Blues Guitar Lesson - Learn Chords the Right Way

For your blues guitar lesson here, I want to stress how important it is to master the chords involved in playing the blues. Now, a lot of people don't realize that this will involve some music theory. You want to know what these chords are called, what place they have in the key in which you are playing, and how knowing them can improve your whole blues guitar playing efforts.

One blues guitar lesson that you'll need to study is how different chords fit together to create a blues sound when you are playing rhythm guitar. The chords that go together in a blues progression are the I, IV, and V chords--otherwise called "tonic", "sub-dominant", and "dominant". What this means, for instance, is that if you are playing in the key of C, the basic chords that you will draw on are C, F, and G. These will basically go in order in a repetitive pattern, but what happens once you know more about blues chords is that you can use variations on the progression and on the chords themselves to create greater variations on your themes.

Let's continue this blues guitar lesson, with a discussion of why it's important to understand the actual notes that are used to form a chord. As an example, let's take a look at the C chord. This chord is made up of the C, E and G notes. The F chord is build on the F, A and C notes. And finally, the G chord is built on the G, B and D notes. Now it's important to know this stuff versus just memorizing the chord shapes. The reason being, by knowing how the chords are built, you will have an understanding of the notes you can use for runs, riffs, improvisation and soloing.

Imagine you're playing with a group of musicians and the rhythm section is currently playing on the C chord. Since you understand the structure of chords, you can jump in with some cool riffs that hit the C, E and A notes. A good way to get accustomed to this is by incorporating arpeggios, which essentially are broken chords.

You will want to give yourself many a blues guitar lesson that practices arpeggios, or "broken chord". This means that instead of playing all of the notes in the chord simultaneously, as you would to play the actual chord, you would take the chord's individual notes and play them one-by-one, as you would do if you were playing a scale. Knowing how to play arpeggios fluidly and over the right rhythm chords makes your playing much more powerful.

Another blues guitar lesson that you'll need to practice often is chord substitutions. This is where you learn to play chords at different positions on the fretboard or playing chords with different finger arrangements. Chord substitutions also allow for adding additional notes to a chord. All of these substitution methods, lead to variations in the sound produced by a given chord and add to your arsenal of blues guitar tricks.

So, remember to pay particular attention to any blues guitar lesson that focuses on chords and don't underestimate the importance of chord knowledge to your overall playing.

Article Source: http://www.mycontentbuilder.com

Wayne London is a guitar enthusiast with a passion for blues. Visit his website to sample an online Blues Guitar Lesson for free!

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated