How to Play the Blues Guitar

playing the blues

playing the blues

On playing the blues:

Learn To Play Blues Guitar Solos And Make Them Yours
By Ricky Sharples
When you first think about learning to play blues solos you will be faced with wanting to play the blues like the players of the past, but at the same time you don't want to just play their material note for note. The sooner you get rid of the idea that you have to be original right off the bat, the sooner you will be really original. By learning the riffs and licks of B.B. King, Eric Clapton or Duane Allman you are giving yourself something to play. And as you play this music that other players have recorded, you are developing your own style. You don't have your own voice to start with, you need to play other people's stuff to develop yourself.

So put aside your ideas that players start off with their own material, and start learning the solos of whatever players you admire from their records. Learn simple licks at first. The first thing you might discover that surprises you is that the solos of the great blues guitarists is not rocket science. Great music does not have to be hard to play.


So you don't need an amazing technique to start learning blues but you do need to work on how you play. For this you need to record yourself playing. Do it often and listen to it closely. The way you sit or stand as you play, the way you hold the pick, the ______continued.

Interesting article on playing the blues:

Bottleneck Slide Guitar And The History Of The Blues
By Tony Gee
The moody, haunting sound of slide or bottleneck guitar has become ever more popular in film soundtracks, television advertising and TV programmes. Think of the film Paris Texas and you will recall Read more...

More on playing the blues:

continued______ amount of force you put into your strokes and whether you use up or down strokes. All of these things are important to whether your playing sounds right.

If you think you need improvement, get some advice. Ask other players what they think. Do some busking, get some reactions from your audience. Record a video of your playing, post it on YouTube and get some comments. Go on forums, post the link to your video and ask for feedback.

But before you do any of that, you need to have some basic chops. I said before you don't need an advanced technique, but you need to be good enough to play with a little authority. You need to pass your enthusiasm for the music onto your listeners. If you are hesitant and worrying about making a mistake, you need some more hours of practice till you get past that stage.

One thing blues solos are not is the player's effects and equipment. If you want to use a certain sound for your playing, that's fine but when you are learning solos, concentrate on learning the music, do not worry about the sound at this stage of your learning. After all, when Eric Clapton stopped playing through Marshall amps or using the wah-wah pedal, it didn't mean he had stopped playing the blues. So a certain sound does not make the blues.
Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales..

Play The Blues Guitar 

 

Another decent article on playing the blues:

How To Play The 12 Bar Blues On A Guitar
By Logan N Young
The most popular form of blues is undoubtedly the 12 bar blues. 12 bars are used in the chord progression, with each bar or measure being four beats long. The 12 bar blues are said to have Read more...

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Go here for info on playing the blues - Below we have some more links to our pages on play the blues guitar, playing blues guitar, playing the blues, rock blues - they may help you with your research.

  
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