Blues is a popular style of music, and perhaps most popular among guitar players because of the amount of expression and technique involved. Playing the blues on guitar takes skill and determination, among many other things, and though there’s no single method or exact formula for learning to play it the best, there are a few ways that are proven to move you from beginner to advanced player. Teachers and professionals can always debate, but nobody can deny that the following things will really help you to learn to play blues guitar:
The Importance of Practice
Though there are contradictions in a few common sayings (practice makes perfect! But nobody is perfect?), we do know that nobody can improve without practice, and a lot of it. Practicing a little bit every day, or as often as you can, is way more beneficial than practicing for a large chunk of time only once or twice a week. Also be sure to know how to practice correctly. That means putting in enough time to cover different areas like rhythm, scales and picking. Make sure to practice blues scales like the minor pentatonic and applying slides and bends to your notes.
Check out this VIDEO GUITAR LESSON ON BLUES LICKS
The Importance of Listening
Listening means keeping an open ear out for what other musicians and guitar players are doing. Great musicians understand the contributions other musicians make to the world of music and appreciate new styles and techniques, no matter how different or outlandish they may seem at first. If you truly want to learn to play blues guitar, you need to keep that in mind and listen to all kinds of other styles, not just the blues. Then, you can take what you’ve learned and apply it to the blues as well. Who knows, maybe you’ll become a pioneer of a new blues technique that draws on outside influences from metal or reggae!
The Importance of Determination
Lastly, let’s say you put in the time to practice, and you keep an open ear out for other styles and new techniques. But maybe you don’t see yourself getting any better. Does that mean you should give up playing the guitar? No way! Even if you don’t see yourself making any improvements day to day, just know that you are still improving, just in increments you can’t notice. What most people who set out to learn guitar do is quit when the going gets tough. If you want to be a great blues player though, you need to have determination. Even when you think your playing is terrible, it probably isn’t. And if you think it’s bad, it should make you all the more determined to become better.
If you are into blues guitar, I recommend you to check out this great course in DVD:
