The blues is many things—a collection of styles, an approach to the guitar, a certain musical feeling, a common 12-bar structure, and more. The work of blues guitarists, from pioneers like Robert Johnson and Etta Baker to contemporary performers like Jontavious Willis, inspires music fans and acoustic guitarists alike. Here you’ll learn key concepts, songs, and techniques for playing the blues.
12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 5: Playing Chords up the Neck
Explore a bunch of different ways of playing E7 and A7 chords up the neck and ways of combining these ideas with single-note licks for a cohesive statement.
12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 4: Accenting the Backbeats
Learn how to improve your blues playing by accenting the offbeats and keeping rock-steady bass notes, all on a one-chord groove.
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12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 3: Accenting the Offbeats
Work on some country-blues patterns and see how emphasizing the backbeat—or beats 2 and 4—improves your blues playing.
12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar — Lesson 2: Creating Rhythmic Contrast
Learn how to use rhythmic contrast in playing blues—mixing up quarter notes, eighth notes, and eighth-note triplets.
Out of the Shadows: Undersung Women of Blues Guitar
Here we highlight female blues guitarists who helped shaped the blues; masterly musicians who don’t always receive the recognition they deserve.
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12 Ways to Play Better Blues Guitar – Lesson 1: Syncopation
Explore syncopation—playing around with a melody’s rhythmic placement over the bass notes to make the music sound cooler.
Video Lesson: Exploring Blues Turnarounds
In this acoustic guitar lesson you'll learn a bunch of blues-based turnarounds in different keys—great moves to have at your fingertips when playing the blues.
Blues Lesson: Learn Jontavious Willis’ Take on “Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home”
Here's an open-G arrangement of the traditional blues tune "Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home"
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Open Tuning Lesson: How to Play the Blues in DADGAD
As you play through these examples, you’ll get a good sense of the abundance of bluesy possibilities inherent in this tuning.
Guitar Lesson: How to Play the Blues Like R.L. Burnside
If you like your blues with funky drive, listening to and learning Burnside’s riffs and licks will get your mojo working. Learn to play in his raw percussive style.
Learn to Play in Open G
A lesson on how to play fingerstyle blues in this popular open tuning, using examples from classic songs by Elizabeth Cotten, Robert Johnson, and more.
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Video Lesson: An Easy Introduction to the Sophisticated Art of Ragtime Guitar
For a gentle introduction to ragtime, I composed a simple G-major instrumental, “Davis Street Rag,” in which the syncopation always occurs in a predictable place, the “and” of beat three.
Learn to Play Guitar Like Charley Patton, the Father of the Delta Blues
Widely known as the Father of the Delta Blues, Charley Patton is generally recognized as one of the most influential blues artists active in the first decades of the 20th century. Although no single individual can be credited with inventing the Delta blues style, Patton was one of the first…
Video Lesson: Country Blues Fingerpicking
The Saturday night lineup at the 1963 Philadelphia Folk Festival included Elizabeth Cotten, Mike Seeger, Dave Van Ronk, and Mississippi John Hurt. In the audience that night was 12-year-old John Miller. The music that made the biggest impression on him was that of Hurt, so much so that weeks later,…
Reverend Gary Davis‘ Country Picking Acoustic Classic: ‘Cocaine Blues’
Beyond the blues techniques, there is a seriously bittersweet tone to Davis’ guitar on “Cocaine Blues.” It seems to come from a very deep place in his soul.
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Video Lesson: Learn to Play the Talking Blues
Sometime in the 1920s, a peculiar form of blues emerged that was substantially different from the better-known varieties. The style is commonly known today as talking blues. Despite the moniker, however, it rarely employs the 12-bar chord progression that is typical of most blues music. Many talking-blues songs are instead…
How to Fingerpick the Blues Like Mississippi John Hurt: The Alternating-Bass Pattern
Listening to players like Mississippi John Hurt, Reverend Gary Davis, and John Fahey will get your ear accustomed to fingerpicking blues. In this lesson, you’ll apply the techniques they’re known for to a 12-bar blues, but you can also use them to play ragtime, early jazz, and folk.
‘The Pearls’: Dave Van Ronk’s Clever Arrangement of a Jelly Roll Morton Rag
This delightful arrangement serves as an excellent introduction to ragtime in general.
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Video Lesson: Using the CAGED System with the 12-bar Blues
The study of prewar blues includes a heavy amount of time playing in first position—between the nut and the first four frets of your guitar. However, as you learn more and more songs, you might be asking yourself, “What comes next?”
Learn ‘Spanish Rag,’ a Spirited Instrumental
Of his solo guitar composition, Diego Garcia says, “It’s simple Spanish cadences meet Merle Travis.”
Acoustic Classic: ‘I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom’
Capturing that almighty triplet groove is what’s most important to playing this blues standard well.
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Roots and Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Explorations | Acoustic Guitar Champions
A comprehensive guitar method, songbook, and narrative anthology by Steve James, available to champions of this site or to purchase at store.AcousticGuitar.com.
‘Copeland’s Fancy’: Learn a Spirited Country-Blues Number in Open D
The sound of Leonard Copeland’s guitar has remained iconic, and this piece by Steve James reflects that.
Video Lesson: All About the 12-Bar Blues Form
You can find the blues everywhere. Its characteristic 12-bar form and blue notes permeate jazz, rock, country, soul… you name it.
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‘Spanish Fandango’: Learn a 19th-Century Acoustic Classic in Open-G Tuning
Henry Worrall scored his biggest hit with this tune, a bright melody in triple meter, played in open-G tuning.