Blues Rock Guitar
Blues rock is where technique meets soul. Built on the 12-bar blues, pentatonic scales and expressive bending, it's the genre that taught rock guitar how to feel. Every rock guitarist owes something to the blues.
Cream, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan are all here. Their songs will teach you bending, vibrato, call-and-response phrasing and improvisation.
Andy Timmons 4
Blues Brothers 1
Cream 5
Eric Clapton 6
Freddie King 1
I Shot The Sheriff 1
Kenny Wayne Shepherd 1
Robin Trower 2
Rory Gallagher 2
The Black Keys 1
The Jimi Hendrix Experience 1
Blues Rock Guitar: Feel Over Speed
Blues rock guitar is all about phrasing. The minor pentatonic scale is your home base, but what matters is how you play each note: the bend, the vibrato, the space between notes. A single bent note from Eric Clapton can say more than a hundred fast runs.
Stevie Ray Vaughan played in Eb Standard with heavy strings, producing a thick, aggressive tone that redefined blues guitar in the 80s. Cream (with Clapton) pioneered the power trio format. Led Zeppelin took blues riffs and turned them into hard rock anthems.
Start with I Feel Free for classic blues-rock rhythm and tone. Pride and Joy teaches Texas shuffle rhythm and aggressive string bending. Gravity shows how blues phrasing works in a modern context.
Related: Blues, Classic Rock. Or explore songs in Eb Standard tuning.