Blues Guitar Lessons

(800) 417-4620

Here's an outline of topics your teacher can cover with you depending on your level of ability.

Beginner

12 bar blues form
Blues scale
Turnarounds
Standard blues riffs/rhythm guitar playing
Standard blues lead guitar licks
Use of metronome in practice
Importance/development of internal sense of time and form
Pickstyle blues playing
Study of intervals (singing and playing)
Major and minor triads
Theory and voicings
I, IV, V dominant 7th chords and chord function
Importance of blues as original American musical form

Intermediate

Major Scale harmony and chord function (triads and 7th chords)
Construction of Dom7th chords
Dom7th as tonic function chord
Mixolydian mode and Dom7 chords
Rhythmic styles (shuffle, straight, 12/8, etc.)
Blues as a musical language (syntax)
Lyrical construction of 12 bar blues (A,A,B)
Importance of learning language by emulating (learning) great recorded solos/songs
Historical origins of blues song structure
Historical lineage of blues musicians (chronologically: Son House, Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, BB King, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Page, Stevie Ray Vaughn, etc.)
Historical lineage of blues styles (Delta/acoustic, Chicago, 60s British, contemporary)
Influence of blues on other guitar styles (Rock [Chuck Berry], Heavy Metal)
Use of effects in electric blues (earliest uses of distortion, etc.)

Advanced

Slide blues playing and open tunings associated with slide playing (Delta blues musicians, Duane Allman, Bonnie Raitt)
Acoustic (Delta) blues and fingerstyle playing
Influence of blues singers on instrumentalists
"Vocal" guitar techniques: string bending, vibrato, trills, slides
Blues phrasing and melodic statements
Use/importance of space in blues phrasing
Narrative quality of great blues guitar solos
Tonic diminished sound in blues
"Major against minor" contributing to blues sound/feeling
Ability to hear/sing along with what is played on the instrument
Fingerings for triads, 7th chords, 7 note scales, diminished scales
Chord voicings and inversions (especially Dominant 7th/9th/13th)

Related Information

About the Guitar

The modern word, guitar, was adopted into English from the Spanish word guitarra, derived from the Latin word cithara, which in turn was derived from the earlier Greek word kithara, which perhaps derives from the Persian word sihtar.