Learn to Play the Blues Guitar

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There are lots of different styles of blues guitar playing from acoustic to rock and also slide blues guitar. B B King uses a Gibson 345 and Robert Johnson used an old beaten-up acoustic that you could probably buy for next to nothing.

It’s true to say that it’s not the instrument you play, it’s how you play that matters. I guess we would all prefer the Gibson 345 but it really won’t make us into better guitarists, it will just make our tone better ... probably, and our pockets a lot lighter!

On the basis that what goes in comes out, if you listen to the riffs that you want to play then you’ll have something inside to draw on when it’s your turn to improvise.

Blues playing is usually improvisational and it has to say something in a musical fashion to be truly meaningful. If it doesn’t mean anything to you when you play it, it won’t mean anything to anyone else either!

As an introduction to blues guitar, the most popular scale is of course the blues scale ... I guess that’s obvious! However, there is also the pentatonic minor, which is very similar to the blues scale, and also the mixolydian mode.

The last of these is a major scale with a minor 7th and when you combine the blues and mixolydian mode there isn’t much you can’t play in the blues guitar style.

Blues guitar playing also overlaps into jazz - see also: learn to play jazz guitar

Blues Guitar Tutors