3 Tips For Anyone Looking To Learn Blues Guitar

If you are looking to expand your musical ability by learning to play blues guitar, you may have found yourself in the situation of not knowing where to begin. Even if you have just a very basic understanding of playing the guitar you can learn a few simple techniques to achieve exceptional results. Here are three tips anyone can use to learn to play blues guitar.

1. Use Those Fingers: While you may think every guitarist has to use a pick that is simply not true. In fact some of the best guitar licks can only be played by placing your flesh onto those strings. Some of the most famous blues songs (“The Sky Is Crying” for example) were played using this exact technique.

2. Learn Intervals: This tip may be the most important of all for learning to play blues guitar. An interval is just the distance or space between notes. The best way to improve your intervals is to listen to blues music. Go to the store and pick up some of the most famous blues music available. Stevie Ray Vaughn, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, and even Eric Clapton provide tons of examples of different types of intervals. By listening to the music, you will be able to memorize what the different distances sound like, which will allow you to play more with sound, and less with common patterns found on sheet music.

3. Practice with a Metronome or By Backing Tracks: This type of practice can improve your guitar skills in a wide variety of ways. Spending your time playing to a recorded track on a CD, with a small band, or even to the radio is much better than practicing alone. Since a sense of rhythm is extremely important for blues guitar a metronome can come in quite handy. This can help to keep your playing tight and in sync. When you use this method every day, you will play in time, every time. You can also learn many different time patterns, beats, and rhythms which comes in very handy when learning to play the blues.

Remember, just as is the case when learning any type of instrument, you must take your time, and practice, practice, practice. Try incorporating these tips everyday in order to achieve the best results. If you do not have the time to practice every day, strive for at least four days per week. When followed correctly, you should notice a difference in your playing in a month’s time.