In the beginning the blues was a sad music, a distraction from a hard life. Over the years it has evolved and branched out in several musical directions while at the same time retaining its roots as prolific form of self expression. Jazz and Rock guitar music both have their roots in the blues. Take a standard 12 bar blues progression, add a bass and some drums, turn the guitar amp up to 11 and sing some lyrics about your new girlfriend and voi la, you’ve got a rock tune. Or, take that 12 bar blues tune, change the 4 chord to a 2 chord, add some re-harmonized, diatonic, transitional chords and you have a good start on a Jazz tune.

In general, a blues guitar lesson can not really be accomplished with theory alone. While the theory behind the structure of a blues progression or the how and why certain notes are part of the blues scale can play an important role in a musician’s progress, this style is really much more of a feeling than a sequence of notes and/or chords. You can play the blues with one chord. One note even. If the feel is on target it will be a blues tune. This is why learning by ear is the most common practice for learning how to play the blues.

When blues began to spread across the nation it was not written down or recorded. It was learned by hearing and copying what you heard on whatever instrument you could get your hands on. The first recordings of blues music were of Robert Johnson. These are now known as one of the major cornerstones of this style of music. These recordings were directly responsible for many of the rock hits of the late sixties, early seventies super groups like The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and many, many more.

I for one, associate much of my past with music. When I hear a particular tune my memory fast tracks to the year in which I first heard it. Many times I can remember the exact place, time of day, who I was with, etc… Music is a whole-body experience and learning to play the blues is as down to Earth, from the gut, go with what you’ve got, as it gets.

A long and rich history, an elegant simplicity, and the raw emotion that comprise blues music are just a few of the reasons why it is embraced by generation after generation as a staple form of music to learn and why the guitar remains the staple instrument in all forms of popular music.

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The blues is really more of a feeling than anything else and so the musical theory behind it is quite simplistic, rudimentary. There is the saying that all you need is three chords and the lord but I’ve heard single notes that speak the blues as well if not better than more complex renditions.

The guitar is more associated with rock music however, back before the British invasion, before Charlie Christian stuck a magnet on his acoustic, the guitar was a prime blues instrument. I think mostly because of it’s availability and it’s portability rather than it being better suited than other instruments. However, the fact that you can play multiple notes, bend notes and use a slide makes the guitar very versatile and very well suited for the blues. Add a little crunch with a slightly over-driven amp and you get the harmonic squeaks and the sustain and well, damn, I’m in love with it for sure.

So enough of the why and where, lets get into the how. Here in the USA we were trained, whether we know it or not, to base everything we here off the framework of the major scale. Do, rae, me, fa, so, la, tea, do (not sure about the correct spellings here but you get the idea). 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. 1 and 8 being an octave. If you don’t know what I’m talking about go find a piano, find two white keys that are next to each other (with no black key in between) starting on the left one of those two white keys, playing from left to right play all the white keys until you hit the next set of two white keys together. That would be 8 notes, the first and the eighth are octaves, they sound similar, if you don’t hear that well, never mind. The thing to notice are the two places where there is NOT a black key between two white keys. These are what are known as half steps and they occur between the 3 an 4 as well as the 7 and 8. The others are called whole steps. This combination of whole and half steps are what result in the major scale. A major scale can be played in any key simply by applying that combination of whole and half steps, you just start on a different note.

musical notes

Looking at the image above, you will see that the first sequence of notes I talked about started on C and ended on C. It was the C major scale. So, if you played the same sequence or combination of whole and half steps starting on A you would be playing the A major scale… A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A. They are the same thing, only different.

Now lets discuss the major triad chord. It is called a triad because it consists of three notes. The 1 or Do, 3 or Me, and 5 or So. That’s all there is to that.

Now, the kicker, the blues chord progression. The blues is based off a combination of chords. Three chords actually. These chords are built from the major scale. Keeping it simple we’ll focus on how to construct 12 bar blues in C major. Recall that the major scale was made up of 8 notes that I numbered 1 through 8. we build chords off these 8 notes, using these notes. We only need three for the blues and they are built off the 1, the 4, and the 5. So our first chord is the C major triad which is the 1, 3, 5 of C or C, E, and G. Our second chord is build off the 4 which in C is F. The 1, 3, and 5 from F is F, A, and C. The third chord is build from the 5 or G and is G, B, and D. So our three chords, the 1, 4, and 5 in the key of C are C major, F major, and G major. CEG, FAC, and GBD.

Here is a basic blues style sequence of these chords called the 12 bar blues, play each of these chords 4 times…
C major, F major, C major, C major, C major, F major, C major, C major, G major, F major, C major, C major (repeat). You are now playing the blues and that was your first blues guitar lesson.

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Major Pentatonic Scale

Penta means five, thus the pentatonic scale has five notes. In our first blues guitar lesson we discussed the major scale and numbered the notes 1 through 8, 1 and 8 being an octave. For the pentatonic scale were going to remove a couple of those notes, specifically the 4 and the 7. These five notes are the major pentatonic scale. If you play them in sequence you may hear a few songs coming out. The Temptations hit “My Girl” starts with this exact scale.

At this point we need to understand what makes a minor scale. In review, we learned that the major scale is made up of a sequence of whole steps and half steps. A whole step traverses two notes, a half step one. Playing the major scale in C on a piano we simply play all the white keys fron C to C. We also notice that there are no black keys in between the B and the C as well as the E and the F. Therefore, we deduce that the major scale, whose notes we have numbered 1 thru 8 is made up of five whole steps and two half steps. There is a black key in between the first and the second notes (whole step) as well as the second and third (whole step) however there is no black key  between the third and fourth or the seventh and eighth, these are half steps.

Minor Pentatonic Scale

Using the major scale as our frame of reference, if we move the 3rd, 6th, and 7th tones down (in tone, up the neck) a half step we get the natural minor scale. So, a natural minor scale would be 1, 2, flat3, 4, 5, flat6, flat7. To make it a minor pentatonic we get rid of the 2 and the flat6. NOW we’re playin’ some blues.

Playing either the major OR minor pentatonic scale over the blues chord progression works. Major and minor blues have distinct and different flavors which can be “messed” with by adding in other notes to the scales. As you experiment you will find that some work and some do not.

Adding in a flat5 while playing the minor pentatonic sounds good, a nice passing tone. Putting in a 3 (as opposed to a flat3) while playing the minor pentatonic works nicely too.

In reality, the blues scale, major or minor, is completely open to personal interpretation. Its the blues, just play.

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12 bar blues is a standard blues format from which many songs have been derived. It can be played in any key though some are easier because there is less finger stretching. If you want to join in the Endless Blues Guitar Jam In E you’ll need to know how to play the rhythm part of the 12 bar blues. As discussed in a previous post, a standard blues progression consists of three chords. These chords are derived from the major scale. The major scale consists of seven notes and the blues chord progression uses chords that are built from the first, fourth and fifth notes of the major scale.

If we’re in E, the first chord is E major, the four would be A major, and the five is B major. You can use dominant 7 chords as well but we’re not going to get all that heavy yet. It’s called 12 bar blues because there are 12 segments to the entire progression. You just repeat them until you pass out or you can’t feel your arms any more. In E it goes like this… E,A,E,E,A,A,E,E,B,A,E,E.

One of the easiest ways to do this is also probably the most familiar. It uses two note chords and can be played with three fingers. Looking at the first image, the hollow dot represents an open string. You put your index finger on the second fret of the A string (second string from the top). The blue dot. Strum those two strings twice, then put your ring finger down two frets up from your index, the green dot, strum those twice. Now put your pinky where the red dot is, or just reach it with your ring finger. Strum twice then move back to the green dot and strum twice. That’s the riff in E. That’s your 1 chord.

E

A

B

For the four chord do the same thing except one string down (up in pitch, down in proximity), using the A and D strings. That’s the riff in A, your four chord.

The five gets a little tricky. You are basically doing the same riff only two frets up the neck. Instead of having an open string you have to use your index finger (black dot). You will have to use your pinky on the green dot AND the red doy which is a bit of a stretch.

So that’s all the riffs, the 1 or E, the 4 or A, and the 5 or B. Now you just have to plug them into the 12 bar blues formula.

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Blues Scale In E

One day this all changed. Granted, all those hours of pecking away had prepared me but, the revelation was instigated by a song I heard on the radio that had a classic blues ending. To this day I am still unclear as to what song it was however, it ended with a descending pentatonic scale. At this point I did realize that soloing was based on scales though I did not know any scales at the time. This song ended with the blues scale I was looking for… in sequential order for my convenience. The image to the right shows the notes of this scale. They are numbered to show the order in which the notes were heard.

So there I sat for 3 or 4 hours, playing these notes over and over and over… I think I was afraid I’d forget them. I had my scale. As I became more and more familiar with this sequence of notes I began to hear them in other songs. Not necessarily in the same order but rather I could recognize bits and pieces of it, everywhere. Roy Buchanan’s Green Onions was a great example for me of how these notes were used to make up an entire song. Pretty soon I realized that there really weren’t many songs that DIDN’T use these notes. Aside from the the blues, most of the rock music I liked was based on this scale. ZZ-Top was always one of my favorite bands, Billy Gibbons used this scale but would mix it up. Zeppelin and Skynyrd were masters of the riff, taking little segments of the scale then twisting and repeating them over and over. Six little notes, an infinite amount of possibilities.

I had been getting a little better with “my” blues scale, mixing it up and coping blues licks from Clapton, Page, Gibbons etc… However I didn’t really know anyone else who played guitar. That didn’t last long though. As my enthusiasm grew I began to talk about it more and more. Then one day in an English class I had to write an essay on a subject of my own choosing. I wrote about blues guitar… go figure.

Writing this essay was a life altering experience for two reasons. First, through my research for the essay I discovered the original blues masters, people like Robert Johnson, Albert King, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and several others. I was amazed at the fact that all these people existed and I had never heard of them. It was a whole new world for me. The second reason was that after reciting the essay in front of the class I was approached by this scruffy kid who thought my report was great. He said that he too loved the blues and played guitar.

The best thing a musician can do to improve their playing is simply to play with other musicians. That scruffy kid I met after class that day became my best friend. He also introduced me to a few others, a bass player, a drummer, and a few other dudes who played guitar. As that year rolled along we all became a gang of sorts. We jammed all the time, and talked about nothing else but music. We would hang out in Johnnies basement every day after school. His parents didn’t mind and pretty much left us alone so we’d set up our stuff and jam.

We were not that good. We would pick a key and just go. On guitar, E is one of the easiest keys to play in because there are a lot of open strings that are in the key of E. A and G were good too but for some reason E was the favorite. We would play 12 bar blues in E for hours. Longer than any song should ever last. If there were other people there they would usually leave after 15 minutes of it but we never even noticed. We called it the endless blues guitar jam and as far as having a blues guitar lesson, nothing is better than playing with others.

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Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith was known as “The Empress of the Blues.” She was probably the most famous female singer in the 1920s. Fluent in both jazz and blues, Smith sold hundreds of thousands of records which was a phenominal feat for those days. During the peak of her career she performed in theaters and hotel ballrooms across the country. Smith recorded with Benny Goodman before dying in an auto accident in 1937.

Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy

Big Bill Broonzy brought the blues to Chicago and helped to establish that city’s sound. Born on the banks of the Mississippi River then moving to Chicago as a teenager in 1920, Broonzy began recording in the mid-1920s and by the early-1930s he was an established figure on the Chicago blues scene, performing alongside Tampa Red and John Lee “Sonny Boy” Williamson. Broonzy could play both the older vaudeville style and the emerging Chicago style. e was a smooth vocalist, an excellent guitar player, and songwriter. When the post-war blues boom rendered Broonzy’s quaint homegrown style a thing of the past, he re-invented himself as a singer of authentic folk-blues and became one of the first blues artists to tour Europe.

Blind Lemon Jefferson

The founding father of Texas blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson was one of the most commercially successful artists of the 1920s. He was a huge influence on younger players such as Lightnin’ Hopkins and T-Bone Walker. Born blind, Jefferson taught himself to play the guitar and was able to support a wife and child with his skill. Jefferson played for awhile with Leadbelly, and is said to have traveled to the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, and Chicago to perform. Although Jefferson’s recording career was brief, he was able to record over 100 songs including such classics as “Matchbox Blues,” “Black Snake Moan” and “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.” Jefferson’s songs have been recorded by Bob Dylan, Peter Case, John Hammond, Jr., and many others.

Charley Patton

Charley Patton

Charley Patton was a flashy performer. His guitar playing and flamboyant showmanship inspired the likes of Son House, Robert Johnson, as well as the father of rock guitar, Jimi Hendrix. Patton lived large, loved his liquor and the women. His played at parties, juke joints, and plantation dances and became the stuff of legend. His loud voice, coupled with a rhythmic and percussive guitar style was both groundbreaking and engineered to entertain rowdy audiences. Patton laid down some 60 songs in less than five years including his best-selling first single “Pony Blues.”

Leadbelly

Leadbelly

Leadbelly’s music and tumultuous life had a profound effect on both blues and folk musicians alike. Like most performers of of the 1930s through the 1940s, Leadbelly’s music extended beyond the blues and incorporated ragtime, country, folk, popular standards, and even gospel songs. Leadbelly’s hot temper often got him in trouble, he was even sentenced to prison once. While in prison, Leadbelly wrote a song for the governor that led to his early release.

Leadbelly was then convicted of an assault charge and sentenced to several years in Louisiana’s Angola Penitentiary. Here, Leadbelly met and recorded for Library of Congress musicologists John and Alan Lomax. After his release, Leadbelly moved to New York City and began to hang with folk artists. At this time the scene there was becoming quite well known due to works by the folk giants Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and Leadbelly fit right in. After his death from ALS in 1949, Leadbelly songs like “Goodnight, Irene,” “Midnight Special,” “The Rock Island Line” and several others became hits for artists such as Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, the Weavers, and Ernest Tubb.

Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie Johnson was in a class all his own. With a sense of melody unmatched by pre-war players, Johnson was equally capable of knocking out both dirty blues and fluid jazz phrasings, and he invented the practice of combining rhythmic passages and solo leads within a single song. Growing up in New Orleans, Johnson’s talent was seeped in the city’s rich musical heritage, but after the flu epidemic of 1919 he moved to St. Louis.

Signing with Okeh Records in 1925, Johnson recorded an estimated 130 songs over the next seven years, including several groundbreaking duets with Blind Willie Dunn. During this period, Johnson also recorded with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. After the Depression, Johnson landed in Chicago, recording for Bluebird Records and, later, King Records. Although he scored few chart hits of his own, Johnson’s songs and playing style influenced both blues legend Robert Johnson (no relation) and jazz great Charlie Christian. Johnson’s songs have since been recorded by Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Robert Johnson

Born: May 8, 1911 Hazlehurst MS
Died: August 16, 1938 Greenwood MS

Most blues enthusiasts have heard of Robert Johnson. Many also know the tale of Johnson making a deal with the devil at the crossroads outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi to acquire his skill and fame. Regardless of what really happened, one fact remains – Robert Johnson is the cornerstone artist of the blues. Many of his songs, like “Love In Vain,” “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Terraplane Blues,” have become blues standards. Toss in his early death (1911-1938) and the aura of mystery that surrounds his life, and you have a bluesman ready-made to appeal to a generation of blues-influenced rockers like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Son House

Son House was an innovator. He had a haunting singing voice, and a powerful presence for which he became quite well known during the 1920s and ’30s.  He traveled extensively with his friend and colleague Charley Patton, who introduced him to his contacts at Paramount Records. House was also a lay preacher and remained conflicted throughout his career, with one foot in the Gospel and one in the “wicked” world of the blues. His early records did not sell so House basically retired from recording for the better part of a decade.

House’s few recordings remain among the most collectible and expensive early blues recordings. The few 78s that are available are the result of a Library of Congress musicologist named Alan Lomax. Lomax had caught wind of House’s unique style and traveled a long way to Mississippi to record him in the early 40′s. House disappeared in 1943 until he was rediscovered by a trio of blues researchers in 1964 in Rochester, New York. With the help of fan and future Canned Heat founder Al Wilson, House continued where he’d left off and became part of the 60′s folk-blues revival, performing live and recording into the early-1970s.

Tampa Red

Known during the 1920s and ’30s as “The Guitar Wizard,” Tampa Red developed a unique slide-guitar style that was picked up and expanded upon by Robert Nighthawk, Chuck Berry, and Duane Allman, among others. Born as Hudson Whitaker, he earned the nickname “Tampa Red” for his bright red hair and upbringing in Florida. Moving to Chicago in the mid-1920s, Red teamed up with pianist Tom Dorsey as “The Hokum Boys,” scoring a big hit with the song “It’s Tight Like That,” popularizing the bawdy blues style known as “hokum.”

When Dorsey turned to Gospel music in 1930, Red continued as a solo artist, performed with Big Bill Broonzy, and helped recent Delta immigrants to Chicago with food, shelter and bookings. Like many pre-war blues artists, Tampa Red found his career eclipsed by younger performers in the 1950s.

Tommy Johnson

Some say that it was the underrated Tommy Johnson that actually met with the devil at the crossroads one dark and stormy night, hoping to strike a deal, not Robert Johnson. No one is really sure what happened at those crossroads however we do know that Tommy Johnson has become a mere footnote in the blues genre, beloved by hardcore fans but remaining relatively unknown while Johnson soared to stardom.

With a primal voice that could rise from a guttural howl to an ethereal falsetto throughout the course of a song, this Johnson also possessed a complex and technically-advanced guitar-playing style that would influence a generation of Mississippi blues men, including Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Nighthawk. Tommy Johnson only recorded briefly, from 1928-1930, and “Complete Recorded Works” (Document Records) includes the artist’s entire recorded catalog. Johnson was a severe alcoholic his entire adult life and died in 1956 in obscurity.

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