Week 1 - The importance of 'The Blues'

Playing the blues on your guitar, at some point in your learning, is as inevitable as the sun rising from the east. After you have learned most of the basic chords, have a basic understanding of the relationships between those chords and the notes played over them and you have learned a dozen or more songs you will naturally gravitate towards different musical genres. Blues being probably the most important and influential to what followed it.

In this guide, I will show you what I feel are the most important skills you should have from the start.

What will I learn?

In this guide, you will learn what makes the blues sound 'bluesy, the chord progressions mostly associated with the genre as well as the best scales to use. Some improvisation is encouraged and backing tracks will be provided for you to practice with.

Ok, so you know the basic chord types associated with a blues progression and you can play a solo over the top of them using the blues scale and a few basic licks. In this lesson, we will delve a little deeper into the rhythms, melodies and tricks to build a blues song from scratch.

In order to learn the shuffle beat, we will first need to learn about the 'triplet'

What will I learn?

In this lesson we will look at 2 simple strumming patterns, a melody using triplet feel and the scales the notes are taken from. Also, we will look at palm muting and how to change a reggae song into different keys and even change its tonality (major to minor)

A great way to explore this (and any other) style of music is to not only write your own song but also change a song you already love into a reggae version. More about that another day but for now let's talk about using the rhythms and chord progressions you have learned so far.

So where shall we start? A nice percussion or drum track would be great to play along with.... here's one I found on YouTube.

Put simply, Bluegrass is a faster version of blues but played predominantly in a major key. It is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the United States Appalachian region. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys.

Bluegrass is a sub-genre of Country Music with characteristics that differentiate it from mainstream Country: The instrumentation is pure 'string band' based: Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle and Upright Bass. There is more emphasis on an 'acoustic' sound and the tempo is usually quite fast.

What will I learn?

In this guide, you will learn what makes bluegrass sound the way it does, the chord progressions and strumming patterns mostly associated with the genre as well as the best scales to use. Some improvisation is encouraged and backing tracks will be provided for you to practice with

Today we're going to look at a few more examples of rhythm, melody and bass lines and put them all together to play a version of Duelling Banjos

Spanish guitar is so recognisable you can probably identify it from the first 2 bars. As soon as you hear the first 2 chords, the particular styles of fingerpicking, the rhythms and the signature fast strumming called Rasgueado you are immediately transported to 18th century Andalusia (Southern Spain) from where it originated.

In this guide, you will learn what makes Spanish guitar music sound the way it does, the basic techniques and chord progressions mostly associated with the genre as well as the best scales to use. Some improvisation is encouraged and backing tracks will be provided for you to practice with

let's play MALAGUENA that uses the E Phrygian Scale and practice your ALTERNATE PICKING. Switch from down pick to up pick for each note (the first note of each bar should be a down pick)