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[B759]Blues Guitar For Beginners

by Zack R, Zac

Here are the basic ways on how to add more zest to your performance with your favorite electric guitar.

1. Teach yourself the theories. Everything should start from here. Oftentimes, wannabe blues guitar players believe that as long as they can play eardrum-shattering music with their amplified guitars, they are already good to go. They are completely wrong. You got to teach yourself the different theories governing music and guitar playing.

There are many benefits you can derive from it. First of all, you should remember that principles remain the same, but strategies may change. This only means that if you know the reason why notes sound like this, or why scales have to be like that, it will be very convenient for you to improvise. The most important thing is you can fulfill the principles of guitar playing. Second, you can learn to appreciate your music more. It will help you add passion to what you're currently doing.

You really don't need to learn everything right away, though. If you're new, then you need to start with the basics. This may include learning the notes, scales, and basic electric blues guitar techniques.

2. Listen to different kinds of music. Don't feel bad if you practically have to start like a copycat when you're still learning how to play. After all, this is one of the most basic steps. You may have to listen to as many songs with electric guitars as their main accompaniment. Your goal is to be able to produce the same sound from your own electric guitar. You can download these songs from the Internet, or you can purchase a CD compilation of greatest singers and bands, such as Jimi Hendrix, Steve Morse, and Mattias IA Eklundh.

3. Learn how to do the blues licks. This is actually an unraveled mystery. One of the greatest techniques in playing the electric guitar is to learn how to do some licking or ad libs. This means blues guitar improvisation. When you know how to do this, you can add more soul, meaning, or depth to any kind of song that you're going to play. Most of all, you can spice your music with a little bit about yourself.

Learning blues guitar can be frustrating if you don't know what guitar scales to use. Because of that, in this blues guitar lesson we'll take a look at another really common scale used in blues soloing. Once you master this guitar scale, you'll have another great weapon in your lead guitar arsenal! So, with that in mind, let's take a look at it now…

**Blues Guitar Scale #2: The Major Pentatonic Scale**

This is one of my favorite sounding guitar scales! To my ears, it has a very bright, open and happy sound to it. Some of my students comment that its sound reminds them of country guitar. (But let's not hold that against it! You can also use it to great effect in blues guitar solos).

The major pentatonic scale is a five note guitar scale that has this formula…

1 2 3 5 6

This formula tells us what we need to do to the major scale in order to construct this scale. As an example, we'll work out the notes of C major pentatonic scale…

Step 1:

Write down the notes that the C major scale uses. Here are the notes we get by doing this…

C D E F G A B

Step 2:

Remove the fourth and seventh notes from the C major scale. We do this because the formula of the major pentatonic scale doesn't contain a 4 or a 7. This gives us the following notes…

C D E G A

These are the notes of the C major pentatonic scale. Pretty easy huh?

You now know the theory behind the major pentatonic scale, so what's the next step? Putting it into practice! I believe that learning theory without actually playing it on your guitar is an absolute waste of time. We all know guitarists who know a LOT of theory, but their playing still sucks! Because I don't want this to happen to you, here are a few suggestions to help
you apply this scale to your guitar…

- Map the notes of the C major pentatonic scale onto a fretboard diagram.

- Make up some fingering for it on your guitar. There are no real rules. As long as you stick to the notes C D E G and A, you are playing the C major pentatonic scale.

- Make up some licks that use the C major pentatonic scale.

- Practice soloing over some blues backing tracks using the scale.

- Work out the licks and solos of your favorite guitar players.

The possibilities are endless! The more ways you apply the major pentatonic scale to your guitar the better. Be creative, work hard, and most importantly...have fun!

Article Source : Pg. 10

About Author

Both Zack R & Craig Bassett are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Zack R has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar. Zack R is the founder of 50 Blues. If you love the blues, visit 50 Blues to access over 50 professional . These. Zack R's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.

Craig Bassett has sinced written about articles on various topics from Guide Guitar, Guide Guitar and Anger Control. If you are serious about , (and would like to TOTALLY master the major pentatonic scale over the entire fretboard), then go to:. Craig Bassett's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.