How To Play Blues

How to play Blues: 

    The blues is probably the most influential style of music. Brought to the United States by the slaves in the early 1800's, blues has influenced most of the great guitar players of our time. Learning how to play blues in itself is not that difficult. What really makes the blues is the feeling you put into it.

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The 12 Bar Blues Progression:

  To learn how to play blues, the first thing you need to learn is the basic chord progression that is used. The most common is the "12 bar blues progression". As its' name implies, this is made up of 12 bars(measures) of music. The 12 bar blues uses the I, IV, and V chord of which ever key you want to play in. It would look like this:

I / I / I / I / IV / IV / I / I / V / IV / I / I

For example, to play in the key of E, the chord progression would look like this:

E / E / E / E / A / A / E / E / B7 / A / E / E

The progression just repeats itself after this. There are variations you can use, but you will always use 12 bars. One common variation would be to substitute the last chord with the V chord. So in the key of E, the last E chord would be substituted with the B7. Here are some more examples of a 12 bar progression in other keys.

Key of A:

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

Key of B:

B / B / B / B / E / E / B / B / F# / E / B / B

Key of D:

D / D / D / D / G / G / D / D / A / G / D / D

Play around with this progression using different strum patterns. Remember, the key to knowing how to play blues is the feeling that it's done with.

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The Blues Scale:

To learn how to play blues it is best to know how to play both the rhythm by using the 12 bar progression, and the lead by knowing the blues scale. Basically the blues scale adds the flatted 3rd note of the scale. If your not into the theory of scales it doesn't matter. The first diagram below is one of the five patterns of the pentatonic scale. Next to it is a diagram of the blues scale. The circles show the flatted 3rd added.

     The added notes are also referred to as blues notes. Play around with this scale pattern. Remember to add lots of feeling. Use some bends and slides. If you already know the 5 patterns for the pentatonic scale, than you will now know the 5 blues scale patterns by adding the flatted third.

     This just touches on the subject of how to play blues. Listen to your favorite players to hear what they are doing with their rhythm. When playing lead to the blues, you don't need to be able to fly all over the guitar neck. Try playing just a five note pattern. Change it around, add some vibrato, do some hammer ons and slides. I believe learning how to play blues is the most exciting of all styles of music to play because it really comes from your soul. If you are really serious about learning how to play blues, I would recommend that you take a look at Learn and Master Blues. 

        Learn how to play the blues with Learn and Master blues edition. Click here             

  Learn and Master Guitar spotlight series "Blues Guitar" is for the serious guitar player. This course will teach you all the concepts, chord structures and scales, and how to apply them. You can become an accomplished blues guitarist! 

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