Getting Ready For The Blues?

One of my favorite guitar playing activities is without a doubt to dig into some electric or acoustic blues songs. Slow delta blues, Texas shuffle or Chicago blues – it’s all good stuff to me! From the very beginning as a guitar novice, one of my objectives was to learn blues guitar. Don’t know why – it always struck me as genuine and real.

However, it wasn’t until quite recently that I got more serious about it. Having the opportunity to play with some truly great blues guitar players, I soon discovered that it took more than a superficial knowledge of the basic pentatonic scale (blues scale), 12-bar blues and your average blues chords and chord progressions to follow those cats around comfortably without messing it up or stepping on someones musical toes.

The guys were just smiling and being cool about my feeble attempt at playing. It was more my own pride and sense of not doing it quite right that got to me.

Just jamming and hanging around with them every now and then sure meant some real progress in my guitar skills. Still, it was stumbling across this guitar blues course: Playing Through The Blues that really gave me the push to begin learning how to play proper and convincing blues guitar without sounding like I was just messing around on my own or throwing random and rather stale blues licks out there.

As I’m progressing – and let us not try to fool ourselves here … this is a life long process of learning – I begin to grasp how to play blues lead guitar more convincingly.

Also I have finally begun to see the true value of, and get a better grasp of “comping” – playing behind a solo instrument or singer without getting in the way or sounding plain old boring. Some of the idea here is to know when not to play – a vital part of the blues for sure.

The blues may perhaps seem real easy and straight forward on the surface, but it is darned hard to pull of with the raw emotion and feel for the genre that is required.

The best part after all is that I feel much more comfortable now to just jam with people I don’t know that well. Even playing songs I haven’t heard before, or don’t immediately recognize, isn’t really that big a challenge. For sure, I wouldn’t dare to step up with major players like Clapton (yeah I know … dream on), but I’m sure you catch my drift. Since playing with others is a huge part of what music is all about (at least to me), having this ability to go with the flow is a major thing!

I suppose it may be a better understanding of the theory, the underlying blues guitar and blues music principles that has made me more relaxed in blues jam sessions with folks more accomplished than myself.

As the tradition is with all the best online guitar courses, you have a number of great jam tracks included in this how to play the blues course, in addition to video lessons, audio examples, written documentation and much more. It sure is great to have a jam track going when you want to rehearse what you’re learning until it sticks! No one here to give me an evil eye when I mess up :-)

If you’re interested in ways to learn blues guitar, I’m pretty sure you’ll find heaps of valuable stuff here for years to come. I’ve tried it out for a while now and I feel I’m only scratching the surface…

And, if you have any questions or comments about the blues or blues guitar playing, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to get in touch or leave a comment below! What is your preferred way of learning blues guitar skills?

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Your First Guitar Lessons

When you’re starting out with electric guitar, it is always beneficial to consider early on what type of beginner guitar lessons you could see yourself having on a regular basis. As with everything else in life, it is fare more likely things will go according to plan, if you have a plan to begin with :-)

Your options are more or less these:
- Doing it all by yourself, “happy-go-lucky style”
- Using on-line tools, such as the much applauded Jamorama or Guitar Superstars
- Picking up stuff from friends
- Playing along to free on-line video on YouTube and similar places.
- Taking guitar classes at a school or institute
- Learning from guitar books or DVD’s
- Hiring a private guitar tutor
- Any combination of the above

Learning on your own

Honestly, the only advantage I can see here is that you’d probably be more inclined to develop a unique style – for better or worse.

Seriously though, this is not something I would even consider. It is so easy to pick up bad playing habits. And if you want to learn electric guitar properly, bad habits and sloppy technique is the last thing you want to have!

Learning from a friend or with free video

This is an OK option I guess … if you have absolutely no money at all to spend on tuition. Still, you would need to consider this: How much real life skill and teaching qualifications does this other person have?

When you’re starting out it is a real challenge to be able to spot these things. And – the difference can mean a world of difference to your future ability as a guitar slinger. Sure enough, when you have gained quite a bit of experience, it is absolutely crucial to learn from others – left and right. At a more advanced stage, you’ll be able to pick up things and adapt the major or minor stuff you see fit.

Another thing to think about is the structure – or rather: lack thereof. Proper on-line or off-line guitar learning tools take into consideration a proper sequence and schedule. Without these guiding principles, you will likely, sooner or later, become stuck and frustrated. What you really need is a tested system, not videos or friends showing you some random cool licks…

Learning from guitar books and DVD’s

There are heaps of guitar books and DVD’s out there – some great, some not so great. If you find a book and/or DVD that is specifically geared at beginner guitar lessons, you can’t go much wrong. I would personally take a DVD over a book any time. It is much easier to see a playing sequence on video than than it is in a static book format.

However, the same DVD tends to be kind of boring and stale after a while, and it can be expensive to buy new ones all the time. Also, you don’t have the option to get feedback on your playing with these learning tools.

On-line guitar learning

This is where special tools such as the earlier mentioned Jamorama course (perfect for beginners) and Guitar Superstars come into play. Here you have on-line video, Jam tracks (play-along possibilities) proper learning structure laid out, feedback systems in place, fresh content being added, varied learning styles and more.

If you can’t afford a private teacher, this is the route I would advise you to take. I have tested both the above places, and they are both totally cool!

Guitar school or private teacher

Some schools (public or private) have classes or courses designed for teaching guitar. I would absolutely check this out if I were you!

Then you have of course the advanced, specialized institutions like LIPA (Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) in Liverpool, UK; Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood, California – as well as a host of other, similar places. Here you will definitely need some skills before you apply though!

If you really want to be as good as you can be in the shortest amount of time, then nothing can beat a professional guitar teacher. Whether you want to learn classical, blues, rock or anything else – this is the way to go.

However… Having your own teacher will cost you – not an arm and a leg – but still, it’s an investment. Think of it more in terms of the time you will save!

If you choose this route, then do make sure you spend enough time to check out qualifications and if that persons style and personality is something you can be happy with.

Sounding off

Hope you’ve found some of this information helpful? I will come with more information on the issue of having a plan, as well as other stuff. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you! Happy hunting for proper lessons in beginner guitar skills!

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