Beginners guide to blues guitar

Learning to play the blues is usually an important first step in becoming a well-rounded guitarist. Understanding the basics will let you play thousands of songs and help immensely when playing with other musicians.

In this lesson we will take a look at all the elements that go into playing blues guitar. This is usually one of the first styles we learn as guitarists and so it is important to take your time and understand how all these elements fit together. Even advanced players can gain new ideas from going back to the basics.

The main elements of the blues language are the 12 bar sequence, the pentatonic and blues scales and other techniques such as string bending and vibrato.

12 bar sequences

One of the most important things about learning the blues is understanding the 12 bar chord sequence. As the name implies it is a chord sequence which lasts for 12 bars before repeating itself and can be divided into three four bar sections. The basic sequence is so common that you will probably have heard it many times without realising it. Understanding this chord progression is a crucial part of learning to play blues music. The blues can be played in any key but the most common keys are C, F, Bb and G. Guitarists also use the keys of E and A quite frequently.

There are many variations on this sequence but we shall start by looking at the most basic example. This sequence is made up from only three dominant chords which for this example in the key of C. You can divide this progression up mentally into three four bar sections.

C7 | C7 | C7 | C7 | F7 | F7 | C7 | C7 | G7 | G7 | C7 | G7

This is the basic blues sequence. Notice how it is made up of I, IV and V chords and that all the chords are dominant. It is important to have the sound of this sequence memorised so play it over and over until you get it. We can extend the basic 12 bar chord sequence and make it more interesting by adding more chords or jazz it up with the addition of some altered dominant chords. Let's take a quick look at some alterations you can make to this chord sequence. The next example is a minor blues in E. You can play E minor pentatonic and blues scales for the whole thing.

Em | Em | Em | Em | Am | Am| Em | Em | B7 | Am | Em | B7

Eric Clapton was one of the most successful early blues guitarists

Once we have the chord sequence down it is time to think about adding some solo ideas to the mix. The most common and certainly the easiest way to improvise over this sequence would be to play the blues scale over the entire sequence. This creates a very authentic blues sound. As we get more advanced we can target the chord tones to outline the changes but for now the blues and minor pentatonic scales will work fine.

The blues scale

Rather unsurprisingly the most important scale for a blues guitarist is the blues scale. This is simply a six note scale which is based on the minor pentatonic scale. Most of you will already be familiar with the pentatonic scale which is made up of the notes

1, b3, 4, 5 b7

The blues scale adds a b5 note to this to create a six note scale which contains the notes

In the key of C this would be

1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7

In the key of C this would be

C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb

You can view the b5 note as a passing note or colour tone to give the minor pentatonic a bit more bite to its sound. If you play this scale you will notice how bluesy it can sound due to that b5 note. Make sure you experiment with some string bending to really bring out the bluesy sound of this scale.

In part two we will look at getting the right sound and some basic string bending ideas

Next: Part 2 >