How To Play Blues Guitar

Learn How To Play Blues Guitar Riffs Licks And Solos

If you're reading this, you've probably already got some idea what blues music is like. You might not be aware, however, how much variety there is and how many different styles there are. It's not limited to just the original 12-bar blues. You should be listening to different guitar players and hearing the different styles.


Musicradar.com ran a poll on their website to find the 25 best blues guitarists of all time. The result, in reverse order, was; Junior Kimbrough, Charley Patton, Hubert Sumlin, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter, Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Albert Collins, T-Bone Walker, Duane Allman, Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Son House, Albert King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, BB King, Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Some others that didn't make it onto the list are; Skip James, Robert Cray, Geoff Muldaur, Blind Willie Johnson,  Hound Dog Taylor, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa, and perhaps even Jimmy Page.

These range from the 1920's to the present and the styles of playing and technique vary greatly.

The first thing you need to do to learn blues guitar is to learn scales. You will need to learn major and minor blues scales, major and minor pentatonic scales, and natural minor scales. You can then start putting together 12 bar blues guitar riffs and blues guitar licks. If you want to play lead guitar, you can then learn things like bends, slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs to create guitar solos.

At the same time, you should be learning blues chords. These will mainly be major and minor chords, seventh and minor seventh chords, and depending on the style, possibly ninth chords. You should then learn blues chord progressions. This is more important if you intend to play rhythm guitar.