Blues Guitar Lessons

Welcome to our blues guitar page. This page includes beginner and intermediate lessons for blues guitar as well as links to guitar sites and more.

Basic Blues: 12-bar Blues Theory By Olav Torvund This lesson is for beginners and intermediate players. It takes a look at the basic 12-bar blues form. This form is familiar to almost any guitarist. Every guitarist interested in blues, folk, country or rock should know the 12-bar blues by heart; just switch on the auto-pilot and play.

The Melody and Blues Scale By Olav Torvund This blues lesson is for intermediate players. Those who want to play blues should know the blues scale. Guitar players should know how to finger blues scales all the way up the neck in the so called box positions.

Blues Notes and Passing Tones Bending By Olav Torvund If you read my previous lesson on the blues scale, you will remember that the blues-tonality is unstable and unsettled, because you play a minor of scale over major chords.

History and Origin of the Slide Guitar in the Blues By Rick Payne There have been many claims to the origin of the slide guitar. Its haunting sound can be heard across the whole spectrum of musical styles, through blues, rock, country, Hawaiian and even jazz. A sound so haunting, that as fans of Robert Johnson might believe, was born from the devil himself.

Origins of the Pentatonic and Relevance to the Blues By Rick Payne Like many guitarists, I was always confused as to what Pentatonic this and Pentatonic that meant. Guitar books varied in their interpretation of blues scales and Pentatonic, and still do. Most of us get through in the end by using our ears and not the grey stuff in between. It is, however, worth mentioning a few points in connection with the birth of the blues.

Blues Licks By Andreas Itten The following Licks are very simple and as I think they sound authentic. Especially for Beginners, they sound cool and help to "open the Blues ear..."

Blues Feeling By Christian Cayeux The goal of this intermediate lesson is to show you how to get a good blues feeling. Don't think about it. Just pretend you are Jimi Hendrix and play.

One Chord Boogie Grooves By Keith Wyatt Blues has always been a stylistic sponge, soaking up the sounds of other, more popular musical trends and incorporating them into its timeless framework. Over the years elements of rock, Latin and funk have all been added to the blues vocabulary. Of course, the influence goes in the other direction too, some times in ways that are less obvious.

Introduction to the Texas Shuffle By Kevin Rhys You can read theory and play scales all day long, but without hearing (and playing) how they are applied in a practical sense, their value is greatly diminished. This lesson is an introduction to the Texas shuffle, with apologies to SRV.

Blues Turnarounds By Steve Wells These turnarounds are mainly in E, but I've put in a few in other keys. They are just a collection of things I've picked up over the years. I'd be very interested in any others anyone's got.

Well I woke up this morning - Study in Blue By Alan Green This Study is called Study in Blue and it's a simple twelve-bar Blues in the Key of E Major. The Primary Chords in that Key are E, A and B7 (don't worry if you don't know how to finger them) and by using these three chords we can achieve good harmony with every note in the E Major scale.

There's a Hound Dog barkin in the yard By Alan Green Alan Green's latest piece walks you through a traditional blues turnaround, all done in a great fingerstyle. Alan has also been kind enough to furnish some MP3s to aid you with this lesson.

Acoustic Blues in Standard Tuning By Jim Arkuszewski Here's a terrific introduction to the wonders of acoustic blues, using the Muddy Waters' classic You Can't Lose What You Ain't Never Had. First time GN contributor Jim Arkuszewski will get you playing the blues in no time.

Blues Solo Improvisation - A Basic Introduction By Arjen Schippers Arjen has an ambitious project for the New Year - a series of pieces on improvisation. This first lesson introduces the form of the twelve bar blues, the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale. There are exercises and even some MIDI backing tracks that you can practice along with!

Walking Bass Jazz Blues - Fingerstyle Rhythm By Peter Simms It's always a pleasure to get a new lesson from Peter Simms! His latest piece involves putting a walking bass line underneath a standard jazz blues progression. When you put it all together, you'll definitely think it was worth the extra practice!

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