Blues Help Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the blues is my favorite thing to play so good job :D
I find it easier if you get a blues book..thats what has helped me..mine has alot of blues scales and stuff..the scales help u to feel better with the blues..and it gives u chords..
thats just how I like it..someone else might be able to help you more the way u want it..

Learn the blues scale, and minor scales. I like the to play blues with Major 7th chords, and a lead based off the relative minor scale.

You understand the concept pretty well. Youre teacher will probably introduce you to the blues scale soon. Its very important that you learn the notes of those positions as well. Make sure you know exactly where the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes are in each pattern for starters. Eventually you should learn them all. You'll have a great command of the fretboard eventually.

After that, you just play. Becoming blues savy is pretty darn simple. But, its very difficult to play the blues with the passion and power that it is known for. Your teacher wont be able to teach you this. So, listen to some blues records and get some motivation/inspiration.

to me it sounds like you need a new teacher. your teacher is taching you things that you're not equipped to play yet.

to me it sounds like you need a new teacher. your teacher is taching you things that you're not equipped to play yet.

How is he not equipped to play a simple 12 bar progression and some licks to go over it? He has a guitar, check. He has all ten fingers, check. And, he has a will to learn (I think). How isnt he equipped?

I cant for the life of me play this one finger bar and stretch my fingers to hit various notes on 2nd, 3rd or 4th frets. I can hit a couple of notes, mostly on the bass strings which sound pretty good but thats about it.

i think that's pretty hard to do for someone who hasn't been playing too long. if his teacher wants him to do this the said teacher should prepare him to do this not throw him into it, imho.

He can only learn by doing. How do you prepare to do barre chords? You just have to practice 'em. Barre chords really arent all that tough (unless this guy is playing on a neck that isnt sized correctly for his hands).

ElectricKoolAid, just take your time with those and practice them often. And, stop saying "I cant". You can do anything on the guitar that you want.

the way i see it is that it's a progression. you learn the barre chords first, then you can play other notes with your other fingers after you know them kind of well. people who have been playing four or five months have trouble a lot of the time just playing an F chord. everything comes in time.

Go to your guitar store and pick up a blues instruction book

I've got the book Blues You Can Use, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793542057

which some people recommended to me. It's pretty good. I found getting the fingering fast enough to follow with the cd pretty tough (I've been playing a year). You'll need an electric guitar for the book (unless you can do a whole-step bend on the B string on your acoustic!)

In addition to the above suggestions, if you want to play blues, you've got to listen to lots of good blues.

I'll start the list -
John Lee Hooker
Albert King
BB King
EXPECIALLY Freddie King
Muddy Waters
Eric Clapton
Robert Cray
T-Bone Walker
Stevie Ray Vaughn

Thank you all for the advice and thank you Voodoo Merman, will certainly take that on board. This is the first time that i've used these kind of forums and what a godsend they are, nice to know there are some helpful people out there in this world.....
Thanks!!!!!

ElectricKoolAid

I recommend a book called Beginning Fingerstyle Blues Guitar:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0825625564/sr=8-1/qid=1150295670/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6230457-4750566?%5Fencoding=UTF8

It progresses nicely and I'm still learning from it after having it well over a year. (sorry for the ugly link)