Is it worth learning genre I am not interested in?

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Hi, I have reached grade intermediate grade 5 and am consolidating everything learned so far from grade 1 to 5. I’m mostly in casual playing of pop songs and whatever my wife asks me to play (pop mostly, some worship songs etc.). So I heard Justin talking about learning a bit from every genre to be a more rounded guitarist and musician. Also, he said that some skills in genres you aren’t interested can help you in areas you are interested.

So, for example, I really don’t like sound of blues or jazz, but there are lessons in grade 4 and 5 dealing with basic blues. I did learn minor pentatonic scale position 1 as part of beginner course years ago, but I wonder if there is benefit of me passing through blues lessons in grades 4 & 5? Are there any skills that would translate to my “campfire playing” and, eventually my dream one day, ambient guitar?

Also, I use only 2 guitars, both acoustic, one grand auditorium other one is carbon fiber travel guitar. I know blues is not really for acoustic guitar, and whilst I do like electric guitar sound (especially for electric guitar ambient music) I don’t wanna get one because I live minimalist lifestyle and don’t wanna cram my living space with anything but absolute necessity. Neither I do have energy, time, money and will to branch in rabbithole of electric guitars. Also with practice time, my absolute max is 1 hour a day (except weekends). I could put more time in, but after 1 hour I am burnt out and have no more energy.

So considering all of this, I wonder if I should learn some blues/jazz stuff regardless or is it just waste of time in my case?

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Blues not for acoustic guitars? On which planet? Heaps of acoustic blues players and music around. Plenty of pop and rock songs that are based on the 12 bar blues progression.

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Hi Sky,
Yes, that certainly makes sense, it surprises me how often I have read here that people don’t like blues at all (ooo there are so many styles and there is so much blues that people have never seen as blues) … and than they saying “I have learned so much from Justin’s blues lessons…”

I don’t really like Jazz in general… so I won’t go down the rabbit hole… but some initial lessons from Justin have given me nice chords and sounds… And don’t forget about Blues… there are many styles born from the blues

Greetings

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it started with acoustics…the electrics were added later…

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Hi, not sure about your name, so, 'll just call you SKY. A lot of early, if not all of the blues, were played on acoustic guitars. I am not too sure about Jazz, but like you, I felt the same, and now I love blues. I also dabbled with Jazz and with all types of music, I feel that if you just visit it, taste it, it all helps in the long run. It’s all the same music, just played a different way. I was fascinated by how Jazz chords sounded, maybe you will invent another genre, SKY :slightly_smiling_face:

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the Blues is the base for almost everything guitar related
it will always be useful

rock and pop music use a lot of blues technics , more than you would think :slight_smile:

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One thing I realised early on is that there’s a difference (besides the blatantly obvious) between listening to music and playing it.

For example, when listening I go for heavy rock and metal for the most part, and there needs to be a decent tempo as I really don’t like slow songs such as rock ballads. Yet when it comes to guitar I found I enjoy playing all sorts… rock, pop, bluesy stuff, and even a few songs from a genre I hate, country! Oh, and the first recording I intend to share publicly is… a somewhat slow rock ballad. :grin:

So yeah, I say go ahead and give some other genres a try even if you think you may not like them. You might be surprised, and literally anything you learn which is specific to that genre is highly likely to benefit you elsewhere too. It’s not like having a wide range of techniques is a hindrance. :+1:

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“The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll” – Muddy Waters, Brownie McGhee

Something I’ve always loved about music is the cross pollination and influences between different styles. Early rock and roll took blues patterns - see Justin’s comment about Hound Dog using a 12 bar blues pattern. Country influences there too.

Beatles - lots of 12 bar blues patterns especially in their cover versions.

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Hmm, lots of posts educating the OP on the influence of blues in most kinds of music. They don’t really address the question, though, I don’t think.

(And yes, although @SkyBlue 's comment about blues not being for acoustic guitar is not quite right, it IS true that most of Justin’s blues lessons in Grades 4 and 5 are best played on electric.)

My view is that if you aspire to playing lead lines on guitar (I think much ambient guitar music is playing lead lines, right?), then you would benefit from Justin’s blues lead lessons. At one time (when I discovered Justin some years ago), the blues lead lessons were the only ones on lead guitar. He has since added some lead lessons based on the major scale, as well. Maybe those major scale-based lessons are more appropriate to ambient music, but I think the blues lessons are more complete.

If you do want to get into some lead guitar, I suppose I would suggest this: do the “Major Scale Maestro” modules (I think there are two of them). If you find yourself hankering for more lead guitar instruction, branch out and have a look at the blues lessons.

BTW, I do agree with previous comments in the sense that it’s good to have some familiarity with the blues and to recognize its influence in rock and pop music. You also may find that you develop a taste for that type of music. It’s pretty captivating once you get into it.

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I would suggest learning at least the basics of Blues. The skills and experience gained, re chord knowledge, rhythm, phrasing, scales, dynamic expression improvisation, slides/ bends etc will be invaluable in whatever you do. Eg Ambient guitar.

Cheers, Shane.

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I definitely agree that listening to music and playing music are often very different from each other.

I like to listen to a really wide variety of music. Any genre is fair game, honestly, and I do have jazz, hip hop, bluegrass, blues, country, rock, folk, metal, punk, classical, some unique mashups between genres, and so on in my music library. I definitely have my favorites and some genres that get less listen time. And I definitely have preferences within genres, too. But anything goes.

What do I play? Hm, well, being that I live in the southern Appalachians, a LOT of the songs I play in my jam groups are old folk tunes, old bluegrass songs, and even a fair bit of gospel stuff (and I am pretty far from being a religious person of any sort). One jam I attend had a regular who was a retired pastor, and he always chose gospel songs when it was his turn. Given my own choices, I have to also add some more modern stuff to balance out the older stuff.

I’m working my way up to being able to play more blues because I really like the expressiveness of it. I can do some basic 12 bar swing patterns and have even done so in pretty free form improv jams. I’ve done that on an acoustic for sure. As I get into lead guitar and improv work, I’ll be leaning into blues.

Here’s a guy who makes a living on acoustic blues right now.

I’m sure I’ll eventually end up buying a steel resonator guitar for some acoustic blues stuff. The sound those make is just so distinctive.

I like electric blues, too, and that definitely came later than the acoustic stuff. It’s all based on the same core principles. My instructor is pretty well-versed in jazz guitar, too, and has made some albums. You can tell his jazz background colors his particular style when he plays blues and other genres, too. It’s cool stuff and I may want to learn some jazz guitar eventually. But I don’t want to overwhelm myself. Being that blues is so foundational, that’s where I’m starting.

The stuff we do in the jam groups tends to be fairly basic guitar technique (building my chord vocabulary, solidifying my rhythm, getting comfortable playing with others) so I’m using the jam groups to work on that with my first focused genre work into blues.

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Would you learn something that would help you become a better guitarist?
Of course you would :grinning_face:
You should at least give it a go. If you find you’re not enjoying it for whatever reason, you can always move on to something else… Have fun!
I appreciate the fact that the pop/rock I love is blues-based, and I respect anyone who likes the genre (similar to jazz, classical or dub-step), but it just doesn’t float my boat either (yet?).
Time will tell…

Some might say that’s twice as many as you need :wink:

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I had the same experience where some things I want to learn and other things I don’t think I need so much. That said, when I don’t have a desire to learn what is being taught next, I usually move through that a lot faster… go through learn the finger basics or whatever check the box and move on. When I am more interested in something I generally linger until I feel some level of mastery.

Having done that, I know enough that if I want to circle back later for a deeper dive, I know where to start from. If you work through the content it should give some perspective on what is available to be learned. You may not “need” or want it now but having it in the back of your mind as something that can be built upon.

I have 2 guitars also 1 acoustic 1 electric. I play the electric maybe 10% of the time and acoustic the rest. I enjoying playing blues and it is extremely very suitable for jamming with others, but more importantly I use riffs and things that I learned while doing blues studies that I absolutely carry playing all kinds of other genres. There definately is a cross pollination of skills that you can learn in Blues and make use of while playing campfire songs.

Good Luck!

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Hello in opinion most genre of guitar music have something to offer. Blues and Jazz especially, both will give you a good grounding and understanding of music related to pop and rock and the umbrella that they encompass. Jazz has various forms to many to go into here but the simple basis is to take a melody and its chords, play them as original and then improvise and embellish how you like, I. Some instances this can extreme, and others not do much. But it will certainly force a grounding in musical form and relationships, chord tone and so on.

Folk, country and bluegrass also have a great deal to offer, especially an acoustic guitar player, there are books written just on fingerpicking techniques and style. Once again aspects of these often cross over into blues and visa versa.

I would try and listen to some main stream artists from each and see what appeals or doesn’t. But of course you could end up listening more than learning the guitar.

Nearly forgot gospel and blues have close ties.

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Blues: all the guitar and bass teachers I’ve listened to spend time teaching it and emphasise the importance of the genre to the instrument they are teaching. So I went with it. I’ve gone from a “nah can’t be bothered with it” to a bit of a fan. If you turn up at a jam in the UK, there’s a good chance you’ll end up playing blues - the form is easy so unrehearsed musicians tend to gravitate towards it.

Jazz: loads of the top pop / rock / funk bass players studied jazz. They might not play it now, but it was an important part of the bass players they became.

Last month’s theme in my bass lessons was country. I wasn’t sure I could be bothered with it as I can take or leave country. I gave it a go though. I got so into the song I picked that I’ve talked my band into playing the song at the next Jam Night.

So yeah, I’d give it a go.

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Blues is the foundation of rock, jazz and country. Easy to learn, hard to master.

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I’m not interested really in the blues path but I think I’ll continue the lessons in case there are some rock techniques hiding in the remainder of Gr 4 and 5. I realize it will probably be helpful in the long run but that doesn’t mean I will enjoy it.