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Hi people, I need to learn to play the blues guitar and the thing being that its not as easy as it seems cause I cannot find a good teacher to make me learn this and the second thing being the cost of private lessons…. so I am looking for online classes. I have an acoustic guitar with strings made from other than nylon in standard tuning.
I have some basic knowledge and know to play a few chords. But what I need is a crash course or something for beginners to get on going. Please do drop in your ideas to help me. (Hail the great William Christopher Handy who wrote the first blues song “Memphis Blues”)
Thanks in advance!
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04-02-2008 09:22 AM
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Try this site:
Solo Guitar - The Blues Scales - Slowhand Blues Guitar
It's devoted to Eric Clapton's style, but there is a tremendous amount of useful stuff on it related to music theory as it relates to blues. I got quite a lot from this site when I was first starting guitar.
This is not "jazz blues" though, although what you will learn can definitely be used in a jazz context.
Also, it's more focused on electric guitar, but if you can bend your strings up at least one whole step, you can apply most of what is on this site to your acoustic guitar.
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I believe that it’s good to learn online as I have the example of my friend who has really made himself good on guitar by learning from the net. He used to learn blues guitar by online lessons and it did him good. It was hotstrings.
An easy introduction to the most important techniques and styles of blues guitar playing. 100 exercises and tracks for your first solo and rhythm guitar playing. Direct downloadable to your pc.
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I've picked up a slew of cool licks off YouTube. I know it may come off cheesy, but there's some great gems tucked away in there.
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+1 on Youtube
I've looked at dozens of available online courses and the best one I've seen, so far, is Playing Through the Blues by Griff Hamlin:
Blues Guitar | How To Play Blues Guitar
If you're particularly into SRV style then this guy is pretty good too:
StevieSnacks.com
He's got some free stuff on his website about the 5 blues boxes, with good examples. He's very easy to follow.
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I played in a blues band for a lot of years, and had to learn from scratch, I used to listen to old time blues gangs, I recall I had a good deal of blues ideas from listening to Muddy waters, I like his style, he did a record with johnny Winter I believe, and there you see that even a special type player like mr winter (if i spell right) can play very nice blues. Mr Clapton plays superb blues, admittedly, but the old guys know the trade. But then again, I learn everything by listening and copying and altering, it might not be the way you learn, oh, and mr Hendrix was a good bluesman too, even if he tended to do other things too. But right now I'm listening to Chris Standring's 'Main Course', so I'm a little bit distracted. But listen, and learn, it's not easy for people who haven't even been to chicago or Louisiana to play good blues, but get flow in the scale (pentatonic blues) and listen a lot to the oldest tracks you can get hold of, Muddy is really very recent as compared to a lot of the real masters. But it may be hard to get hold of recordings with some of the more obscure guys. Muddy's very good though, and from his harp player (can't recall the name right now) one may learn a tremendous amount of applications of this five note scale, so simple, yet so versatile...
Peace
Skei (the
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Stevie Snacks is fantastic... Some thing else to try, do a search for "free blues backing tracks" and see what comes up.
Originally Posted by gpower
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Try to rent or buy the Crossroads movie...it talks about the other side of learning the blues...
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Just do it...don't listen to the 3rd/4th generation copicats; go to the source. And like Lightnin' Hopkins said "Lean your guitar by you bedside".
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And since you talked about Lightnin Hopkins: Lightnin' Hopkins Licks Originally Posted by ES350
A nice lesson..........
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learn to play to 12 bar blues progression, this is the one I have found to be rather common
I IV I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V
if you don't know what those numbers mean, just look up 12 bar blues and you can find out. Basically I=C IV=F and V=G in the key of C blues.
that is a start atleast, sorry if that didn't answer your question, but if you get Tuxguitar, a free program, you can download "Guitar pro" files for Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muddy Waters, BB King, and start incorporating those licks into the key you are playing. Tux guitar is free, and the Guitar Pro tabs are free, which you download and open in Tux Guitar. Hope that helps!
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You might enjoy this, Otis Rush in 1966 playing an Epiphone Riviera. There are a lot of other really great videos listed in the sidebar, too. Have fun!
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Sorry - it's late, I'm tired.
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Great vid and some beautiful blues pickin'.
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08-23-2009, 09:02 PM #15Stringbean GuestI'd suggest forgetting about the generic "blues guitar" and just pick one guy. Try and copy his sound. Avoid random generic licks and tricks until you nail down your favorite players sound. Originally Posted by habbottl5
Focus, specify, limit your palate.
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First off, Lightnin' is probably my favorite blues guy. Originally Posted by ES350
Anyway, everybody is a copy-cat.
Nobody has learned music by being completely isolated from it and making it all up on their own.
Plus, where do you think those "3rd/4th generation copy-cats" learned from...that's right, the old guys.
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08-25-2009, 01:19 PM #17Archie Guest
I think Stringbean is right.
Here's a nice lesson on some B.B. King solos:
SOLOING STRATEGIES: B.B. King - Guitar World
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Quite frankly, I disagree. Originally Posted by Stringbean
There are so many players who do this, and they're just outright boring. What I'd reccomend is listening to as much blues as you can, let it get into your head. Listen to all the players you can, and get your ideas from them.
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