Blues Guitar Techniques appeared first on TheGuitarLesson.com, a site filled with unconfined online guitar lessons for beginners.
The blues is one of my favorite genres on guitar, I teach it to students all the time. Why? Because it's easy and loads of fun. If you're at an intermediate level, you're once at a stage where you can play uncanny blues riffs and solos like BB himself if you know some basic blues guitar techniques.
And you know what, these blues techniques are mostly vital guitar techniques that you are probably familiar with already. If you can once play some of the increasingly complicated songs in the guitar song lessons section of the site, you are at the stage where you might consider getting some blues guitar lessons, since you are once at the level where you could be playing the blues.
But unbearable rambling, here are the guitar techniques you'll need to master if you want to play blues:
- Bending to and from notes: Blues uses LOTS of string bending, you'll need to practice that a lot. It's tough on your fingertips at first, but it'll all be easier with time. When you're playing slow blues, you'll be limp up to the note you are aiming for a bit slowly, thus giving it the expressive finger that is very typical of blues.
- Shake the string: In other words, vibrato ???? Use it, and use it a lot when playing the blues. The vibrato might just be the single most expressive technique in your arsenal.
- Sliding: Blues guitarists don't just simply pluck a note, they sometimes slide into it. Sliding into notes is very typical in blues as well, and just adds weft and a bluesy finger to the riff.
- Slurring: This is a technique that is utilized mostly in blues, and not in other genres. When slur a note, you wrench it just slightly, right surpassing plucking a new note. Slurs are unquestionably one of the most foible sounds of blues, so using them is imperative.
- Hammering on and pulling off of notes: The hammer-on and pull-off is used very often in fast blues, so get used to it.
- Phrasing the blues: Blues players enjoy a sort of rhythmic liberty in the sense that they indulge unrepealable notes to be played off rhythm. For example, when a blues guitarist enters, he will typically start a half write-up without the bar starts.
The techniques required for playing blues guitar are easy, the rencontre is using them expressively. A vibrato is not just a vibrato in blues, it's an expression of your soul, withal with all the other techniques above.
Here's a good tip if you want to start playing blues:
Start listening to as much blues guitar music as you can. Check out this post on the best blues guitarists in the world, download some of their albums, and just listen for how they use the blues techniques you are now familiar with.
