minor pentatonic give you more opportunity to give your music that “bluesy” feel.

E———————————–8—11

B—————————–8—11——

G——————–8–10–11————

D—————8–10———————

A——-8–9–10————————–

E-8—11———————————-
The minor pentatonic scale can be played in other positions on the fretboard. You need to learn where the notes are because the same note played on a different string sounds different. So the more positions you can play in the more variety you can put into your playing.

A word of warning here. Do not spend all your time learning the scales by heart. Once you can play a scale in one position, play with it. Try bending the notes, see what other notes sound good with the notes in your scale. In other words, give the scale some of your individuality. If you do not feel confident about doing this, then just fall back on imitating what other guitar players do. Do not worry that you are copying other guitarists’ material. Most guitar players start off this way. Using other musicians’ licks as a springboard for your own playing will get your juices flowing and you will be adding your own licks in no time.

Another way to approach learning scales is to learn a melody by ear and try to work out the scale it comes from. This might seem like hard work at first but it is a very pleasant way to learn music. Another thing to remember that blues music has a resolution. Your solos are all travelling to the end of the twelve bars or whatever style of blues you are playing, so any note you play on the way is fine.

Once you have a basic understanding of the blues scale and you can play it in a couple of positions on the guitar fretboard, you will need to look at the question of phrasing. There are so many excellent blues music tracks on record going back over a hundred years all you need to do is listen and imitate. Of course, your imitation does not have to be one hundred percent accurate, but other guitar players blues solos give you ready made starting points for your own original blues playing. One point to remember for beginner blues guitar players is that now you have a blues scale to play, you do not need to play all of the notes all of the time. If you have a backing track or some music you would like to solo over, start with one or two notes in the scale. Bend them, hammer them on, practice your vibrato, slide into those notes, make them yours.

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Playing the blues, music is something that many guitarists aspire to do. Some it comes to easily whereas others find it more difficult. Another thing about the blues music is you either love it or hate it. By the looks of how popular it is, one would have to say that those who hate it are in the minority.

One of the greatest if not the greatest blues singers was B.B.King. Many novices to the guitar marvel at how well he plays them and just how it’s done. To do so you need to learn the 12 bar blues. Don’t give up yet with some perseverance and practice you will master the blues as well.

Have you ever been listening to the blues and just know it reminds you of something? Well it may well do so if you remember the African American slaves from down south. It stems from their local traditions of how they would call out and respond to each other. The majority of blues songs is simply based on this and mimics those sounds. It is the progressive scale.

If you have been following the history of blues music then you have heard the name W.C.Handy. By using the 12 bar blues he was able to produce the very first certifiable blue hit. This is going back some years naturally, since blues has been around for a long time. We’re talking back to the introduction of the “St. Louis Blues” back in 1914.

Interestingly enough at that time the blues wasn’t all that well received it was just ok in the opinion of most. It slowly caught on and almost seemed to have an infectious affect to it.It didn’t matter what the ethnic group was it was being accepted. It really was the African American artist that brought the blues to the forefront. Artists such as Billie Holiday played a big part in this roll. By this time, it was well in the 1930′s. As the 20th century grew to a close, B.B.King added a unique touch to the Blues. Being a lead guitar player, he would bring a different touch to the music with his 12 bars blues techniques. From this point on there was no looking back or cooling off for the blues. It has just continued to grow into popularity, as it is known today.

It revolutionized the aspects of guitar playing. The 12 bars blues is now a commonplace and basic way of the guitar. Anyone aspiring to be good guitar player must learn the essential cord progression.

One of the best ways to learn this technique is through iVideosongs. Here is where you will start the beginning of learning the 12 bar blues, and then by taking what you learn here and making it a practice you will soon be surprised and pleased at how adept you will become.

It just seems to be natural to begin to learn how to play the 12 bar blues the moment one becomes serious about learning to play the guitar. Perhaps because rock includes the 12 bar blues this is the reason.

The first thing you are going to learn is that in order to learn the blues you are going to learn three bars that follow each other in succession.

The first measure is learning how to play a chord. If you are familiar with Presley’s some Hound Dog then you already know what a cord is. Don’t even think about moving onto the next step until you have this one down perfectly.

Now moving onto the second measure does not mean you will not be continuing in the 4/4 time meaning each quarter measure is one beat. The difference here is that in the first measure you were playing in “A” now you will be playing in “D” chord. Once again, become really familiar and comfortable at this measure then get ready to move onto the third and final measure.

Finally, you are here on your last measure and guess what? It’s no different from your first two except now you are going to be playing in “E” chord. That really wasn’t so hard was it? Now it means hours of practice and application to really master these 3 measures to make up the 12 bar blues.

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At the end of the 19th century, one particular style of music emerged from the African-American communities belonging in the Deep South of the United States. It was usually performed by prisoners and slaves.  These were derived from field hollers, work songs, even chants and shouts. This musical style is called Blues. One legend says that William Christopher Handy, a cornet player and bandleader, wrote the first Blues song which was both printed and documented in the year 1912. The song was entitled Yellow Dog Blues.

The Blues musical genre has garnered popularity throughout the years and in different nations around the world, capturing the hearts of many people of all ages, making a lot of music lovers want to try and learn blues guitar. Blues and guitar are like bread and butter to each other.  They work well together.  An acoustic or an electric guitar would be a great instrument to have if you want to play the Blues. Thicker strings may help in getting better tones and sustainability while nylon strings are not recommended.

The majority of Blues songs are played following the 12 bar.  The 12 bar Blues simply means that the song is divided into 12 “bars” or “patterns” with a given chord sequence. If one is really interested in learning blues guitar then one should start by learning this basic beat – which also happens to be the easiest one too. When playing, this form is repeated over and over for every verse of the song until the song ends. While practicing this, it is recommended that it should be started with a single down strum for each beat, until one becomes familiar and comfortable with it before trying to elaborate each strum and trying other variations.

Blues, in most cases, is major in chord structure but there are also different scales that can be used in order to create or add a colorful tone associated with Blues.  Some of these scales are major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, dorian, and mixolydian.  These can be used individually or in combination with each other.

To better learn blues guitar, it is essential to practice the three (3) rhythm feels that are used in Blues, namely, straight feel, shuffle feel, and twelve/eight feel.

In the straight feel, the eighth note rhythm is usually used and are spaced equally apart while the shuffle feel follow a long-short scheme (the second note is placed in every pair of eighth notes.)  The twelve/eight rhythm has twelve beats per bar and each eighth note obtains one beat.

Techniques are also vital in playing Blues on the guitar and one of these is the Vibrato.  It is a musical effect that is created when the pitch of a note is slightly changed to a higher pitch and then back to its original pitch by changing the tension of the string.

In order to fill the chords with melodic figures, turnarounds, intros, and endings – riffs are used.  Turnarounds are usually played on the last two bars, making the solo complete and points the song back to its beginning.  Some turnarounds even make wonderful and interesting intros and endings of songs.

To fully learn blues guitar, there is no one trick, way, method or procedure to master it.  Learning the Blues takes constant and accurate practice.  No matter what the sellers of books, ebooks, and videos promise, nothing beats perseverance and dedication.

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Bob Dylan once used to play acoustic guitar. It was quite extraordinary when many years ago he appeared on stage with an electric guitar in his hands. The comments came in right away and he made the front page of the big newspapers. Many of his admirers saw an electric guitar as an instrument to play loud rock music. Bob Dylan didn’t care and performed his magic on an electric guitar.

Blues music is a little different. The first blues notes were played on the acoustic blues guitar but even the old blues musicians got hold of the electric guitar. I think it’s a sad story because the acoustic blues guitar produced some great blues music.

Back in Chicago in the 1930′s or so there was a movement that was growing. People were enthusiastic when blues musicians from the Mississippi delta area brought their music to the streets and cafes from Chicago. Muddy Waters and Son House were huge stars in Chicago and they would play that acoustic blues guitar until people were just going wild.

The acoustic blues guitar became unpopular when people like Howling Wolf came along and replaced their acoustic guitar by an electric guitar. Wolf and other artists started recording classic acoustic blues guitar hits on electric guitars and that was the music that got out to the people. Soon Son House and the others were relics and Robert Johnson and that famous picture of him and his acoustic blues guitar became treasured pieces of the past.

Jimi Brought It Back For A Little While

For many years the electric guitar ruled the blues world and then Jimi Hendrix decided to record a short movie of himself playing an acoustic blues guitar and for just a little while we got to hear as close to the modern equivalent of those old classics that we will hear. As Jimi fired through Here My Train A Comin’ it was just like being on the delta near the turn of the century when Robert Johnson would travel from small bar to small bar just to make a living playing his guitar. It was a great time that is lost forever.

The acoustic guitar gets its due once in a while on blues and rock records but it will never be a main instrument like it used to be all of those years ago. The sound can never be mistaken and the music played on it was right from the heart and we will never hear music played like that ever again.

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