BEGINNING BLUES GUITAR LESSON - PART 1

[Music] [Music] [Music] hey everybody Howard here with beginning blues guitar part one this is for those of you just getting started on guitar and you want to get into a bit of the Blues but it's also for those of you who have maybe been playing for a little while okay uh we're going to progress through this series and so there might be some really cool stuff for you as well but in any case I will put a link uh two links in the uh description box below to more acoustic blues lessons as well as my blues rock guitar course that's for those of you who have been playing a while and you just want to shoot the project forward okay so first things first I'm on acoustic guitar for this but by all means everything that I'm going to present here you can do on electric guitar as well but I know a lot of people when they first get started they uh start out on acoustic guitar so either way is totally fine I am in standard tuning so you want to make sure you're in tune either using a tuner or whatever method you prefer okay so believe it or not the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to teach you a basic e BL scale we're not going to be running scales over and over and over again it's just that it's the most important scale in the world of Blues guitar and it gets used a lot and we're going to get right into making music with it all right so it's not going to be a boring uh scale workout so this is a blue scale in the key of E and I'm going to play it from high to low meaning from the highest pitch note to the lowest pitch note but of course we want to be able to play it in both directions but I'm showing it to you this way for a very specific reason so I'm going to use onscreen tab throughout the lesson but you don't have to be able to read tab to do this lesson okay I'm going to verbally explain everything and of course you'll have the visual of the video but if you don't know how to read tab I would really encourage you to learn it takes like a day if even that right and even though it might be slowo at first you'll get faster at it very quickly okay and the reason to learn it is because it just opens up a world of music to you okay you can learn things faster you can get things off of the internet all sorts of things okay so I encourage you to learn to read tab but you don't have to so let's get into it this is an e blues scale one of the most common in the world of Blues guitar okay and I'm going to show it to you from high to low meaning the highest pitched note first but of course we want to be able to play it in both directions but I'm showing it to you this way because this is the way it gets used quite a lot and we're going to use it ourselves in our actual musical example okay so I'm playing uh the third fret on the first string the first string being the one closest to your feet then open on the same string next string third fret open again so across those first two strings we have three open three open now on the next string the third string we're going to play the third fret to the second fret to that string open as well all right and as a note that note on the third fret on the G string is What's called the flat five or the blues note you don't have to worry about that just yet just know that that's what it is okay so once again we have then on the next string the fourth string we have the second fret and then open so now we have and then on the next string we're going going to have the second fret the first fret and open and as a note that first fret note is the octave two the third fret on the third string so that's the flat five once again appearing in this scale and being played an octave lower and then we end the scale with the third fret on the sixth string and then open so we have nice and slow right and you can mix your fingers up to play that you can see what I'm using which I think is the most logical but when you actually get into blu's guitar playing you'll find yourself kind of moshing up fingerings depending on what you're doing okay and of course you want to be able to play the scale in both directions that's really important [Music] very very [Music] important so learn that scale know it and love it because you're going to use it a lot okay so let's get into making some music now there are two two basic feels or rhythms that you have in blues one is a straight eighth note feel which is like this one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and and then the other one is what is called a shuffle feel and it feels a little bit different 1 and two and three and four and one and two and three and four we will be working with both of those rhythms okay both of those fields but for right now we're going to use that straight eighth note Rhythm okay so we're going to talk about a 12 Bar Blues incorporating that blue scale into the mix so this is what we're going to play [Music] okay [Music] that is a 12 Bar Blues okay and as you can see we used a bit of the uh E Blu scale right out the gate so let's get into it first let's explain a 12 Bar Blues uh the pattern that I'm playing is this and we're going to play that four times I'll talk about some variations on that but we're going to play it four times okay so what I'm doing is my first finger is in the second fret on the fifth string okay and we're going to move to the fourth fret on that same string but we're going to incorporate the sixth string open the entire time and you can see that I stroked the pick twice on each of those one 2 one 2 one two okay and then we play two single notes the third fret on the uh sixth string to the fourth fret and you can see which fingers I'm using for that you're not moving your hand like this you're keeping your hand in one place [Music] okay so sticking with explaining a 12 Bar Blues what it is and how it works we then want to move this finger down to the next string okay so we're going to do the same thing only we're doing it across the next two strings okay so we're using the open fifth string and moving our fingers to that string [Music] instead so it's the exact same thing right we're just moving it down a set of strings so to speak down meaning toward your feet okay so what we have so far is [Music] this [Music] we want to play that four times and I'll talk about the variation that I did and then move it to the next position and we want to play it [Music] twice and then we want to move it back to where we were twice so it's 4 2 [Music] 2 now in the actual musical example that I played previously we do play that first one that first position four times but on the fourth time I replaced it with that's called a blues walkup we walking into the next position so that's fun to do and we want to do that now right just to keep things interesting so what you'll actually be doing is playing the pattern three times and replacing the fourth time with this the open sixth string twice second fret twice third fret twice and fourth fret twice and then you move to the next [Music] position and then of course back so what we have then [Music] is [Music] all right and that by the way is called moving from the one chord to the four chord we'll be talking about all of that later on but for right now we just want to learn how to play a basic blues right just get the fingers going get everything moving and then we can get into the uh more technical explanations of this right so now we're going to move to what is called the five chord again we'll talk about all of that later on but what I'm doing here is I'm Fring the seventh fret on the sixth string and the ninth fret on the fifth string so that can be a little bit tricky if you're not used to doing that yet so you want to get your thumb down behind the back of the neck so that you can stretch out the palm of your hand now what I did is a big move for beginners I'll explain how to do that but you don't have to do that I'll give you an alternative to it just to get you started all right so we're playing those two strings and with my pinky I'm actually reaching to the 11th fret on that fifth string two off two on two [Music] off and then we're going to do the same thing over here moving to the fifth fret and the seventh fret respectively okay now it's great if you can do that again keep your thumb behind the the uh neck and open up the palm of your hand so you can make that stretch if you can't make the stretch if it's too difficult to do simply do [Music] this that is totally acceptable for now right you don't want to not play this just because you can't make that stretch but do practice that stretch because that's a big part of blues guitar okay so what we have if you're doing it with the stretch [Music] is and if you're doing it without the stretch we [Music] have and then we're going to play what is called the turnaround now the turnaround is called that because it's a little lick or riff or pattern and there's lots of them in blues that brings you back to starting the whole thing over again and in this case for this example we played okay into a B7 [Music] chord okay so what I'm doing is I'm on the fifth string now and I'm playing the seventh fret twice fifth fret twice fourth fret third fret and we're going into a B7 ch chord and uh this is a little bit easier than a full B7 so what we're doing is the second finger is on the second fret on the uh fifth string the first finger is on the first fret on the fourth string and then your ring finger is on the second fret on the G string so we have hopefully you can see that and you just want to hit that chord in a rhythmic pattern whatever suits you and you can even uh swing all the way down down to the second string so for that turnaround then we [Music] have okay and then we start the whole thing over again so let me play the whole thing nice and [Music] slow [Music] [Music] okay that is a 12 Bar Blues which simply means 12 measures of music counting to four 12 times okay so again this is just an introduction okay this is for those of you who are just picking up a Guitar if you don't know anything at all about playing the blues and this will get you started so there's a couple of things here to practice one is that blue [Music] scale you definitely want to know that scale okay because we're going to get busy with it okay and the other thing is just practicing that rhythmic pattern making it as even and as smooth as possible and the other thing I would suggest practicing is working on that stretch because again that is a big part of standard blues guitar playing okay so this next part is going to be for those of you who found that pretty easy to do which is always nice and you want to take it up a notch okay so all we're going to do here is use that same 12 Bar Blues and e but add a bit more of that e blue scale to the picture so we can decorate a little bit more right because that always sounds really really nice so again keep in mind that we are staying within a 12 Bar blue so any licks that are added from that e blue scale are simply taking up part of that 12 Bar Blues p pattern you know so it's taking up a bit of this right it's taking up that space I hope that's clear so let's get into it this would be uh the next [Music] example [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you start the whole thing over or better yet play the first part and then play into this part okay so let's talk about the differences here we're just decorating a little bit more right adding a bit more flavor to the mix so we started out the exact same way with that little slide right which I didn't talk too much about that but we will get into that pick that third fret slide it very quick slide to the second fret and open and then two open on the next string of course just like we did before okay and then we break right into that Blues pattern and you notice I played it three times just like we did before when we did the right but this time we're putting in a little bit more elaborate lick okay this is still the blue scale with a slightly different fingering here or there which we will talk about in a future lesson but for right now what I'm doing is I'm using my second finger and I'm grabbing the third fret on the third string do a quick slide to the fourth okay hold that note lay your first finger down on the third fret on the B string on the second string all right and then swing all the way down to the first string and then you can see I swung back to that second string so really slowly I'm playing the third string second string first string back to the second [Music] string then what I'm doing is I'm using my first finger my index finger to fret the second string at the second fret and the third string at the second fret simultaneously so you're barring one finger the flat of your finger right across both strings you pick that then open it up pick both strings again and then on the uh fourth string second fret then open so we have right cool little Blues lick and again again that replaces the fourth time of the basic blues [Music] pattern right and then we go straight to the next [Music] pattern and then we come back to the first pattern of course [Music] okay so what I did was I replaced those last two notes of the pattern with the open a string to the first fret fifth string excuse me the open fifth string to the second fret on that fifth string as well so we have and then we're going to move into that B7 chord that we already learned [Music] now that's a very nice little Blues rhythmic phrase right there we hit the bass note twice the single note the fifth string and then swing down and hit the chord twice and then each of them one time like that so that full rhythm [Music] is very [Music] cool and then we want want to fret the first fret on that fifth string walking us to an A7 [Music] chord okay so what I played there this is an A7 chord the best way to do this is you're on the B7 simply take these two fingers and slip them down one set of strings so you still have a string in between you can also do it like that but I think this is a nice way to do it coming off of that B7 one more time on [Music] that and then what I did was I hit the six string open which brings us back to the one chord again we'll talk about all the 14 five stuff in uh the next lesson and then we play this really cool classic Blues turnaround okay so this is a chord shape it's a seventh chord it's called and uh it's the same shape just moving all the way down I'm on the fourth fret on the third string with my second finger I'm on the third fret on the second string with my first finger and then I'm also on the fourth fret again with on the first string with my ring finger so we have hopefully you can see that okay so we hit that open sixth [Music] string and that's what I'm playing what I'm doing is I'm picking that third string with a downstroke and then with an upstroke coming back and attacking the whole chord all right scoot it down what's called a half step meaning your first finger will move from the third fret to the second fret but the uh fingering stays the same move it again down to the first [Music] fret right so we have and for that last one I'm simply using my index finger on the first fret on the third string and swinging and hitting the remaining strings all the way down toward your [Music] feet and then I'm coming back and hitting that B7 chord again now that may seem really elaborate if you're just getting started but let me play it for for you and you'll see that it's really not all that bad [Music] okay [Music] now a good idea is to string these two patterns together get the first one down and when you get to the tail end of it turn right around and play the second exercise as well okay so there you go with very beginning blues guitar part one and this will be a series hopefully and uh we'll take it tomorrows okay and again for those of you who want to just jump way ahead and get into some stuff maybe you already know this kind of thing uh there's some great links in the uh description box below anyway I hope you guys enjoyed it and uh I will see you in the next [Music] video

Channel: 24/7 Guitar with Howard Hart

Views: 52,492

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Id: lHIF1ZJPfek

Length: 25min 56sec (1556 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 18 2024