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8 Reasons Why Learning The Blues is So Important

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My oldest brother introduced me to the music of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I was hooked instantly. I soon took up the guitar and started taking lessons.

Although I was happy in the beginning playing and singing songs by Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, The Beatles and Springsteen, what I really wanted was to learn those beautiful bluesy solos that came from Stevie’s fingers and strings. It took another couple of years before I found the right teacher to teach me those skills. The blues has always been a major influence on my playing ever since.

Whatever you’re playing, whether it’s country, folk, alternative, rock, pop music or jazz it’s always great to combine these and other styles with blues elements or to lean on your blues vocabulary and skills whenever you need it.

There’s also something about the pentatonic / blues scale that no other scale has in store. It’s that raw, crying, heart aching, but also earthy, soulful, honest sound that really comes alive through playing the blues.

Now if that hasn’t convinced you to pick up your guitar and dive into the world of blues, you might want to know what reasons are so important that you do so.

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5 Pentatonic Sweep Picking Patterns in the key of A

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Sweep picking is a picking technique that was invented and developed by jazz guitarists Chuck Wayne and Tal Farlow.

Later the technique was further developed by fusion guitarist Frank Gambale.

The quality of sweep picking is that it produces a fast and fluid sound (once you get the hang of it). This is because you only need few strokes as apposed to alternate picking.

While it is generally used for arpeggios, it can also be applied to scales, 3 notes per string licks and… well just anything really.

In this topic we’ll be covering 5 pentatonic patterns in the key of A. If you already know how to play the 5 pentatonic shapes using alternate picking and you want to try sweep picking for a change to make it sound more fluid, give it a more Gambale feel to it or just to see where it will take you, this one’s for you.

You don’t have to choose one picking technique for your style of playing. A lot of guitar players combine both. They use alternate picking mainly and apply sweep picking occasionally for particular licks or arpeggios.

Sweeping
For the alternate picking approach you go “down, up, down, up, down, up” with the picking hand. In the scale patterns below you also use alternate picking except when changing strings you’ll be picking in the direction of where you’re heading. Use a downstroke if you’re changing to a higher (pitch) string and use an upstroke if you’re changing to a lower (pitch) string.

You can see the down and upstroke symbols in the scale patterns right between the standard and tablature notation. The downstroke symbol looks like a hurdle for track and field, the upstroke symbol looks like a “V”.

I have to admit the pentatonic patterns are quite a stretch. Major scales are much easier to play, but for the rock and blues players out there we don’t want to miss out on the pentatonic.

It takes a bit of practice to get used to the sweep picking feeling but hang in there. After a while it feels so natural and easy. It’s the path of least resistance.

Have fun!
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Thank You For Making “50 Cool Blues Licks Improv” Possible

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And then there was the “50 Cool Blues Licks Improvisation” course. Something I worked passionately on for quite a long time.

I started out creating blues licks that would give you some new insights and cool ideas for your own soloing and improvisation and then I came into a flow where I just couldn’t stop and decided that 50 cool blues licks was a nice number to go with and to get loads of ideas from.

And then I thought, well there’s more to guitar playing than building a good vocabulary of blues licks.

You need to know how to play the blues scale shapes and have solid improvisation ideas for all of these shapes with exercises, assignments, tips and tricks that will make sure you really master the blues scale thoroughly and know how to use these scale shapes for improvisation. I was on a roll.

Eventually I realized I had created a course that I wish I had myself when I was learning this stuff.

May 23, it was time to go online and it was really exciting. It’s the first time I have created a guitar course for guitarhabits and now selling it online. The launch was above my expectations!

I want to thank everyone who purchased the “50 Cool Blues Licks Improvisation” course. It gives me the opportunity to keep the course available online and making guitarhabits a better place for all guitar players and guitar lifestyle designers.

I also want to thank everyone for all the kindhearted responses I got via email and an awesome thanks to all the readers of guitarhabits. I’m forever grateful!

I’ll keep continuing to make guitarhabits a great source of guitar study material with tabs, videos and abundant inspiration for guitar lifestyle design.

May you keep enjoying and improving your guitar playing forever and ever!

Best regards,
Klaus Crow

 

The Two Most Important Scales in Western Music

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Today I’ll show you the two most important scales in western music. The “Major Scale” and the “Pentatonic Scale”. If they are not in your vocubalary yet, be eager to learn. If you know your scales you can learn how to solo, improvise and much more. We’ll start with…

The Major Scale.
The major scale is the mother of all scales, because all the other scales, modes, intervals, chords and harmony in western music can be derived from it. If you want to learn anything about music theory you need to know how to play the major scale.

And why would you want to learn music theory? Because you’ll be much faster in learning to understand everything about guitar playing. Yes you’ll become a better rock, blues, metal, country, jazz guitar player. If you know music theory you know the short cuts to playing and transcribing guitar solos, chord progressions and improvising. It makes the life of a guitar player a lot easier.

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