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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