There are a lot of musical styles out there…. a LOT (check out this wikipedia article if you don’t believe me.)

While that’s cool and all, you’ve probably never heard of most of them, and you probably never will. And that’s totally cool. You’re here because you want to play the blues. And if you’re reading the stuff on this blog in general, you’re pretty new to the guitar and still have a long way to go.

So you might wonder why things like “The Most Popular Strum In The World” matter to you. After all, it doesn’t sound very “bluesy.”The fact of the matter is that many guitar techniques… especially at the early stages are the same across all styles of music. And in many cases there are basic things you have to learn and they may not apply to the music that you will eventually play.

BUT… those things that may not be necessary for you to play the blues now, will make it possible for you to learn the things you will need to play blues later. Make sense?

Learning the strum and keep a solid pace and good time is paramount to all styles of music. It’s the single most overlooked element of playing guitar. And it’s what lessons like “The Most Popular Strum In The World” are all about.

But if you can’t do that strum, how are you ever going to do a more difficult rhythm like an SRV Pride & Joy style rhythm?

So while most of the lessons I send out are as “bluesy” as I can make them, don’t ignore the ones that might not sound quite as steeped in that tradition. It’s better to learn everything the right way and in the right order.

Something to think about for you…

Just about every beginning guitarist struggles with changing chords faster.

While I don’t want to imply that we’re going to cheat our way through this roadblock… we kind of are with this video.What you’ll see is that when you play up to speed, you can easily “fudge” the last half a beat. It’s not only okay, it’s common. It almost sounds creepy to play too perfectly as you’ll see. Enjoy the video.

To download this video right click here

One thing beginners often have a hard time with is creating a smooth transition from one string to another. This video will show you how to make that transition so there aren’t “gaps” of silence between your notes. It might not seem like a big deal, but it makes an enormous difference in the sound.

This is something to always keep in mind when you practice. If you do, you should notice an improvement in the sound within just a few sessions.

Now that we have the 2nd group of licks, and the full versions of the chords, we can put that together into an even cooler tune than “The Sitting Easy Blues.”This will incorporate nearly every skill you’ve learned so far. It also incorporates another blues staple, the turnaround. The turnaround is the last 2 measures of the 12 bar blues chord progression.

Once you take a look at the music for this, you’ll see that it’s divided into a grand total of 14 measures, separated by vertical lines called bar lines.

A bar is another name for a measure, hence the name bar lines. Blues generally goes in groups of 12 bars, and is therefore called a 12 bar blues.

It’s a little beyond our scope right now to learn all about the 12 bar blues, but you should be familiar with the term and know that it is common in blues music.

Now as for playing this next tune, here’s a walkthrough video. Look for all of the group 2 licks you’ve learned so far within the tune:

and here’s a play along video

Downloads (right click the link and choose “Save Target As…” or similar, depending on your browser):

• IPOD version of the walkthrough
• WMV version of the walkthrough
• MP3 (audio) version of the play along.
• TAB in pdf format.

This one is a little tougher, but your hands and fingers ought to be in better shape now from all that we’ve done.

I remember reading something from a famous bicycle racer once that basically said “Going as hard as you can always hurts the same. Over time, you go faster, but it never gets any easier.”

That’s also very applicable to guitar playing.It might seem like there’s a lot of crazy things that can be done on guitar, and there are. And you might feel like you’ll never be able to do them, but that’s where you are mistaken. You may not be ready now, but with time and practice, those crazy chords and licks will seem just as hard – no easier or harder – than what you’re doing right now.

So let’s learn one last lick from this group -

Downloads:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• Audio to play along with
• PDF of the TAB

Here’s another lick from the “group 2″ series taken out of my Beginning Blues Guitar course. This one is important because it will teach you how to play the open E minor blues sound. This one scale is responsible for literally hundreds, if not thousands, of your favorite blues songs and licks….So we’ll start of with a video of it, and the TAB, and downloadable stuff is below. If you like, leave comments below, please.

Downloads:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• MP3 play along of the lick
• TAB for the lick (pdf)

If you ever go to an open jam session, or even just get together with some friends once in a while, the time will come when everyone sits around looking at each other….

“What do you want to play?”

“I dunno what do you want to play?”

“Do you know, (insert song here)?”

“No, how about ….”

And so it continues.When all else fails, as it will very soon, someone always says “let’s just play blues in e.” What that means is, “you play rhythm while I solo, then I’ll play rhythm while you solo if you want.”

So what exactly is this mysterious song “Blues in E?” It’s just a common pattern that seems to be everywhere you go. It’s been handed down generations and now I’m passing it on to you.

Once you get the idea, try to play along

Downloads (as always… right click on the name and choose “save target as” or something similar)

• Ipod version of the play along video
• WMV version of the play along video
• MP3 of the play along (audio only)
• PDF of the TAB for the song

A common complaint that I hear from a lot of beginning students is that they’ve been struggling to turn their chords and licks into music.

Most of the time this seems to come from the fact that they don’t understand how to keep time with their right arm and get the whole counting thing out of the way.

So in this short video, I’ll show you how to turn simple quarter notes and eighth notes into automatic strum patterns that take no thought from you.

Downloadables:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• PDF of the strumming

Remember to leave comments and questions below!

There are 2 things you really just HAVE to learn how to do… read TAB and read chord diagrams. Without those 2 skills, you’re just toast.

We’ve talked about TAB, let’s get into reading chord diagrams… they’re easy too.

Downloads

• IPOD Version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• PDF of the chord diagrams to look at or print

Moving on… not much to say about this one. It’s a little longer and a little harder but that’s good for you.

Downloads:

• IPOD version of the video
• WMV version of the video
• PDF of the TAB
• Audio version of the lick