Learning Blues Guitar / Scales & Chords:

As I travel through the years, digging up various Delta blues guitarists from Memphis, Tennessee through Biloxi, Mississippi, I can’t help but notice the single characteristic that each of these guitarists share; that being their Blues Heart.  While learning the blues (Pentatonic) scales, chords and chord progressions, (8-bar, 12-bar and 16-bar); I’ve realized that without playing the music and having a Blues Heart (or some call it Blues Soul), it just sounds like another rock-n’-roll tune played fast or slow.

by Bob Janicki (Musician By Night)

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1.  5 Positions of the Minor Pentatonic Scale:

The minor pentatonic scale is a much used scale by musicians in many genres, from blues to rock, and if you are just starting to learn soloing and how to improvise, learning the 5 positions of the minor pentatonic scale will be invaluable to your efforts.

I always recommend that my students learn the minor pentatonic scale forms as a first step in learning improvisation. You probably know the first form already, which can, by itself, be used to make up nice sounding riffs and improvised solos. But learning the other 4, altogether 5 minor pentatonic scale positions will allow you to move along the fretboard to wherever you want, whenever you want, and produce some truly outstanding solos.

Don’t take my word for it, listen to BB King albums, Clapton songs, and a bunch of other artists. They all use the various shapes of the minor pentatonic, so should you. Here are the positions of the minor pentatonic:

The above diagram shows the 5 positions of the minor pentatonic in the key of E. After shape 5, the patterns would start over from shape 1.

There are a couple of key points to take away here:

• It’s very important to note that the above diagram could be moved anywhere on the fretboard, resulting in a minor pentatonic scale of a different key.
• For example, if the root note of the 1st shape would start at fret 5, so in essence, the entire diagram would be moved over by 5 frets, you would be in the key of E, since the root note is E.
• Notice also how all of the root notes (gray dots) are on note E.
• Shape 2 starts off as the end of shape 1, shape 3 starts off at the end of shape 2, and so on. You can now see how the entire scale is inter-connected.

How would you go about learning the positions of the minor pentatonic?

1. Learn each shape separately at first here: 5 minor pentatonic scale positions
2. Make sure you concentrate on remembering the root notes in all of the shapes.
3. Move the shapes to different places over the neck of the guitar, just to get a feel for the sound of the scale in different keys.
4. Learn to connect and move in between the shapes.
5. Start playing the scale along with jam tracks, this is very important!

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2. Learning Blues Guitar

If you like listening to blues, if you like the style of BB King, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and others, you’ll be happy to hear that learning to play blues guitar is one of the easiest specialized genres to grasp hold of quickly. Once you reach an intermediate level of expertise, you’ll be able to play the blues without any problems after taking some blues guitar lessons.

Are you surprised? Most people are! The fact is that blues is truly one of the easiest of genres to master on the guitar. You don’t need to play it super fast, the techniques are not overly complicated, and you don’t need to have a PhD in music theory. So what makes it great? The thing that makes the blues one of the most liked genres is the style! You digin’ me baby? Blues players are just plain cool and fun to watch. They get totally tangled up in their music, each note giving them jitters, which they express very physically as well.
So, if you are ready to give yourself over to the blues, here is what you need to do to learn to play blues guitar:

1. You’ll already need to be comfortable with the fundamentals of playing the guitar, so basically the things we teach in our beginner guitar lessons. By this, I mean the following:
   1. Know how to form chords and be able to switch easily between them.
   2. Be able to play barre and power chords.
   3. Be familiar with solo guitar techniques: hammer on, pull off, string bending, string sliding, vibrato.
   4. Have basic knowledge of scales and fret intervals.
2. Listen to blues players at their best. If you don’t really know where to start, check out some of the blues artists that I’ve covered so far as well as the photos of blues artists I have posted on my Blogsite and download a couple of their tracks or full CD’s and start listening to them over and over again.
3. With the above, you can start learning blues specific guitar aspects and techniques:
   1. The 5 pentatonic scale positions and the blues note.
   2. The theory behind the 12 bar blues.
   3. Refine your lead guitar skills, especially the vibrato, string sliding and bending.

Keep in mind that it’s not the technical aspects of playing the blues, since once you know a couple of scale positions, chords, and lead guitar techniques, you will be able to improvise to backing tracks. It’s the soul you need to feel the notes, and become one with the guitar to be able to truly express yourself with the blues.

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3. Blues Guitar Techniques

The blues is one of my favorite genres on guitar, I teach it to students all the time. Why? Because it’s easy and loads of fun. If you’re at an intermediate level, you’re already at a stage where you can play astonishing blues riffs and solos like BB himself if you know some basic blues guitar techniques.

And you know what, these blues techniques are mostly basic guitar techniques that you are probably familiar with already. If you can already play some of the more complicated songs in the guitar song lessons section of the site, you are at the stage where you might consider getting some blues guitar lessons, since you are already at the level where you could be playing the blues.

But enough rambling, here are the guitar techniques you’ll need to master if you want to play blues:

• Bending to and from notes: Blues uses LOTS of string bending, you’ll need to practice that a lot. It’s tough on your fingertips at first, but it’ll all be easier with time. When you’re playing slow blues, you’ll be bending up to the note you are aiming for a bit slowly, thus giving it the expressive feel that is very typical of blues.
• Shake the string: In other words, vibrato. Use it, and use it a lot when playing the blues. The vibrato might just be the single most expressive technique in your arsenal.
• Sliding: Blues guitarists don’t just simply pluck a note, they sometimes slide into it. Sliding into notes is very typical in blues as well, and just adds character and a bluesy feel to the riff.
• Slurring: This is a technique that is utilized mostly in blues, and not in other genres. When slur a note, you bend it just slightly, right before plucking a new note. Slurs are actually one of the most characteristic sounds of blues, so using them is imperative.
• Hammering on and pulling off of notes: The hammer-on and pull-off is used very often in fast blues, so get used to it.
• Phrasing the blues: Blues players enjoy a sort of rhythmic liberty in the sense that they allow certain notes to be played off rhythm. For example, when a blues guitarist enters, he will typically start a half beat after the bar starts.

The techniques required for playing blues guitar are quite easy, yet the challenge is using them expressively. A vibrato is not just a vibrato in blues, it’s an expression of your soul, along with all the other techniques above.

Here's a good tip if you want to start playing blues:

Start listening to as much blues guitar music as possible and get familiar with it’s flavor and overall aspects of the rhythm and lead guitar roles in each type of blues song; 8 bar, 12 bar, fast, slow, blues-rock, etc..

B.B. King – Blues Boys Tune

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4. 12-Bar Blues Guitar Lesson

Learning to play blues guitar is awesome, since it’s one of the easiest genres to master on the guitar. Because of this, and the fact that playing the blues is fun and expressive, many beginner-intermediate guitarists choose to learn the blues. And yes, it is possible at an early stage.

To start playing the blues, one of the most fundamental things you’ll need to know is what a 12-bar blues progression actually is. This short blues guitar lesson will introduce you to the 12 bar blues form, the chords you’ll need to play, and the order you’ll be playing the chords in.

First off, let’s have a look at the chords you’ll play with a 12 bar blues progression. You may, or may not be familiar with the popular I-IV-V chord progression. This dictates the chords you’ll be playing in any given key. The way it works follows.

 

I-IV-V Blues Chord Progression

You take any given key and count out the first, fourth and fifth degree of the major scale. Some key will include sharps and flats, but for example the key of E only includes “normal” chords without any sharps or flats. So if we want to count the I-IV-V progression in this key, we get the following:

E major – A major – B major

Since the major scale in the key of E goes: E-f-g-A-B-c-d. The first degree of the scale is E major, the fourth is A major, and the fifth is B major. If you are into music theory, you will refer to the I chord as the tonic, the IV chord as the subdominant, and the V chord as the dominant.

So now that we got the basic chord progression out of the way, lets have a look at the 12 bar blues guitar progression.

 

12 Bar Blues Form

From the title of this form, you can already tell that it is made up of 12 bars, or 12 measures of music. You play the same chord in each measure, as dictated by the 12 bar blues progression:

I – I – I – I – IV – IV – I – I – V – IV – I – I/V

Going back to our example in the key of E, where we already know the I – IV – V chords, you would get the following progression:

E – E – E – E – A – A – E – E – B – A – E – E(or B )

It helps to imagine the 12 bar blues in a series of 3 times 4 measures.

1. The first 4 bars start things up with the relaxed I chord.
2. The second 4 bars start off with 2 bars of the IV chord, which starts building tension, then resolves back to the I chord for 2 bars.
3. The last 4 bars of the progression, you increase tension by playing the V chord, and gradually decrease it and eventually resolve the tension by playing the IV chord in the 10th bar, than the I chord for the last 2 bars, adding the V chord at the end as the turnaround.

An important element of the 12 bar blues is the turnaround, after which you start the entire progression all over again. The V chord is usually the turnaround chord, which again, creates a sense of tension, before turning around to the I chord, where you start the whole thing over. Here is the entire progression tabbed out, note that I uses B7 instead of B major, since it’s easier to play, and blues uses lots of 7th chords anyways:

12 bar blues guitar progression in the key of E

So basically this is the 12 bar blues guitar progression, it’s fairly simple, since it only uses 3 chords in a set progression, feel free to try it out in other key as well.

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5. Minor Blues Guitar Chord Progressions:

Minor Blues Guitar Chord Progressions

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6. Essential Blues Guitar Practice Tips :

Essential Blues Guitar Practice Tips

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7. Blues Guitar Lesson - Sliding 9th Technique:

Blues Guitar Lesson–Sliding 9th Technique

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8. Mastering Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales:

Mastering Major and Minor Pentatonic Scales

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9. Play '40s and '50s Jump Style Guitar Blues:

Play ‘40s and ‘50s Jump Style Guitar Blues:

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10. Five (5) Essential Blues Boxes – Lesson 1:

5 Essential Blues Boxes–Lesson 1

Musician By Night:  “I’ll follow-up with additional Lesson Plans for the 5 Essential Blues Boxes in future posts.”

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11. Learning the Modes on Guitar:

Learning the Modes on Guitar

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12. MINOR BLUES SCALE:

                  (Playing all over the fretboard)

MINOR BLUES SCALE: Playing all over the fretboard

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I hope that you find this both a helpful and interesting overview of blues guitar playing and what you need to learn to become proficient at it.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section or by email, and I would be happy to help.

Until next time ~ ~ ~

Musician By Night . . .

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T-Bone Walker, #1 of 100 Greatest Blues Guitarists

100 Greatest Blues Guitarists

Criteria: - This list is intended for those guitarists who exhibited a clear 'Blues' thread throughout their careers. It reflects their impact, influence within their genre, and musical expression in addition to technical ability on the instrument.

 

The following link will take you to the list, along with other related facts, and tidbits about “blues” artists, songs, etc..
http://www.digitaldreamdoor.com/pages/best_bluesguitar.html

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T-Bone Walker

Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in northeast Texas in 1910 to Rance and Movelia Walker. Movelia chafed under her strict, church-going parents and left for Dallas with

her baby a year later. From his mother (to whom he was always close), T-Bone inherited his wanderlust and love of music. While in grade school, he left one summer with Dr. Breeding's medicine show. His freshman year he ran away to join Ida Cox's troupe, touring the state until the authorities finally caught up with him. As a boy he lead legendary bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson around the streets of Dallas; T-Bone would take Jefferson's tin cup, shaking it in time with the music then passing it around. He could also be seen listening outside the window of a local church as the choir sang and the preacher called upon God, "my pulse ... racin'".

By the time of his tenth birthday, his mother had remarried to a man whose family had a string band. T-Bone's uncles would end their show by having him dance and pass the hat. Walker was always learning new steps and, like Louis Armstrong, was a consummate showman.

T-Bone's mother bought him his first instrument, a banjo, when he was twelve; however, he was determined to buy a guitar. He saved his money from playing church socials on weekends and bought his first guitar as a junior in high school. While in school, he joined a sixteen piece band, playing banjo instead of guitar so he could be heard in their arrangements When the band hit the road, Walker quit since his mother was alone once again. He was replaced by Charlie Christian, not the only way these two musical geniuses are linked.

Walker's big break came in 1929: he'd won an amateur show, first prize being a week with Cab Calloway's band. Calloway let Walker take a solo in Houston; T-Bone had an act ready where he played the banjo while doing the splits. This eventually lead, a year later, to a recording date with Columbia where he recorded Witchita Falls and Trinity River Blues under the name Oak Cliff T-Bone. (Walker and his mother lived in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas at the time.)

Walker then joined an all-white troupe which hit the road. When he ran into trouble in Oklahoma City, he was advised to lay low for a couple of days; however, he went to Kansas City. He fell in with the wrong crowd, and his drinking since an early age caught up with him as he suffered from ulcers and had to be hospitalized. It wasn't the last time his drinking and ulcers would land him in the hospital.

By 1934, he was fronting a quartet at the Gem Hotel in Fort Worth. There he met his future lifelong wife, Vida Lee. Money was tight, though, and he realized he'd have to leave to get ahead. He arrived in LA with only a dollar, but hooked up with bandleader Big Jim Wynn as a dancer, eventually becoming emcee, singer, and guitarist as well.

The LA crowds went wild over T-Bone, to the point where Marili Morden booked him into high-dollar clubs on the strip in 1940. When T-Bone complained that his regular fans were being excluded, Morden persuaded management to allow the first integrated crowds in LA, which was a great success financially. Soon thereafter, Walker was invited to join Les Hite's band as the vocalist on their upcoming East Coast swing. Through constant practice backstage, he mastered the electric guitar, though he was still performing only as a singer, even on the band's Varsity recording. Upon returning to LA, T-Bone, backed by Milt Larkin's outfit, was offered a long-standing gig in Chicago. He was such a hit that he was brought back repeatedly over the next two years, leading to his recordings of early versions of his best known hits in 1945 on the Rhumboogie label.

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Later that year, he returned to LA and signed a contract with Comet Records to record for their Black and White label. "I was lucky, because Ralph Bass, who was an exceptional A and R man, supervised our sessions," Walker later recalled. Bass had worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Wardell Gray, and Dexter Gordon and was a huge fan of Walker. Fifty titles were recorded from mid-46 till the end of 1947, featuring a stellar core of LA musicians. With classic hits like T-Bone Shuffle and Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday's Just as Bad), T-Bone established his reputation as the father of electric blues, and his hits were played on Top Ten radio programs nationwide. During this time, T-Bone toured on a triple-header blues package with Lowell Fulson and a rotating cast of other blues artists (including Ray Charles, Wynonie Harris, Joe Turner, and so on). Fulson later recalled that arguments would break out over who should open and who should close. Fulson, in order to keep things from going awry, would volunteer to go first; this meant that T-Bone would close, because no one wanted to follow him. The hits came fast and furious for Walker and the gigs got bigger and more lucrative. Unfortunately, his health problems arose again. He was supposed to drink only goat's milk, but locals could always induce him into drinking and throwing dice. Walker's ulcers forced him to be hospitalized three times during this period, when he enjoyed the greatest commercial and artistic success. Eventually he had to let his band go while recovering from an operation that removed most of his stomach.

After his time at Black and White, T-Bone switched to Imperial Records. His songwriting, singing, and playing were undiminished, but tastes were changing rapidly. His blues were starting to sound old-fashioned in the face of jump blues, R&B, and even the Delta-based electric blues of Chess Records. Still, his Imperial sides sold well enough, and he always was a big draw live. By the mid 50s, he had moved to Atlantic, where he made several great records that didn't sell too well. Blues was very much out of fashion with record buyers by then, with the rise of rock and roll and soul. His music hadn't diminished in power or subtelty, but the records weren't selling as well and the road was proving less lucrative.

By the start of the sixties, though, a change was taking place. He got another break in 1960, singing with Count Basie. Walker loved Basie's band, and said he would have "paid my own salary just to hear those Basie cats blow"; however, Walker didn't feel comfortable singing in the shadows of the great singers Joe Williams and Jimmy Rushing (who would?), so he cut out.

By this time, Europe and white America (well, northern white America) was beginning to discover the blues as black Americans (well, northern black Americans) were leaving it behind. Because of this, two German promoters put together a touring package featuring Walker, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Jump Jackson, John Lee Hooker, Shakey Jake, Brownie McGhee, and Sonny Terry. They played through much of western Europe to enthusiastic crowds. While in Hamburg, they recorded The Original American Folk Blues Festival, possibly the greatest blues record ever. In addition to singing and playing guitar, Walker played piano behind John Lee Hooker (no small accomplishment). T-Bone became a regular on the blues festival circuit, particularly in Europe. Still, by the late sixties, no one had asked Walker to record new material for a few years. He then recorded several times for the French label Black and Blue and became a regular at Paris' Les Trois Mailletz with Memphis Slim. T-Bone was always a big spender and found the nightlife of Paris too much to resist. So when Polydor wanted to record him, he no longer bothered with the business side and got new management. In 1972 he was back in Los Angeles and had found that he had won a Grammy for his Polydor album. This revitalized him, and he hit the road once more, his new management relieving him of responsibility of bookings, travel arrangements, and so on.

His wife Vi was concerned about his pace and encouraged him to take a break. T-Bone agreed, and during this time, he and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson were in a car accident. Walker was in the hospital for several months; his injuries also showed that he was still having troubles with his chest. Still, T-Bone was eager to get back to playing; in addition to his usual wanderlust, The Allman Brothers' version of Stormy Monday was being played nationwide, and Walker wanted to get to his publisher. But while he was recovering, the money had disappeared. On top of this, his band had dissolved and the bookings had all but disappeared. Still, he hit the road again. He seemed to be back to his old self, but he suffered a stroke on new Year's Eve of 1974 and had to be put into a nursing home. He passed away on March 15, 1975, and the blues just hasn't been the same since.

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His Music

T-Bone Walker's music is a bridge in more ways than one. As the first electric bluesman, he was, of course, the person who connected the older acoustic blues to the new, electric sound. Also, his music links the earliest-recorded male blues singers with the blues of Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughn. And since his records were such an influence on B.B. King and others in Mississippi, T-Bone helped bring about a blues influenced by both Delta and Texas traditions. Also, his big hits, Stormy Monday and T-Bone Shuffle, have become blues staples. If Sweet Home Chicago is blues' Louie Louie, then T-Bone Shuffle is the music's Wild Thing. (Okay, that's an insipid analogy, but that's never stopped some music critics.) Walker's influence, however, goes beyond the blues; his music links genres. T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson are the blues guitarists most respected and mentioned by jazz aficionados (with Robert Lockwood running a rather distant third). Many early rock and roll guitarists have also cited Walker as a big influence in their playing, Chuck Berry being the most obvious example.

In two other ways, though, T-Bone Walker was a symbolic link and like those before him, T-Bone learned primarily from local bluesmen, such as the infamous Blind Lemon Jefferson. However, he was amongst the first bluesmen to be influenced by the phonograph as well as musicians he heard in the streets and bars. Walker was particularly influenced by records of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell. Carr and Blackwell were based in Indianapolis, and the young Walker could have heard their music only from records and the radio. Though T-Bone's singing and playing were definitely within the Texas tradition, you can also hear the influence of Carr on his singing and Blackwell on his playing. And like Carr and Blackwell, and unlike most male blues singers who recorded before him, Walker was a city boy.

Though born in rural Texas, T-Bone's mother took him to Dallas with her when he was still a baby, a time when black America was still primarily rural but rapidly becoming urban. His earliest public performing and playing were done in ensemble settings. This in itself was nothing new, since we know that Charlie Patton, Willie Brown, and Son House often performed with each other, and the Chatmon Brothers, also known as The Mississippi Sheiks, were a successful string band. However, Walker seems to be one of the first male bluesmen whose singing and playing were done with a band in mind rather than as an afterthought.

Since Walker's early performances, musical and otherwise, were primarily in a group setting, this should not be surprising. However, what is surprising is how easily Walker could either take the spotlight or step back into a supporting role. This is best heard on the album The Original American Folk Blues Festival. This features T-Bone singing on a couple tracks and playing guitar on a few others; as usual, he was great. But what impressed me was his piano playing behind John Lee Hooker. For one thing, that Walker could be an effective piano player behind Hooker is as impressive as hell. But it is his ability to let Hooker take the lead while playing a supportive role which really made me take notice (albeit after dozens of listening's).

In short, T-Bone Walker was a big influence on many, if not all, who followed him. He was the first to record electric blues; but beyond that, he was a masterful singer and guitarist who wrote some classic blues, and changed the course of the music. He was definitely one of a kind, and there will never be another like him.

You've got to feel the blues to make them right.

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Recommended Listening

Obviously, the best place to start would be with Walker's recordings for the Black and White label. There is a three disk set of his complete recordings for Black and White which just came out, but 1) I just bought it, 2) my cd player died a day later so I've listened through it just once, and 3) three CD’s is a fairly sizable investment if you've never heard an artist before. I think it's a great collection, but not something that you should buy if you've never heard T-Bone and don't know if you'd like him or not. So, given that caveat, ...
It is difficult to chose a "best" T-Bone Walker cd, but for me, there are three that stand out. The first is T-Bone Blues on Atlantic (8020-2). This cd has fifteen songs recorded from the mid- to late-50s, and showcase an artist at the top of his form after much of his audience had left him. Some of the songs are remakes of his earlier hits (Stormy Monday, T-Bone Shuffle) as well as new-at-the-time material. Also on this disc is a cover of Leroy Carr's How Long Blues; here, Walker stretches out as a vocalist and guitarist, doing a sad, slow blues as only he can.

Another great cd is The Original American Folk Blues Festival. This was recorded in 1962 in Germany, when a package tour of American bluesmen (with Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker, and others) stopped in a Hamburg studio. Walker sings on two songs, plays guitar on a few others, and plays piano behind John Lee Hooker on three more. Even if you aren't a big T-Bone Walker fan, this cd is worth finding.
The Complete Imperial Recordings (CDP 7-96737-2) are just what the title says; the two-disc set contains versions of all the songs he recorded while with the company. It is a little uneven, and the sound is sometimes "overproduced", but Walker still manages to cut through any of this. This is a very good cd, but try the Atlantic cd first.

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Bibliography

The following are the written resources I used in creating this page.
Dance, Helen Oakley. Stormy Monday: the T-Bone Walker Story. Louisiana State University Press, 1987 (ISBN 0-306-80413-1).

Dance, Helen & Stanley. Bluesland: Portraits of Twelve Major American Blues Masters (Pete Welding and Toby Byron, ed.) pp 98-113. Penguin, 1991 (ISBN 0-525-93375-1).

Davis, Francis. The History of the Blues. Hyperion, 1995 (ISBN 0-7868-6052-9).

Harris, Sheldon. Blues Who's Who. DaCapo Press, 1979 (ISBN 0-306-80155-8).

Herzhaft, Gerard. Encyclopedia of the Blues. The University of Arkansas Press, 1992 (ISBN 1-55728-253-6).

Sallis, James. The Guitar Players. W. Morrow, 1982 (ISBN 0-8032-9225-2)

Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues Penguin 1993 (ISBN 01401.59398).

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T-Bone Walker is another influential American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter that if you really love the blues, you should listen to when you get the opportunity. Here’s are some of his albums (CD’s) that you may want to pick-up the next time you’re at your local music store or if you chose to use http://www.Amazon.com like we do in our family.  I believe you’ll enjoy T-Bone Walker’s style and musicianship.

        

        

        

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As I keep searching for other Delta, Mississippi & country blues artists from the late 1800’s into the early 20th Century, if you interested in anyone in particular, just let me know and I’ll doo all the research, then publish a post for everyone to enjoy.  I would really enjoy your comments and suggestions at any time.  It will help me build a more reader friendly site for all to enjoy.

Well, once again, until next time;

Musician By Night . . .

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