Playing the Blues

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bluessg

New member
Dear all,

I saw a couple of msg on guitar teachers already... Is there any good teacher i can look for that can help me enjoy playing blues on my guitar?

I had being listening to Jimmie/Stevie Vaughan and Robben ford recently...some how it ignited my passion for playing the blues on guitar.
I can play a bit here and there...mostly riffs and chord...bt never get to master any songs...

Thanx!
 
Get guitar pro! Plenty of SRV songs on www.mysongbook.com
I think it's one of the best learning tools for guitarists, but I wish all the tabs had chords so that I know what I'm playing.

Pier.
 
While you're searching for a teacher, do consider recoridng yourself jamming/playing some blues. Recording oneself WITH a professional/good quality backing track is the most effective way to improve. Your mistakes will be glaringly obvious. :)
 
SRV, he is one of the kind. He play with so much passion that you dont get to hear from any of the blues artist anymore (i think..). Most his songs are fill with very such strong emotions that can only be produced if you listen really hard to yourself If you ever listen to his rendition of Little Wing or The Sky is Crying...you will know what i mean.

I have a couple SRV songs in tab..the problem is that they are all tune down 1/2 step..and i play standard tuning on my guitar...cant play along with any of his CDs...

What do you guys think of John Mayer new album "try"?
 
I heard the john mayer album, it's ok, some nice songs, some not so good.
Anyway, you can "configure" the guitar track in guitar pro to play the notes 1/2 step up, that's what I did with the "Pride and Joy" tab.

Pier.
 
Yeah SRV's version of Sky is Crying and Little Wing have a lot of feel inside.

I once had a video, BB King + Albert King + SRV and a harmonica guy (forgotten his name sorry) and they did the Sky is crying. It is awesome, too bad i deleted the video sigh.

You can try listening to Clapton's stuffs. He's got some pretty nice rythm on some songs, can play around with them and put your own style inside.
 
U can also check out Jimi Hendrix, SRV's style more or less comes from Jimmi hendrix. Eric Clapton's early work is pretty good stuff too, esp those he have done with Cream. Check out Crossroads by Cream, inspiring stuff.
 
You know... been reading a lot on several forums, and on a forum with a higher older age (>) group, there are some who liken SRV is to blues what Malmsteen is to metal. Over indulgence and repetition...

And some of their points are pretty valid... interesting points of contention there. :)
 
Maybe that's the difference between blues and Texas blues. Certainly SRV palys faster and more notes than older blues men, but the structure is similar. Muddy Waters, for example, was a very tasteful blues guitarist without playing fast or even playing many notes. But my preference is Albert Collins, almost a mix between SRv and the old bluesmen.
 
i prefer clapton's older works from his Cream years, than to SRV's work. maybe its because i prefer old slower blues, stuff from B.B King, Muddy Waters, Louis Armstrong and this blind guy who i forgot his name.
 
well different artist express their music differently...some need a lot more notes (SRV)to say something, well others do it with juz a few notes (BB King)
What is important is whether they do with passion that we can relate to.
 
SoulJah: Joe Bonamassa is da bomb!

Anyway a SRV fan here, i agree he is not the definitive blues artiste to listen to. Blues has it's many diff styles too, take a look at guys like B.B. King? Robben Ford? KWS?

JM3 is real good, not really a blues outfit but mayer is impressive even though he didn't finish his term in Berklee. Coincidentally, he was under Tomo Fujita's tutelage so in many ways you can hear the similarity of how he approaches the music like his mentor. Of course with the big influence of SRV and many others, i thoroughly enjoyed Try!. 1 of the best buys for me recently :)
 
^^ true that, King is a great last name :D


a possibly inaccurate quote from a random memorable movie, applicable in this case- "i dont play with accuracy, but rather brilliant expression" :D
 
Well I can understand why SRV, Clapton, Hendrix are the first few names to pop up when blues is mentioned in a guitar forum, but I'm still with the old school...

Albert Collins has got great lines and phrasing. The 3 Kings each has something special that everyone can learn. Buddy Guy is perhaps the closest link to the 3 mentioned above.

If you really want to explore more than just guitar notes and playing licks, lines, riffs etc then you have to listen to the singers. People like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker are a good place to start. Blues is essentially a vocal music form, and just learning the guitar parts of blues without absorbing some of the essence of these guys will only make you good at playing what other people played, not playing something from your own imagination. Of course you still have to learn solos note for note and all that, the hard work is "horse no run", but you have to do something else with whatever you've learnt.

The goal you should aim for is to be able to sing out a line in your head and repeat it on the guitar.

Acoustic blues like Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins are a different game altogether, but still very much worth going into. IMHO, it's the way to really understand where the blues came from and how it should be played.
 
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