cud someone plz tell me how to play good blues .....n also how to improvise in the blue scales....
help required

Slowpoke

Helloo slowpoke, welcome to the board. Well I don't know your level of playing so it might be meaningless to go into a bunch of stuff about blues and improvising in blues scales. Has to do with chord progressions, the melody (not always though) and a few other things too. Let us know where you're at and we can go from there !

GuitarZen

thank for ur time GuitarZen....
i started playing guitar about 1yr n 5 month ago...i was a rhythm guitarist and know few of the chord progression so  i think i am familiar with the chords and handle it quite good...i think...i got really fascinated with blues about five months ago by listening to Eric Clapton n Robert Johnson n also other blues player....i am into blues and rock....but i wanted to start on lead guitar so want help.....with it... i have been practicing few scales on the fret board by now i know all the scales of pentatonic maj n minor n blues especial E scale blues through out the fret board....but still am not fast while playing the scales.... so i wanna learn how can 1 improvise in those scales and how to play a good blues n be a fast player ....
i hope that  was enough,,,,,,,,if not just tell me own.....
i wud really appreciate if u wud help be a good blues /rock player...guitarzen......
thank u

Hello again slowpoke, well they don't call EC 'Slowhand' for nothing. I've noticed watching his videos, which btw are all over youtube if you use that site as a learning tool...lots of video lessons there to sort through including plenty on Clapton blues, even some Hendrix blues...'Redhouse' comes to mind...and of course I'm pretty sure there are some BB King videos, maybe even video lessons submitted by various guitar instructors.

Ok, well I'm not really very advanced as a blues player yet but I do like playing things in E and I play them slow. When you say you want speed do you mean more bistering solos or do you mean up to Clapton, BB King, Hendrix blues speed, because to me anyway, they're not particularly fast players.

About building speed. Well for me it's been slow coming but once I learned which fingers to use to span a blues scale, I got a little faster right away. For example, moving my hand to get a note three frets away with my ring finger, I learned to leave my hand in place and use my pinky instead. Hard habit to break using the ring for the 'far' note but I'm getting there and the rest of my fingers are in place so I can just 'walk' the notes from the sixth to the first string. Let me know if you're using that fingering and if not, try it and see if it speeds you up. Random fingering just wasn't getting me any speed at all. Same with finger style acoustic, until I assigned certain fingers to certain strings, I was 'nowhere man' ! Ok, waiting to hear back from you slowpoke.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

thank u
i am doing as u said ...n it is helping...i want to be as fast as EC.....cud u teach me how to blues and some licks n improvise in blues scale...
thank u very much..guitarzen

p.s ...i am gona buy a fender startocaster "balckie"guitar,,,suggest plz...,,,
thank u

You're most welcome slowpoke. Well I'll try to head you in a blues direction though I'm sure hoping others that actually have mastered or are advanced in blues will see this and add some info.

Meantime, go to Google and type Guitar licks and scales in the search and check out a bunch of the sites that come up, especially the first one. Then go to the Guitar Chords section here and learn all the 7ths you're comfortable with, especially A 7, B7 and E7. Whole lot of songs wrapped around those nice 'blues chords' that you'll find in your travels around net.

Now before I suggest much more it would be good to know where you're at with your playing. I mean you can tell me which chords you know, how fast you can change, what riffs you know etc. and do you know how to read tabs, standard notation, things like that. Once I know these things it will be easy for me to get you 'bluesier' !

Ok, on buying a Blackie...are you talking about the Eric Clapton sig model or the  new David Gilmour Black guitar?  Let me know on that and I'll give an opinion since I've looked at both at the Fender site recently because I get their email updates. Talk with you soon slowpoke !

Cheers,

GuitarZen

it's been a year
n i am really thankful to ur suggestion. Within this time i have learned all the pentatonic , majors, blues n Dorian scales. Not bragging abt what i have learned, coz i am kid in front of u when it come to playing guitar,I know how to play "purple haze", "tears in heaven", "Layla", "Nobody knows when your down n out","cocaine","your body is wonderland","wish you were here", "nothing else matters" , etc but am very fond of jack johnson n his way of playing too...

and still don't know fully, how to read standard notations...

it is because of u i have learn all those things n modestly, still think don't know much abt guitar n i need ur guidance on it.
HELP ME Plz -
for me to get 'bluesier' !

n also i play everything on my acoustics.

once again i am very much greatness for ur guidance  give the entire credit to u,for making me what i am in playing guitar even though i am just a Rookie in playing...Thank u so very much...

So what's next?

You humble me slowpoke and before going further, please don't think i'm some great guitar player because i'm not. That said, i guess because of my theory lessons from our own Old Tele Man, that i find myself answering a lot of questions, which is good for me because i like to review what i know and when i make mistakes in my answers, sometimes i catch them later and correct them and sometimes my friends here help me with that too. I like what i say to be accurate so when you ask what's next, i'm going to first ask you some questions and i'll skip the part about what you might know because you seem to have progressed tremendously in the year. Also i thank you deeply for your compliments and you should know that you encourage me to be a better guitar player and 'answerer of questions' !

First, are you playing guitar with others or in a band or at your school? Next, do you use a metronome and do you know what i mean when i mention 'phrasing' and what about blues research on youtube? I imagine you've done some of that but i'm just checking. Lastly, would you please post a vid on youtube of the blues song you play best? Once you answer these questions and also post the vid then I and others will be able to help you even more.

Cheers,

GuitarZen

I just don't know what to say,nonetheless you helped me n guided me to where i am.I am thankful for that and i still give the entire credit to u.Thank u.

And abt the answers
i used to be on a band but not anymore.I know this is really bad but don't use a Metronome n don't know anything abt "phrasing" but do know abt licks n "turnaround".I think it will be better for me to dig into it more then i have n i had checked Justin's video in Youtube for blues but not completely.I will research on blues more.please tell me what sud i focus on when researching for blues?

And abt the video
i will post it up within few week. Cause,I'm very busy with my exams n assignments so very very sorry for that.

Once again thank you for ur time n You are the best no doubts on that.^_^

SLOWPOKE A.k.a-kid

Ok slowpoke, i was just curious if you're in a band. If you don't have practice partner, you might consider finding one because for me at least, my learning curve seems to accelerate and i practice and learn more and faster.

Well you would do well to either get a metronome or use an online one. My cell phone has a metronome and yours might too. Here is an online metronome:

http://www.metronomeonline.com/

You could use the online metronome till you find one you like that you can take with you.

Here's a little homework for you slowpoke, try googling the words 'guitar phrasing' and do your research on that topic. Also, if you find time with your schedule and exams, you might want to check out BB King on youtube. Look at a number of vids of BB and let me know what you think of the emphasis he puts on certain notes, how he dwells on others and how BB breaks up the runs into groups and so on. There are a lot of other blues guitar players i'd suggest checking out but we could start with BB for now and go from there. Finally, another question. Do you use alternate picking technique?  Hope this gives you something to work with. 

Cheers,

GuitarZen