The guitar is one
of the most popular and indispensable instruments in blues music.
Ever since the blues was born and first played, the guitar was
often the chosen instrument of blues singers to accompany their
vocals. As you listen to CDs or go to concerts, you may also
notice what a prominent role the guitar often plays in
accompanying many of the blues songs. Guitar accompaniment is not
only important, but also one of the most enjoyable aspects of
learning blues guitar. With this book, the beginning student can
learn gradually and systematically how to play the basic guitar
chords and accompaniment styles typically used in blues music.
Chapter 1 reviews such basics as guitar parts,
tuning, and basic music notation and theory.
Chapter 2 introduces the basic open chords
and the accompaniment style called strumming. In each
section, you will learn some of the most common guitar chord forms
and how to read and play simple rhythms.
Chapter 3 introduces the most important and
basic song form used in blues music—the 12-bar blues.
Each section presents new strumming patterns and the 12-bar blues
in one of five popular keys: E, A, G, C, and Am.
In Chapter 4, you will learn about the barre
and movable chords and how to transpose the basic open
chords to different keys along the fingerboard.
Chapter 5 introduces the so-called power
chords—the two-note chords widely used in blues—along with
a popular and prevalent accompaniment style called boogie-woogie.
Chapter 6 presents one of the oldest and most
popular accompaniment styles that predominantly uses fingers—fingerstyle.
You will learn the basic fingerstyle patterns and the left-hand
techniques common to blues playing.
Chapter 7 first introduces alternative ways to
play the open chords and some new guitar chords. Then it presents
other blues accompaniment styles such as single-note riffs,
double-stop riffs, and small-chord riffs. The last three sections
briefly discuss other blues song forms, open tuning, and the capo.
Throughout the book, various music examples and
sample songs have been included to show how the basic guitar
chords, accompaniment patterns and styles, and various techniques
can be brought together to make up an accompaniment. In a similar
manner, I highly encourage you to create as many accompaniment
examples of your own as possible. Lastly, this book presents many
of the guitar chords and accompaniment styles commonly seen and
used in blues. If you are, however, interested in learning more
various guitar chords and other accompaniment patterns and styles,
refer to Guitar Chords and Accompaniment or More Guitar
Chords and Accompaniment.
Good luck! I sincerely hope you will have a lot of fun learning
some of the most interesting aspects of blues guitar by working
with this book!
(from Blues Guitar Chords and
Accompaniment)
