Best Way To Learn Guitar

What Is Blues?

Give the definition of blues is not easy, B.B. King’s Everyday I Have the Blues or Robert Johnson’s’ Rambling on My Mind is the blues? How about others?

Of course, you able to define the blues by the shuffle rhythm, call-response structures, the dominants of the 7th chords and the I-IV-V progression things like these. However, most complete definition is the Eric Clapton himself gave to blues music in an interview in 1998: “My definition of Blues is that it’s a musical form which is very disciplined and structured coupled with a state of mind, and you can have either of those things but it’s the two together that make it what it is. And you need to be a student for one, and a human being for the other, but those things alone don’t do it.” (Eric Clapton, 1998)

History of The Blues

Many books are mentioned about the blue history, it’s started in the 20^th century Mississippi Delta in the U.S., after the Civil War. The sorrow songs that had been played with by slaves, or the plantation songs or the workaday songs, which had been referred to Blues in 1925 for the first time.

William Christopher, is the person, who are the first to write the blues songs in 1909, that was later documented and printed. The term Memphis Blues is originally used and later changed to Mister Crump. The inspiration started when he heard the song in the Mississippi railway station 6 years earlier. The W.C Handy Award is named after the one who wrote the songs, like St. Louis Blues or Beale Street Blues.

Things you need to learn when learning to play blues guitar

There are few things you need to know when starting to play blue guitar. Firstly, you have to have an electric or acoustic guitar with the nylon string, together with knowing how to read the tablature and the basic guitar knowledge.

Some Eric Clapton CDs with the blues classics songs, the Cradle song or Eric Clapton the unplugged and the good CD player is what you need. There are also a plug-in for the Winamp which you also can slow down the music. The chord book is also handy, but the most importantly is your good ears.

You can also learn to play blues guitar by yourself, if you already have some knowledge about the basic guitar with an aid from the simple chord book. Nevertheless, to find the blue guitar teacher who willing to help you to learn how to play the guitar is the best thing. If you have time and can invest the money in the learnig, having private lesson is the best choice to improve your skill in blue guitar the best.