My blues are stale...

Listen a lot to folks who've played more varied blues, then.

Maybe start by just chaning something small and simple. For example, maybe decide to play a different chord on measure 3 of the usual 12-bar pattern. Play around until you find one that sounds good there. That might lead to you finding something else that sounds good and so on and so forth. I use this strategy a lot when I feel "stale". I just randomly change something that might not even make sense, and then go with it. Sometimes it works out alright, other times it doesn't...but either way, it's something different!:smile:

One real simple way to spice things up is play a Minor Blues. Since I've Been Loving You by Led Zeppelin is an excellent example of a Minor Blues.

So, instead of playing

A/A/A/A/D/D/A/A/E/D/A/E

Play

Am/Am/Am/Am/Dm/Dm/Am/Am/Em/Dm/Am/Em

Pretty simple, but will give you lots of new ideas and sounds very different.

There are also 8, 16, and 24 bar Blues. There are even progressions with an odd number of measures. Born Under a Bad Sign is a 15 bar blues I believe.

Experiment. Look up Jazz, Swing, and Jump Blues on the web. You will find lots of exciting variations with chord substitutions there.

This looks like a great site.

http://www.swingblues.com/

Have you looked into different rhythms and such? Chicago blues for example. Can still be 12 bar, but you get a totally different feel out of it.

That's exactly what I'm talking about!! I need more info on different styles.

Did you mean like jazz, swing, etc, or different blues styles?

like different styles, like you mentioned chicago. Stuff like that, basically so it's not "standard 12 bar" sounding.

Ok, in a few hours I'll post some. They are all still 12 bar, but you do get different feels. Do you have AIM by anychance? Be easier to send them like that.

http://taso.dmusic.com/

Yeah, there's a few different styles. I don't know the names to them, just ways of playing the blues that I've picked up listening to the music. If you want a tab for any of them let me know and I'll write one out no problem. They're all in the key of A, but can be easily moved to any key.

Tabs are no help till you've heard the song, played in that exact arrangement, and are familiar with it.

To the original poster: There is no substitute for listening! There's a huge world of recorded blues out there that you need to start exploring. When you hear what the "masters" have done, you'll have plenty of new ideas to keep you inspired.

Everybody thinks the Blues is easy, just 3 chords right?? Well, that is what makes the Blues so hard. How do you play 3 chord songs all night and make them sound different? When you think like this you see just how difficult the Blues really are.

One technique that many Blues players use is the riff. These are often single note melodies. And often when changing chords as from a G to a C, they will just move up the neck and play the same riff.


Born Under a Bad Sign as played by Cream

e-----------------------------------------------
b-----------------------------------------------
g-----------------------------------------------
d---5—-5p-3-----5--3-----3--5----5—-5p-3-----5--
a------------5--------5-------------------5-----
e-----------------------------------------------


Here's two famous Blues songs. Both use the G Minor Pentatonic scale. But these songs sound completely different. In One Way Out, when the song goes to C you just move up to the 8th fret and play the same riff. That would be the C Minor Pentatonic scale. That is a very common Blues technique as well.

You probably already knew this. But simply strumming chords it is very difficult to sound fresh and original with Blues (can be done though). So playing one note melodies like this is a very popular technique. With a little practice you can even learn to sing over these riffs.

There are also different ways to play the 12 bar Blues. You can substitute chords. For instance, a 12 bar in the key of A, instead of going from an A chord to a D chord at the 1st change, substitute the relative minor chord of D, a B minor. Make it a 7th (Bm7) and it sounds even better. This is a common technique as well.

hey thanks for all the ideas guys. I'll find some time and get to work on them.