Getting Started with Blues Guitar

Hi there! Cameron Hayes from the London Guitar Institute here.

Today, I want to chat a bit about getting started with blues guitar.

If you’re new to the guitar, you might have heard of the blues. It’s a significant foundation not just for playing guitar, but for music as a whole.

Understanding the 12 Bar Blues Progression

The logical first place to begin is with rhythm—the chords we play in blues.

Most of the time, blues follows what’s called a 12 Bar Blues progression.

As the name implies, it consists of a 12-bar pattern that keeps repeating.

This structure is different from modern pop or rock music, where you typically have verses, choruses, and sometimes a bridge.

Blues has a more repetitive feel.

Playing the Chords

If you’re a singer, you might sing over this sequence for a round or two, while different instruments will take turns soloing.

There are several ways to play these chords. You could use bar chords, which are common in blues, or dominant seventh chords.

However, if you’re new to guitar, you might not be comfortable with bar chords or seventh chords just yet. In that case, starting with a simple open shuffle pattern is a great idea.

Breaking Down the 12-Bar Pattern

Let’s break down what’s happening with the chords.

We’re playing in the key of A, meaning A is our root chord.

The shuffle pattern involves playing the open A string as the bass note while moving between the second and fourth frets on the E string.

The pattern goes like this: 02 02 04 04, 02 02 04 04 underneath the A string. (See below A7 Riff!)

Four Bars of A

We’ll start with four bars of the A chord:

A7 Riff: (bars 1-4)

Moving to D

After four bars, we change to the D chord. For this, we play the open D string as the bass note and use the same pattern on the G string:

D7 Riff: (bars 5-6)

Returning to A

Next, we go back to the A chord for another two bars:

A7 Riff: (bars 7-8)

The Turnaround

Now we’re at the last four bars of the progression, known as the turnaround.

We’ll use our third and final chord, the E chord, with the low E string as the bass note. The pattern remains the same:

E7 to D7 to A7 to E7: (bars 9 – 12)

Watch the video again to see how I play throughout the 12-bar blues, and then try to play along as I call out the chord changes in the video! (jamming is a great way of developing!)

And that’s it! You can keep going around and around.

Exploring Dominant Seventh Chords

Once you’re comfortable with the shuffle pattern, you can also try using the dominant seventh chords.

So, instead of just A and E, you could play A7, D7, and E7.

You can follow the same progression with any strumming pattern you like.

This can be particularly fun if you have more than one guitarist; one could play the shuffle while another goes for chord stabs on the dominant seventh chords.

Starting to Solo

Once you’ve grasped the rhythm and can anticipate chord changes, you’re ready to start soloing or playing single-note lines.

If you’ve seen the movie “Back to the Future,” you’ve probably seen that iconic scene of Marty McFly playing “Johnny B. Goode.”

That was one of my first introductions to blues lead playing.

When it comes to soloing, you don’t have to be flashy. Often, simpler is better, especially when you’re starting out.

For soloing, we typically use a scale or a few different scales as our ingredients for improvisation—the notes we can use.

The Minor Pentatonic Scale

The main scale to start with is the minor pentatonic scale.

This five-note scale is straightforward and can be very effective.

For A minor pentatonic, we start on the fifth fret of the low E string, which is an A note.

You can read our article on the pentatonic scale to get to know more about this amazing scale!

The A minor pentatonic scale consists out of the following notes: A, C, D, Eb E, G. The intervals are as follows: root, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th and minor 7th.

Tablature of the A minor pentatonic scale for you to try

These notes form the A minor pentatonic scale, and they’re the notes we’ll use for improvisation.

You can break the rules later and introduce other scales, but for now, let’s stick with the minor pentatonic.

Improvisation Tips

When improvising, remember these three key tips:

• Leave Space: Just like in conversation, pauses make your playing easier to digest for the listener.
• Repeat Ideas: Good melodies often have an element of repetition. If you only play a phrase once, it may not be memorable.
• Play Fragments: Stay in one area of the scale and play a few notes at a time.

Now, let’s put that into action over a backing track. A great exercise is to find a good backing track on YouTube or use a loop pedal to loop your shuffle pattern.

As you play, don’t forget you can add in all the guitar techniques like hammer-ons, pull-offs, double stops, slides, and bends.

Try to make it sound lyrical, almost like a vocal melody.

Start simple, perhaps by playing through two rounds of the blues progression, and then gradually make it busier and more exciting as you go.

Enjoy your journey into the blues!

Start your in-person London blues lessons now, or learn the blues with us online!