Learn how to play, improvise, and solo the Blues! We’ll explore the Blues chords and 12-Bar Blues Progressions, Strumming, and Shuffle Riffs for beginners. Plus, easy Blues songs for beginners. All lessons here.
Don’t post specific questions here but in the topics below. They correspond with each lesson in this module!
I remember my first encounter with the Blues. Growing up in the 80’s I had fallen in with a crowd at school who were very much into heavy rock. We had a great time going to gigs to see the big bands of the time Maiden, Whitesnake etc. I think over a period of a few years we must have seen pretty much all of them. University rolled in and found me one evening out for a few drinks with some mates on a Thursday night. Towards the end of the night one of them suggested we go on to a club in Glasgow to see a band. The club could only really be described as a bit of a dive but cost only a couple of pounds to get in. The band I if remember right was called “Tam White and the Dexters” not one that would ever set the heather alight but ok for a wet Thursday in Glasgow. Anyway I loved it and the next day found me in the local record shop buying a tape of the best of B. B. King and I was hooked. It stayed on my walkman for months.
Just wanted to share the story, thanks.
And if you’ve never heard him before you can check this out.
B.B. King with Slash "The Thrill Is Gone". Amazing. - YouTube
The title of this module kinda scared me a bit off, until I realized that a lot of country music is based on blues rhythms and the 12-bar blues, like Jimmy Walker and Hank Williams, etc. So, I guess I’ll take a deep breath and dive on in
Should I skip this module? I’ve never listened to blues and don’t have any particular desire to play it. Would learning blues in some way help with playing other genres, or is there any reason not to skip it altogether?
I have the same issue. I don’t really have the motivation to practice any of this. But I guess i’ts wortth looking into it because you might learn techniques which you could use for something else.
I’m so glad I landed back at this lesson. I bypassed it initially, but while learning scales recently I picked up a key comment of Justins which is “Don’t learn all the scales one by one, learn one and then how to use it before going to the next”. Anyway, looking for “function” for the first position Minor Pentatonic Scale led me back to this blues module and it’s been SO much fun to work on. I could barely do the “beginner solo” first time around and now I pretty much have it down by memory after 1 good session.
To summarize, the whole idea of taking genre “holidays” as rut-busters really hit home with this one.