Blues Guitar
The blues is the root of everything. Every rock, metal and pop guitarist owes their vocabulary to blues players. The 12-bar form, the pentatonic scale, the art of bending and vibrato: it all started here.
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Gary Moore are our blues heavyweights. Their songs teach you phrasing, dynamics and how to make a guitar cry.
Songs to Start With
Backwater Blues 1
Blues Licks in E Pentatonic 1
Gary Moore 2
Got My Mojo Workin' 1
Learning Blues Guitar
Blues guitar is about expression, not complexity. The minor pentatonic and blues scale give you all the notes you need. What matters is how you play them: the weight of your bends, the speed of your vibrato, the silence between phrases. Good blues playing is like a conversation.
Stevie Ray Vaughan played with unmatched intensity. His tone (Eb Standard tuning, heavy strings, a Tube Screamer into a cranked Fender) became the gold standard for modern blues. Gary Moore bridged blues and rock with searing, emotional solos.
Start with Pride and Joy for shuffle rhythm and aggressive bending. Move to the more refined phrasing of Eric Clapton's work in the Blues Rock section.
Many blues songs sit in Eb Standard tuning. Explore that tuning page to find more.