Play Blues On Guitar In Any Key (with this riff)

hey there Tony Policastro here from Tony's acoustic challenge plain and simple learning the blues is where many guitar geeks start because it's fun recognizable and that makes it super rewarding which is why in this lesson I'm gonna show you one blues lick that is incredibly useful because you're gonna be able to move it all over the fingerboard and once you learn it you'll be able to play the blues the 12 bar blues in any key anywhere on the fret board so without further ado let's get started but before we do I just want to make sure you know that whether you just started guitar or you've been playing for a while this lesson is gonna cause some serious lightbulb moments so get your guitar and get ready to have some fun first things first we have to learn this lick this is a super simple lick and it only involves four notes ok that's how simple and easy it is but I can assure you it's super fun so let's start by learning this lick first we're gonna take our index finger and place it on the 3rd fret of the low E string and just do a simple down stroke there easy enough then you're gonna take your ring finger and move it to the 5th fret of the d-string another simple down stroke there from there you're gonna drop your index finger to the 3rd fret of the d-string just a down stroke there and then you're gonna raise your ring finger to the fifth fret of the a string and another simple down stroke there so there's only four notes in this lick it's all quarter notes so if you were to count along with it it would be one two three four okay so here's the lick in context I'll go ahead again and count along with it just so you can kind of get the rhythmic feel of it so it goes one two three all downstrokes and pretty simple fretting pattern okay now I know you're thinking okay this is really easy how useful is this lick well it's incredibly useful and let me explain why this lick is a closed position lick well what does that even mean because it's closed position that means there's zero open strings and because it doesn't have any open strings we can move it all over the fret board and get the same result why is this useful to us well because we can take that same lick the physical execution of that lick and move it around to create a twelve bar blues check this out so your starting point we'll just call it on the third fret because that's where we learned it okay so your starting point is there we'll call that the first chunk for the second chunk all we're gonna do is move everything down towards the floor one string so instead of starting on the low e-string you're gonna start on the a string go to that 5th fret of the G third fret of the G and then the fifth fret of the D okay we'll call that the second chunk so that's gonna sound like this and then the third chunk we're gonna take that same pattern originating on the a string and bump it towards the guitar body two frets so now you're on the fifth fret of the a string going to the seventh fret of the g to the fifth fret of the g and then ending up on the seventh fret of the d okay so you've got three chunks and just to do a quick summary we've got the first chunk the second chunk and then the third chunk okay pretty cool now what I love about this is it's the same exact thing your fretting fingers are doing the same motion your picking hand is doing the same motion we're just moving in around to play over different chords so what are these different chords well remember I said the first chunk the second chunk and third chunk well let's just clarify what those are and give them just subtly different names the first chunk will go over the one chord the second chunk will go over the four chord 4 chord and the third chunk will go over the 5 chord for those of you who aren't sure what this means don't worry it's totally okay it's just a little bit of music music dialogue to help people know what chord is going on in a certain key so to wrap this all together and make it a 12 bar blues we're gonna take that first chunk over the 1 chord play it four times in a row then take that second chunk over the four chord play it two times in a row go back to the first chunk for two times hit the third chunk over the five chord once the second chunk over the four chord once and then two more first chunks okay I know that's a lot to take in but I'm gonna go ahead and play through it right now so you can play along with me and actually play a 12 bar blues and for the sake of clarity this is in the key of G so here we go we're starting on the first chunk and I'll go ahead and call out the chunks as we go so here we go starting on the first chunk four times four rounds of this one two three [Music] two or two the second chalk back to the first one to the third chalk one two three four second Chuck so there you have it that is a 12 bar blues using this lick you just played it in the key of G now let me just hopefully turn on some lightbulbs and make some Minds blow right now this pattern because it's completely closed is totally movable so let's say I want to play it in the key of a well it's pretty simple to do I'll do the exact same thing I just start on an a no follow the same pattern first chunk second chunk and then the third jump and that same recipe I gave you before so it's completely movable this pattern literally allows you to play in any key all you have to do is know that starting note the note that you're starting on with your index finger on the low E string it's that simple I hope this lesson gave you a ton of clarity I hope this lesson allowed you to break through and play the 12 bar blues and know that hey man this this simple little riff is actually quite useful so in the comments below please let me know how it went maybe this was your first time playing at 12 bar blues maybe you've played a while but you made some connections on the fret board please let me know in the comments I'd love to hear how it went and if you're ready to have more fun with the guitar and experience progress day in and day out you absolutely have to check out Tony's acoustic challenge it's an acoustic guitar program like you've never seen before go ahead and click here in the video or in the description below to learn more about it and see how it can take your playing to the next level and while you're there don't hesitate to request your invite today thanks so much you

Channel: Acoustic Life

Views: 3,730,702

Keywords: blues on guitar, tony polecastro, tony polecastro lessons, acoustic guitar, guitar lesson, blues riff, guitar jamz, how to play guitar, learn guitar, blues guitar riff, marty music, marty schwartz, blues guitar, 12 bar blues, blues licks, blues guitar lesson

Id: okU5U4or928

Length: 7min 51sec (471 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2019