To Learn Blues Guitar Requires More Than Musical Talent

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By: Mike Hammil

There are only a few things you need to learn blues guitar but most importantly, according to most blues guitar players is being a human with feelings. Essentially, a guitar without nylon strings work the best, even if playing rhythm guitar, the knowledge of a few basic chords and a feel for the music are the main ingredient needed to learn blues guitar. Originating in the early 1900's in the south, most of today's blues music stems from the recordings of William Christopher Handy in 1912. Although he did not introduce or write the first blues song, his recordings did bring the soulful style of music to life and to the attention of the world. His recordings prompted many true musicians to learn blues guitar and took the music out of the dark bars and into the public. The definition of blues is somewhat all over the charts but infamous blues guitarist B.B. King summed it up by claiming it to be the mother of American music. When a students is trying to learn blues guitar, there is seldom a structured lesson plan where they have to learn a specific piece of music by the following week. Rather it is more the chance to develop their own style of music by listening to the sounds produced by some of the more accomplished guitarists. Blues Combines Structure With Feeling Most of the music written to help people learn blues guitar is written as tablature, a style of music writing that allows people to play the right notes in the right order without having to know how to read standard music. One deficit with tablature is that there is no timing indicated for how long each note is to be held. A person who knows the song being played will have no trouble figuring out, but the first time the song is attempted while they learn blues guitar, it can take on the personality of the player. To get a feeling of how to learn blues guitar, it is best to start by playing rhythm along with an established blues guitarist. A CD player with a repeat function or a music program that allows you to cut and loop a particular piece of a song is the best and with any type of an ear for music, it should be easy to determine the chords. By achieving the feel for the rhythm of the songs makes it much easier to learn blues guitar on your own.