Learn Blues Guitar at Home

Wanting to learn blues guitar at home? First, you might want to know a little about the blues. At the conclusion of the 1800s, this particular form of music originated in the African-American community in the southern section of the United States. It was typically played and sung by slaves. These early musical forms were based on field hollers, work songs, and the chants and shouts of spirituals. This style of music is called the Blues. One legend says that W. C. Handy, an African-American cornet player and bandleader, wrote the first published Blues song in 1912. That song was entitled Yellow Dog Blues.

The Blues musical style has gained in popularity over the years as well as in numerous countries throughout the world, capturing the hearts of music lovers of all ages, making a great deal of people want to try and learn blues guitar. Blues and guitar were made for each other. They work well together. The Guitar, acoustic or electric, is a perfect instrument to own if you want to play the Blues. When searching for a guitar, find one with thicker strings. This will help in getting better tones and sustainability. Nylon strings are not recommended.

Nearly all Blues songs are played using the 12 bar musical form. The 12-bar Blues basically means that the song is split into 12 “bars” or “patterns” using a specific series of chords. If you really want to learn blues guitar you should start by learning this basic rhythm – that also ends up being the simplest one also. This 12-bar form is repeated on each verse of the song until the end. While practicing this, you need to start with a single down strum for every beat, until you become comfortable with it. After a while, you’ll be able to try out different strumming patterns and try other variations.

The Blues, generally speaking, is basically minor in key but there are also different scale patterns which can be used to create the type of sounds and chord structures associated with the Blues. Some of these scales are the major pentatonic, minor pentatonic, dorian, and mixolydian. These can be utilized individually or in combination with one another.

To better learn blues guitar, it is very important to practice the three (3) rhythmic feels found in the Blues. These are the straight feel, shuffle feel, and 12/8 feel. With straight feel, an equally spaced eighth note rhythm is normally used while the shuffle feel uses a long-short pattern (the second note is placed in every pair of eighth notes.) The 12/8 rhythm has twelve beats per bar and each eighth note receives one beat.

Various methods are also important to learn blues guitar. One of these being the vibrato. It is a musical effect that is produced when the pitch of a single note is slightly altered between the original pitch and a higher pitch by changing the tension of the string.

In order to enhance the chords with melodic figures, turnarounds, intros, and endings – riffs are used. Turnarounds are typically played during the last two bars of the solo and leading the song back to the beginning. Turnarounds can even make excellent and interesting intros and endings for songs.

To properly learn blues guitar, there’s no one technique or method you must master. Learning the Blues requires regular and precise practice. No matter what the gurus in the best-selling books, ebooks, and videos promise, nothing can beat determination and perseverance.

Free Blues Guitar Course Sample Lessons