Monthly Archive for July, 2008

The slowhand blues is the most prominent technique that makes blues music what it is today. Mastering the slowhand blues will demand time, effort and focus and above all in-depth comprehension of the different blues scales and the blues notes.

Defining blues is not the simplest of things and playing it iwell s a completely different ball game. There are plenty of great blues players and guitarists in the blues hall of fame to learn from. The fact of the matter is that if you are able to master slowhand blues then who knows you might be able to create a great blues record that will take you to the hall of fame too! But then that's just a thought right now. The main focus should be on mastering the blues scale and creating a blues backing track so that you can practice soloing using that.

When we talk about blues, you need to first learn to differentiate between different guitar techniques. You may be able to do impossibly fast runs or stretch your fingers far on the fretboard to play multiple notes but that's not what blues is all about. There is a degree of emotion and feeling that comes with the blues scale and has been well rendered by the likes of BB King, Albert King and Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton is one of the greats who is so versatile that he can play almost all the guitar styles including acoustic or unplugged, electric, slide, fingerpicking, open tunings, among many others but his real root lies in playing slowhand blues.

Starting with Slowhand Blues

Where do you actually start from especially for mastering the slowhand blues? Tough question really but it depends on quite a few elements like personal influences, the specific key, finger size and special patterns also called boxes. Each box has the notes of an octave in an arrangement that will be easy to play. Once you are comfortable with the boxes, it will help you to play with a blues backing track. The boxes or patterns mostly highlight the places where you can bend an important note with your index finger. One of the best ways of mastering the slowhand blues is by spending more time in researching various positions that will help you to play your strings better. Here is an example of a slowhand Blues scale: The A Blues note

I---8---10--I I---8---10--I I-7-8-9-----I I-----------I I-----------I I-----------I

The E minor Blues scale will look like the following:

I-------------------------0-3-I I---------------------0-3-----I I---------------0-2-3---------I I-----------0-2---------------I I-----0-1-2-------------------I I-0-3-------------------------I

The E minor pentatonic scale will be like:

I-------------------------------------12-15-I I-------------------------------12-15-------I I----------------------12-14-15-------------I I----------------12-14----------------------I I-------12-13-14----------------------------I I-12-15-------------------------------------I

A I-----0-2-----------------I E I-0-3---------------------I

You will have to start with an open E-string and when you reach the D-string, go onto the 2nd fret, which is also an E. You need to play both the notes simultaneously so that you can hear it. To make it easier, download some of the blues backing track for the same and practice with it. One more important thing: Never download any midis of blues backing track as it will not help you to understand the scales and the changes.

Serious blues guitar players aren't really content playing the guitar with the chords given to them. More than ever, they are definitely looking forward to the day that they will be able to have the spotlight to them-or to their music-by going solo. However, what does this mean to you? It means that you can already improvise with the music that you have.

Here are the things that you need to remember once you decide to go for a guitar solo:

1. Don't attempt to create random notes. Why is Santana one of the best blues guitar players of all time? He has countless guitar solos, and yet he never misses to sound so great. The technique doesn't really lie on the random notes. As a matter of fact, this is a completely wrong strategy. What you're definitely after is to create your own template, where you can make your improvisation.

2. Get yourself a blues scale. This doesn't really refer to the blues music. There's no clear explanation why it's called as such, though you can assume that it could be because of the certain random feeling of the music that the blues music has. Nevertheless, the blues scale is the widely used template when you're starting to train yourself for a guitar solo.

3. Practice alternate picking. The way you pick your guitar will matter when it comes to the kind of music that you want to produce. Since you're going to do improvisation, you need to try out the different ways on how to pick your guitar. This way, you can determine if the sound produced is good or not. The bottom line is you should avoid surprising yourself once you get on the stage.

4. Make sure that the notes are clear and even. Again, there should be no random notes in your blues guitar solos. You can accomplish this if you learn how to play the scale in different motions, such as forward and backward. Each note, moreover, should also be played twice before you proceed to the next note.

5. List the notes. Unless you have memorized the different kinds of scales used in guitar playing, or if you are already too experienced in guitar solos, you need to list the improvised notes, so you can bring with you when you're performing, especially when it's going to be your first time to do the improvised chords.

Come along with us as we dive in to how you can master guitar solos by using backing tracks for guitarists. We will examine how using guitar backing tracks can be a huge asset in developing your skills as well as helping you to master lead guitar playing.

A lot of guitar players spend their time trying to find the secret, the easy solution or the single trick to mastering their skills and being able to play really awesome guitar solos. Serious guitarists will spend hours practicing, honing their skills, and searching and scouring the Internet for any lessons that might help them achieve the perfection in their technique. Others may research endless on the type of pickups, the different tones or guitar effects review to take their sound to the next level. Practice is the key to mastery and enjoying your practice sessions is the answer to keeping the focus and commitment for guitar practicing. There is hope for these individuals, in the form of guitar backing tracks.

Backing tracks for guitarists are a crucial tool that can be very beneficial in achieving mastery of the ever elusive lead guitar solo. Guitar backing tracks can help you to become a well-rounded guitarist and help to put into practice your musical knowledge.

One of the greatest benefits of using guitar backing tracks to master guitar solos is how they help you learn guitar scales. Doing endless hours of practice drills to learn your scales can sometimes be excruciatingly boring and dull. However, when you practice along to backing tracks for guitarists, it is like playing live with a rocking band, and we all know how fun this is. It keeps you motivated and encourage to practice and play more often. This will help you to not only memorize the scales, but to understand how they actually work into the structure of a song as well.

Another factor that is extremely important in learning to master guitar solos is the fine art of improvisation. Backing tracks for guitarists provide the student with a live band to back them up while they piece together a blazing hot solo right there on the spot. This also allows you to place a solo anywhere in the song, or to improvise for the full length of the guitar backing tracks. These backing tracks make improvisation practice a whole lot more productive and fun. These backing tracks for guitarists are available from retailers such as Planet of Rock.

Another important part of mastering guitar solos is playing with clarity and great tone. There are a lot of different factors and gear that play into achieving a soulful, great-sounding tone during your solo, but one of the greatest factors is how well you actually play. The tone is in your fingers. Professional Guitar backing tracks can help you to achieve great tone by helping you to hone your own ability to play well and by greatly improving the technique with which you play. What better way to practice then to jam with a virtual live band. Hearing another guitar behind you, and how well it sounds and how clear it is can be very beneficial to helping you achieve a greater depth of clarity in your own playing.

Here is how to discover the 5 approach patterns in the keys of A and E, the keys most utilized by rock and blues guitarists:

KEY OF A

Pattern 2 - Open 5th string to 2nd fret 3rd string

Pattern 3 - 2nd fret 3rd string to 5th fret 1st & 6th strings

Pattern 4 - 5th fret 1st & 6th strings to 7th fret 4th string

Pattern 5 - 7th fret 4th string to 10th fret 2nd string

Pattern 1 - 10th fret 2nd string to 12th fret 5th string

KEY OF E

Pattern 4 - Open 1st and 6th strings to 2nd fret 4th string

Pattern 5 - 2nd fret 4th string to 5th fret 2nd string

Pattern 1 - 5th fret 2nd string to 7th fret 5th string

Pattern 2 - 7th fret 5th string to 9th fret 3rd string

Pattern 3 - 9th fret 3rd string to 12th fret 1st & 6th strings

Incredibly, I've seen books on lead guitar improvisation that diagram scores of scales yet make no mention of these patterns at all. I do realize that the guitar book methods published by most authors that do mention these patterns tend to number them differently. For example, what I call Pattern 4 is numbered by other books as Pattern 2, and so on. However, guitar instruction books published by faculty members of Musician's Institute in Hollywood number the patterns as they are listed here. Even though I am tempted to be biased since I did go to school there myself, I do agree with the MI numbering system. MI numbers the patterns 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 based on the key of C, the starting point for all the other keys in music. It is the key of C that has no sharps and no flats; it is the key of C that appears at the very top of the Circle of Fifths and Fourths (more about this circle later on). The sharps and flats found for every other key has its basis around the key of C, so it would appear that the MI approach seems to make the most sense.

The way I would like to practise these patterns is to play them classical style; that is, to pluck the notes in the pattern at the same time by employing the thumb and other fingers of my right hand rather than utilising a guitar pick. For instance, I'd begin rehearsing in the key of A by plucking the open A string with my thumb and the A on the 2nd fret 3rd string with my index finger, both concurrently. Then I proceed to go up the neck, playing each of the patterns using the classical fingerings for the right hand (i.e. the thumb covering the 4th, 5th & 6th strings, the index on the 3rd, the middle on the 2nd, and the ring on the 1st), picking off the strings in the same style. After completing one key, I'll commence to go through the same exercise in every other key. For those who play with a guitar pick, this example will still work and be effective, only you will have to play the strings and the notes on those strings one by one. One thing is sure, though: increased acquaintance with these patterns (in all the keys) will lead to increased speed with the patterns to the point where playing them will call for very little effort at all.

In learning the patterns in every key, the student will also learn all the individual notes on the guitar by default. Thus, the pattern method and the movable chord method become fairly easy and instinctive methods of learning the notes on the guitar. Using these two methods (or any other methods that will work) is definitely better than the academic method of learning the notes one at a time, a method that would seem less effective as well as being unnecessarily tedious and boring.

This simple approach outlined here is conceptually simple, but not easy. Good things sometimes take time. It takes a few more words and a bit more effort to explain concepts clearly. My hope is that the information in this article will help make your musical experience less mysterious and more enjoyable, and that the next time you go into a music store or on the Web looking for guitar books and methods, you'll know exactly what to look for.

There are different types of fingerstyles for rock and different for blues and this technique can be best learnt on an acoustic guitar. Learning different fingerstyles will help you to effectively render blues backing tracks.

When you are playing your guitar, the technique by which you strum the strings or pick your guitar strings without using a pick is called a fingerstyle. Blues Fingerstyle has been in use for quite a long time in jazz, blues, rock and is even used for improvisation over blues backing tracks. There are some greats of the world of blues music like Mark Knoprfler, Jeff Beck and Chat Atkins who do it very well. Some of the blues guitar players who do the fingerstyle better than anyone else include John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Otis Rush and Albert King among others. Learning the fingerstyle method of blues playing will definitely make things easier for you especially when you are jamming and playing over blues guitar backing tracks.

This technique is all about how well you can use your bare fingers. You can use blues fingerstyle on both the acoustic and electric guitars but they should have nylon or steel strings. Using the fingerstyle gives blues backing tracks a definite edge. Most of the blues guitarists of the Delta style used extensive blues backing tracks reinforced by fingerstyles.

You may have heard the word fingerpicking more than finger style and mind you - both the words sound similar but mean different. Fingerpicking in blues is more centered on particular picking patterns that have been inferred from certain chords and are always played in a style quite similar to arpeggio. For illustration: The song Layla by Eric Clapton is fingerstyle but the song Never goin back again by Fleetwood Mac is fingerpicking.

Different Blues Fingerstyles

There are different kinds of blues fingerstyle techniques that you can acquire as you advance up the ladder and of course if you want to play great blues music with backing tracks. The most common way to use fingerstyle in blues backing tracks is by using the classical guitar style. In the classical guitar style, you've to use your thumb for playing the 3 bass strings, and use the index, and middle finger for playing the melody strings.

There are 3 distinctive style of blues fingerstyle guitar and each have a different effect in blues backing tracks. They are:

1.Using the thumb: The thumb fingerstyle mostly calls for down-strokes. It will provide you with a hard expressive style, hard sound, and a great tone but you will not be able to play fast. This is considered a beginners style and will provide you with a feeling of the guitar and the strings and create the base for blues backing tracks.

2.Index finger and thumb: In this technique you need to simulate playing with a pick except you will be using your fingers instead of the pick. The thumb will help in down-strokes while the index finger will be used for up-strokes.

The thumb, index and middle finger: In this technique you will have a definite advantage over the other two techniques and can play blues backing tracks with ease and speed. The middle finger and the index finger will be used for alternate picking.