Guitar How-To

Nobody ever talks about this, but when you learn how to play blues guitar you only really ever learn to accompany one tune. We talk about our blues tradition and how blues players have to pay their dues and such, but the truth is all blues songs sound much the same. This relieves blues guitar players and singers of the burden of making up new, totally original blues music. If they did nobody would want to listen. But the simplicity of the blues is what makes it great.

With blues guitar music the keyword is tradition. Blues music was originally passed on between family members and friends, and the need for originality was not felt to any great extent, so a solid form was established for blues songs. This article is meant to be an introduction to the basic principles of blues guitar playing. These principles have more to do with letting go of ideas rather than taking more ideas on board.

So where do you begin to learn how to play blues guitar? If you do not already know how to read sheet music or tab, find a tutorial on guitar tabs. This is the fastest written guitar music to learn and any blues music you need will be found in tab. Also you need to know what chord charts are, and how to read them. Neither chord charts or tab is hard to learn. What will take some practice is developing your ear so that you can learn riffs and licks from records.

So, when you try learning other blues guitar players’ solos remember the art of blues guitar playing is in how you play the notes, not necessarily in which notes you play. This leaves you free to experiment and not to worry too much about getting the notes totally right the first time.

Along with developing your ear, you need to learn the minor pentatonic scale in the key of E. The notes are E G A B D. You will learn the scale in other keys, but start in E and that will give you some musical background to your learning blues guitar solos from records. Once you start playing the scale you will recognize where that bluesy feel comes from.

When you listen to blues records, pay attention to how blues guitar players make use of the pentatonic notes, and when you become familiar with the scale yourself, you will also hear when they do variations and departures from it. Blues guitar solos are often made up from a blend of the minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic scales.

If you combine the scales and add the “Devil’s note” – the flatted fifth, you will get these notes to play around with in the key of E: E F# G G# A Bb B C# D.

The other basic thing you need is an understanding of the I V IV chord progression. This chord progression is used in many, many modern songs. For blues guitar you will be using I V IV7 or I7 V7 IV7. The 7’s mean you will be using seventh chords.
If you stick to the key of E you will be playing E B A, E7 B7 A7 or E B A7.

Once you are comfortable with the chord progression, you will need to learn it in all keys.

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