Blues Guitar Lessons

Posted by admin on July 31, 2009

Having a few blues guitar lessons can speed up the process of learning to play blues and save a lot of time.

12 Bars of Rhythm
The first place to start, if you haven’t learnt this already, is playing a 12 bar rhythm. To many, playing rhythm guitar is for people who are unable to play lead and improvise, however, being able to play rhythm well and know when the chords should change without having to count, is a great asset.

Knowing what you want to achieve from your lessons is important. There are so many styles of blues playing and just as many ways to go about learning them, so make sure that the teacher or course that you are taking is going to provide you with the style you want to learn.

Blues Improvisation
Is not just about playing fast licks and impressing people, but is steeped in a social setting of near poverty and going without. This may suggest that you have to be black and have suffered in order to be able to play those phrases in the way they are meant to be played – but listening to the great blues guitarists and other musicians – particularly singers is very helpful in developing a sense of blues feel.

Keep it simple
There is a secret to learning quickly and also playing fast and that is: learn a little at a time and practise slowly. Both of these are at odds with what our natural desires want us to do.

Most of us, after reading the introduction, flick through a book looking for the good bits and try to play those bits up to speed much too soon.

None of this is improvising, which like jazz, plays an important role in learning blues.

A Framework
Of course, blues is normally played within a framework of twelve bars and can be subdivided into three, four bar sections or phrases. This is a starting point for lead improvisation and the three phrases that can be described as

1. a statement,
2. an answering phrase and lastly,
3. a summing-up of what has gone before ending in a turnaround.

The old saying that what goes in comes out applies to blues and most other styles of music so do lots of listening, work through material slowly and thoroughly and remember that there is a difference between practising and performing – practice is what you do slowly and performing is what you do at full speed.

Guitar lessons do cost money, especially if they are one to one, but well worth the money if you know what you want to achieve and have a goal that is achievable.

Comments

4 Responses to “Blues Guitar Lessons”

1. Voice Lessons says:

   August 31, 2009 at 12:02 pm

   Go get your guitar and dive into blues guitar lessons.
2. Eric from Jamplay Review says:

   January 17, 2010 at 11:05 pm

   Great lesson. I love blues and it is always good to read others lessons on it. Thanks!
3. Jenny from uk horses for sale says:

   March 12, 2010 at 8:31 pm

   I have my guitar in my hand and this blog is going to be my teacher !
   Jenny@uk horses for sale ´s last blog ..SILVER ADOS DREAM
4. Mike says:

   March 21, 2010 at 11:20 am

   I enjoyed reading this post about Blues Guitar Lessons – Before You Start. Really interesting. I will come back to visit this blog again.