Blues Guitar Lessons

Hi everyone! In this lesson, I'm going to show you a basic way to slide 9th chords to create colour when playing the blues. I use this sound often as it is very colourful, yet also very simp...

Now I'll show you a simple way to play arpeggios for each chord change over a 12 bar blues. Using arpeggios when soloing over a blues is a great concept as it allows you to 'spell' the chord...

Welcome new guitarists! In this tutorial, I want to focus on getting your first blues progression under your fingers. We'll start by examining three chords (E5, A5 and B5). "5" chords are co...

So let's stick these chords together into an eight-bar blues progression. 1) We start by playing our E5 chord 16 times using a down picking motion. Remember here, the only two strings t...

So the goal here, is to play the exact same chords, for the exact same durations of time with a slight variance. But before we do that, let's examine this variance... Below, we see the tabl...

So now that we're rockin' the blues riffs, let's stick it back into the blues progression. The same riff variance applies to all three chords. NOTE: The B5 requires a two fret stretch while...

Welcome back IGers! This month, I wanted to break down and analyze a few of my "go-to" licks within the blues scale. But before we do, let's expand our harmonic spectrum of the blues scale, ...

So this first lick is pretty "twisty" in that it highlights a fair portion of the first position A minor pentatonic scale while adding hints of the major third (C#) through out. This is a gr...

In much the same descending motion, this lick makes use of the second and third position pentatonic scale. Again, be sure to keep an eye on the techniques involved and execute the lick as cl...

Lick 3 approaches the blues scale from an ascending perspective. With three notes per string, our intervals are spread up to six frets apart. The main "purpose" of this lick is to highlight ...

And last but not least, lick 4. This one is very "pentatonicy" in the sense that we see a ton of two-note-per-string-ness. Note the heavy use, again, of the major third interval (C#) on both...

Hey IG, We’re here with the second installment of my little blues series. This time we’re dealing with a more sophisticated Robben Ford/Larry Carlton type blues. The phrases i...

So let’s get started with the lead playing! I’ve come up with a blues chorus that features some typical licks for this type of playing. Most of these lines are based on both the ...

Hey IG! This is the first installment of a three-part series on the good ol’ Blues. We’re going to take three steps, so each of the three tutorials will deal with a different ty...

This is a 12-bar shuffle blues rock in E. The rhythm is based around a riff that repeats over and over and is put of every chord of the form. Be sure to internalize the 12-bar form perfectly...

Now on to the lead playing! The lines in this solo etude are based around both the E major (nicer sound) and minor (dirtier, bluesier sound) blues scales. They lead you through several posit...

This is the backing that fits both the rhythm part and the solo example.

This next lick falls into the key of C major, and is also very simple. I have chosen to sweep the first two notes, and 'hybrid pick' the third note. This is purely for tonal reasons, and can...

Alright, let me show you a pattern now that is really useful for your blues repertoire. Since your average blues is made up of only dominant 7th chords you can apply the pattern over each ch...

To conclude our lesson, here are sixth intervals in an actual “real life” soloing situation. It’s really important to apply these things but mix them up with your other con...

Here is the backing track at normal speed. If you need it slower, head on over to the next page. Have fun!

Here is the backing track slowed down.

Lick 1 The first example uses a chromatic run and legato. Use it to break out of the traditional blues box. The chromatic notes add interest and stretch the listener. The tempo is quite fas...

Lick 2 This is a unique way to turn ordinary lines into head turning slide emulation. Heavily influenced by Jimmy Herring and Derek Trucks, it uses only a few notes, but wrings every possib...