The origin and history of the blues has long been a topic of intense interest and debate. Many state that the blues was officially 'discovered' by composer and musician W.C. Handy in 1903, whilst he was waiting for a train in Tutwiler, Mississippi. Handy dozed off, only to be awoken...
Pick attack refers to the way that you strike your guitar strings with your picking hand. A heavy pick attack is one in which you strike the strings hard. On the other side of the spectrum, a soft pick attack is one in which you apply much less pressure with...
Slide guitar is a fundamental part of the blues. When W.C. Handy first 'discovered' the blues at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, it was a slide guitarist responsible for that revelatory experience: A lean loose-jointed Negro had commenced plunking a guitar beside me while I slept ... As he played,...
Guitarists spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about guitar strings. Perhaps it isn't surprising. Choosing which set of guitar strings to use is no easy task. There are different gauges and materials to consider and an ever increasing amount of marketing hype and jargon with which you have to...
Over the past couple of months I've made a real effort to listen to more modern music. I've found myself in the trap of listening to my favourite musicians on repeat and doing little to broaden my musical horizons. Given that the contemporary blues scene is alive and well, I...
Stevie Ray Vaughan got me hooked on the blues. I had already played guitar for a number of years before he crossed my radar. Then I heard Pride and Joy and it really began my obsession with the blues. I have since spent much of my time trying to play...
B.B. King is the undisputed master of the blues. He is the ultimate blues musician and a player to whom every modern blues guitarist owes a considerable debt. When I first started playing the guitar as a teenager, I had the amazing fortune to see B.B. King play live. It...
Eric Clapton is one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time. With a career spanning more than 50 years, he has inspired generations of guitarists, myself included. He The Bluesbreaker tones that Clapton pioneered during his time with John Mayall & The Blues Breakers are the stuff of legend....
Contrary to popular belief, the modern blues scene is alive and well. Guitarists like Joe Bonamassa, Gary Clark Jr and Derek Trucks are filling concert halls and arenas with legions of die hard blues fans and garnering attention from a wider audience. Beyond these giants of the modern blues scene,...
The blues is a stripped back genre. It's not about flashy effects and gimmicks; it's about conveying emotion through technique, and a pure but simple guitar tone. Many blues guitarists pride themselves on their simple rig set ups. As such, guitar pedals don't play a predominant role in the blues. ...
Truthfully, the first time I heard ZZ Top I didn’t...
There are very few albums that capture the essence of a...
The Ibanez Tube Screamer is one of the most popular guitar...
One of the key ways to develop as a blues guitarist is to...
Texas Flood, by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble was...
Duane Allman is one of the greatest blues and rock...
It is not easy to play a killer blues shuffle. The masters...
I can still remember when I learnt how to play the blues...
The blues shuffle rhythm is one of the most common rhythms...
If you want to be a proficient blues guitarist, you need to...
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