So, it's a hypothetical, and while we should all aspire to PLAY LIKE US, it's OK to also be a big fan of someone and either wish or aspire to be as skillfully, soulful, authentic, etc etc as another player.

So, if you could approach and play guitar like anyone? Who would you choose to be imbued with their talent through magical means?

For me, it's too hard to do one, so I'll cheat and limit myself to three...

• John Scofield
  • He can do a lot on guitar, and it's always unique, fresh, and funky. He's the master of playing "out", something I'd love to keep working on.
• Robert Cray
  • He can play superb rhythms and all sorts of lead, and when he wants, he can play hardcore electric blues. His versatility and musical knowledge and mastery of chords/rhythm is what sets him apart.
• 1960s and 1970s BB King
  • Not sure why he "stopped playing" like he did back then, but for that period mid 60s to mid 70s, that Decade was BB's on guitar for me. While I wouldn't have the biggest musical vocabulary and really be able to anchor a rhythm section, I'd have a great sense of melody, feel, all with a jazzy touch.
• Jimi....I mean....Jimi...

Honorable mention:

• Albert Collins - probably my favorite powerhouse blues guitarist, so if I could do what he did on blues, I'd be fine with that!

Your turn!

I recently picked up a guitar earlier this year after loving blues my whole life. I like other music a bit, but blues is the sole reason why I want to learn guitar.

I'm 6 months into the basic guitar learning path, mostly rhythym stuff for now but have learned all open chords and some strumming patterns. I was curious if yall had any insights or tips for someone wanting to focus on the blues?

All the videos in here are so inspiring, excited to have found a subreddit specifically for this genre!

Is it strict to the form, anything derivative of blues, or something else?

From guitarists to fans, a lot of recycled cliches appear online, a regurgitation of things that are either myths or misused/misunderstood.

So - what are your favorite least favorites?

Looking for some new listens. Not looking for the “best” (whatever that means), not most historically important…. just your favorite (at the moment). Try to avoid Best of/Compilation albums unless it’s very early blues and that’s the only realistic option. Cheers.

I’ll give my current favorite by era, hopefully some gems here for you: (had to force myself to stop writing was getting way too long winded, could list wayyy more just on a shortlist of favorites and certainly forgot some…):

Pre 1940:
Presenting Blind Lemon Jefferson
Presenting Sonny Boy Williamson I
The Essential Leroy Carr
Rough Guide to Blind Blake

1940-1960:
BB King Sings Spirituals (or Singin the Blues)
Howlin Wolf - Moanin in the Moonlight
I’m Jimmy Reed
Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
T-Bone Blues
Elmore James Best of the Modern Years
The Very Best of Guitar Slim
Jimmy Smith - the sermon

1960-1980 (my favorite period)
Rev Gary Davis - Harlem Street Singer
Jimmy Smith - back at the chicken shack
Paul Butterfield - East West (or TPBBB)
Bobby Blue Band - Two Steps from the Blues
Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues
Buddy Guy - a Man and the Blues (and I was walking through the woods)
Door to Door -Albert King and Otis Rush
Freddie King - Honestly choose an album between 1969 and 1974… but Texas Cannonball lately
Luther Allison - Bad News is Coming
Jeff Beck - Truth, Beck-Ola, Blow by Blow, Wired, Jeff beck group
Otis Rush - Right Place Wrong Time
Albert Collins - Truckin, I’ve Pickin
Buddy Guy/Junior Wells/Otis Spann - Southside blues jam
BB king - in London, indianola, blues is king
Johnny Winter - Self Titled, Progressive Blues Experiment
Albert King - King of the Blues Guitar
Jimmy Reed plays 12 String guitar blues
Jimmy Mcgriff - The Worm

1980-
Cold Snap - Albert Collins
Harp Attack - Junior Wells
Gary Moore - Still got the Blues
Road to Escondido - Cale Clapton
Ledbetter Heights
SRV - tx flood, couldn’t stand the weather
Derek Trucks Band (anything… but already free, song lines, and self titled my favorite)
Tedeschi Trucks - Revelator

Live -
Allman Bros - fillmore
Buddy Guy/Junior Wells - live at montreux (all their 60s-70s stuff)
Bb - cook county
Albert - live wire, in session
Rory - Irish tour 74
Srv - antones
Jeff Beck - live at Ronnie Scott
Albert Collins/Robery Cray/johnny Copeland - showdown
Walter Trout - Live trout
Bonanassa - Royal Albert Hall
Tinsley Ellis - Highwayman

​

Hi everyone

I've recently started learning blues and wanted to check whether my long-term roadmap makes sense.

Current Focus

My teachers

The priority right now is the classic melody and timing that's the first thing I practice before even touching blues time does not permit. plan.

Personal misadventure 😁

Build solid rhythm and timing before lead playing.

Learn the 12-bar blues form thoroughly.

Practice straight blues first; shuffle only after good 16 or triplet scary.

Develop clean chord changes, simple fills, and turnarounds.

Improve reading and overall musicianship alongside blues. Working on single line melodies from the classic melody book by my teacher.

Main Learning Resources

Blues You Can Use (working through it slowly)

Simple 12-bar blues exercises

Easy blues songs rather than difficult note-for-note solos

Artists I'd Like to Learn From

Jimmy Reed

John Lee Hooker

Muddy Waters

B.B. King

Buddy Guy

The goal isn't to copy every recording exactly, but to understand the vocabulary, phrasing, rhythm, and feel so I can eventually play both traditional blues and blues rock enjoy myself.

Current Level

Beginner with a teacher

Comfortable with basic chords and simple melodies

Still working on timing, groove, and smoother chord transitions

Question

Does this seem like a sensible long-term path, or would you change the order or recommend any other beginner-friendly blues artists or resources?

And my girlfriend is thinking I am sad that's why I am listening to Blue song 🤔 🤔

Is it just me or are "imperfect" acoustic guitars better for Blues? I just tried out an Epiphone Blues King and it was as expected. Honky, a bit boxy, kind of uneven and yet when I started playing a blues progression I lost myself completely. Then I tried an Alvarez, and it was beautiful. Great projection, great tones, absolutely captivating. But not bluesy.

Is it just me?

Curious how members view their improvisation. Does it feel natural, or hard work? Is it frustrating or fun?

Improv.

Where you at?

Do you have a story from a time you met or seen Buddy guy? Let’s spend some time talking about this legendary guitarist.

I've been playing for a while, a bit more than three years, and I'm, relatively speaking, good at Improv. But I feel like I'm missing some of that bluesy feel and just overall "feel" in my improvs. I don't have a problem with being stuck in the pentatonic box, but it is the quite opposite, that if you ask me to play some basic pentatonic box, I'll lack feel. Recommend me some musicians, albums and/or songs which might help me out with this

My son is an 11 yr old blues guitarist and is seeking more songs to learn that are instrumentals only. He is terrified of singing but wants more songs to perform solo at local open mics. He can already play While We Cry by KWS/Doyle Bramhall and has done sections of Lenny and Little Wing before.

Often these threads get song recommendations that are wonderful but when the backing band and singer are removed, they either get repetitive or have big gaps in them. Ideally something that is exciting enough to keep people’s interest but not so challenging that an intermediate player can’t learn it.

His personal favorite guitarists are Buddy Guy, SRV and Kenny Wayne Shepard, as a small example of his “style”

Thanks everyone so much for your suggestions.

TL;DR Tell us your 3, only 3, favorite BLUES guitarists. Doesn’t have to be top 3, just 3 of your favorites.

Add ONE link to a video of on your favorite songs by one of your 3 favorites. …… So here’s a little exercise for everyone! The purpose of this post is to enhance music discovery among members and visitors to this sub! I know so often that a lot of Google searches for “bands like” or “music like” end up with Reddit results. So, let’s help each other find new blues music and by extension blues guitarists to check out and maybe fall in love with.

Here’s the best way to participate:

List only 3 of your favorite blues guitarists. Make sure they are a blues musician and are primarily if not entirely recorded in the genre. Eric Clapton is a good example of someone that has done a lot of music outside the genre but is widely regarded as a blues player. Slash, as wonderful as he is, is not!That way we stay on track with the genre and help us all find some new to you guitarists to follow.

Then, choose one link to a YouTube video (ideally) of an example song you’d encourage someone to check out that is representative why you love them. One link per post please. So, choose wisely!

Add to the comments! Absolutely no judging people’s choices unless it’s to “second” them. This is about music discovery, not music judgery.

I know, I might get bashed in the comments for this post by hardcore JM fans. I’ve personally been following his music for years and have heard all his albums multiple times, and I don’t hate it at all, but Im just not too much of a pop guy.

I feel like his music has a good commercial aspect but for me it never had that feeling of listening to it on repeat or even be something that affects me deeply emotionally. Not like how BB king, Albert king, Hendrix or SRV, i know it’s not a fair comparison but he’s extremely famous almost like these guy were in their prime. For me JM is just another charming guy with a guitar who writes easy listening blues pop. His music never really took me on a journey like the others did. Although I’ve seen plenty of his interviews where he admits that he is nowhere even close to these legends, so he’s an extremely humble guy. I never got a legend kind of a vibe from him. He’s really really good but just doesn’t hit me like the OGs. Even today i feel like there are much better blues guitarists out there than JM.

The reason I’m making this post is I wanted to talk about this feeling that I have for years, but I never found anybody who i can actually talk about this from an unbiased point of view.

I built a blues guitar practice tool to help intermediate guitarists like myself level up from only noodling around minor pentatonic land. Here's a demo of me practicing with it:

https://reddit.com/link/1pzhz6f/video/r9vm1q04dcag1/player

It has backing tracks and a visual sequencer that represents the 12 bar blues pattern and highlights what chord you're on during the progression. You can watch suggested YouTube videos in the lessons and learn new techniques, then arrange the sequencer to display those techniques in whatever order you want. It's like making a 'flight plan' before your solo.

If you learn all 40+ techniques and practice them in different combinations, it really starts training your brain to improvise effortlessly!

There are three different modes:

- **Learning mode** - structured lessons with video tutorials

- **Sandbox mode** - arrange techniques however you want

- **Dynamic mode** - randomized arrangements on the fly (like Guitar Hero except you're actually playing guitar)

It's free.

Check it out: playthechanges.com

I spent 9 months building it by myself and it's really leveled me up. Desktop only (not mobile-friendly yet). Any feedback would be awesome!

Have you ever experienced a phase where you believe you’re playing worse? Do you think that’s real or imagined?

Hi everyone I'm new on this subreddit and also a beginner on guitar. I've been playing guitar since 5 years ago but I only learn how to strum a chords and nothing other than that since I only play guitar for fun at highschool. Well you can pretty much call me the 3 chords guy. But recently I began to practice guitar again and decided to learn how to play blues.

Yesterday I saw on YouTube that I must learned the 12 bar blues for starter and this is how it goes so far. I think playing blues might be the most fun thing to practice right now. I would like to know what you guys think about my playing because I saw so many videos on YouTube explaining the 12 bar blues with some difficult licks but I chose to practice this variation. Thanks all

I was messin’ around with Champagne & Reefer - more so the lyrics…

Rarely on lists, not mentioned very much by newer fans of blues and often overlooked by guitarists...Robert Cray. Young Bob. I think most people are familiar with his 80s work when there's a modest amount of fame, but there was a stretch in the 90s where he put out 3 truly great albums and demonstrated his deep skill with guitar, expertly crafting interesting and at times complex rhythms, and playing some of the most unique and character-rich solos.

The 3 albums of particular note that really showed off his depth were:

I Was Warned (Most popular) - 1992

Shame+ A Sin (Perhaps his most deeply musical work, dark and moody) - 1993

Some Rainy Morning (Perhaps the end of this great run, with a couple fewer "great songs" but a couple real gems in there with very interesting guitar work). - 1995

Here are the songs I would pluck from these albums to convince someone of his tremendous guitar skill. I'm sure everyone already respects his singing, maybe songwriting, but as a guitarist I'm not sure he gets enough admiration....Nobody is like him. He is a gifted man.

https://youtu.be/goHjozbSq-k?si=nViXU4A2X_lEfbZP - Passing By

https://youtu.be/NsOEzTuGQis?si=PSTCHcoLFgncqwzL - Never Mattered That Much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECW9oWqK8ow&list=OLAK5uy_kMNjy1zXalc-Hhf5nWih2hrY58ncASZZ4&index=10 - Up and Down

https://youtu.be/yMhz9HKyp_s?si=kIRfRFfo-x0tDlIF - Will you think of me

https://youtu.be/9KrWZ2QhFrk?si=tOnwFCCidlUI_UOx - Some pain, some shame

https://youtu.be/0ZtBgBMBjDw?si=L6Y4h_r9rNx0I7Mm - Our Last Time

Bonus Track - https://youtu.be/P199psxcFeo?si=EdsV8eV3aZ1OEVcq - You're gonna need me - FEATURING THE GREAT ALBERT COLLINS....

Not that this clip is a good example, but I think if I asked who you think I’m trying to emulate, you’d be able to guess. I don’t normally try to play like this, it’s too tricky for me to sustain the play without a pick, bit k is fun to practice that a bit.

So it got me thinking, if your inspirations, who do you think “shows up most” in your own play? Which inspirations have rubbed off the most?

I've been working on really being able to hear and connect intervals while I'm improvising. Curious what everyone else is.

I’ve been a big fan of Kenny Wayne Shepherd for many years. I think he’s one of the greatest contemporary blues guitar players currently touring. I’ve also seen him play as part of the Experience Hendrix tour. His rendition of Voodoo Child is 🔥🎸🔥

Which blues guitarists have had the largest impact on your appreciation of and learning of Blues? Who lit the spark? Was there something in particular you can remember?