Learning to play blues guitar isn’t tough, rather it’s more about learning a bunch of basic concepts and applying them all together.
For example, the first step to learning the blues is understanding the form of most blues tunes, known as 12 bar blues. Since the 12 bar blues is a topic all it’s own you may want to take time to look for a 12 bar blues guitar lessons video or article to explain.
There’s a good video here on the 12 bar blues this will help you understand the rest of this article.
Once you know the basic form of the blues you can then start learning that form in different keys.
Learning the blues in different keys simply means knowing the notes in a particular scale and then being able to pick out the notes you need to build that keys 12 bar blues pattern.
Example: 12 Bar Blues in C
{First, let’s look at the scale. The C major scale has no flats or sharps:The C major scale has no flats or sharps so it looks like this}
C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C
To make the 12 bar blues pattern you take the one chord, four chord and the five chord. In this example our chords are going to be C, F and G.
Let’s take these basic concepts and make em even more bluesy.
7th Chords
When playing blues guitar the seventh chord is often used to substitute for major or minor chords. I’m going to share with you a very simple form you can learn and slide up and down the neck so you can start playing 12 bar blues using 7th chords right away.
We’re going to learn a C seventh chord to base the rest of this on. Below is the tab for the C7 chord, note you do not strum the 6th string, low E when playing this chord.
e————-
B—–1——–
G—–4——–
D—–2——–
A—–3——–
E—–X——-
Taking this chord shape you can move it up the neck to any fret, and so long as you don’t strum the top or bottom strings it’s entirely moveable. The tab would look like this.
e——X——
B—–1——–
G—–4——–
D—–2——–
A—–3——–
E—–X——-
By adding in a bit of musical theory we can move that chord shape around to make numerous other chords.
The root note of the chord, on the A string is going to stay consistent no matter where you play it on the neck. When you’re playing the 3rd fret on the A / 5th string in this chord shape in the open position the note is a C. That is what makes it a C7th chord. What happens if you slide this form up to the 5th fret of the A string? You’re not playing a D Chords. Sliding it up just two more frets, or a full step, you’re not strumming an E on the A string making it an E seventh chord.
That’s all there is, not hard huh? This one chord shape, knowing where the root note is and then sliding it around the neck to find your different variations.
Have a good time with these and experiment. I find all kinds of neat ideas when I start playing things with 7th chords beyond just the 12 bar blues, and if you’d like to learn more about the blues consider getting a learn guitar dvd.
Guitar lessons on dvd are quickly becoming a very effective form of instruction for busy adults and those who want to learn guitar from home.
