[BlueJayWay]

Anyone know some nice blues guitar songs? I'd like to learn some but don't really know where to find some...

Anyone?

[MakoMako]

I do believe Gibson makes a "Blues" guitar.

Gibson Blues King

The guitar just seems to be made up of the sound that the average Blues artist sought. The smaller body and the wood choice is what I think helped to give the sound that many Blues artists sought. I will say though, that the primary thing with playing the Blues is actuall the playing of it. The style and the chord progressions have a very large effect on the actual Blues style.

I also hear that many Blues artists played arch-top and semi-solid guitars quite often as well. They also play slide, which I think would always be fun to work on.

[ninjato]

Blues guitar songs?

Just play a blues progression and make up your own lyrics. Pick a key 1 4 5

[dadfad]

Anyone know some nice blues guitar songs? I'd like to learn some but don't really know where to find some...

Anyone?

First of all, welcome to GTU. There are hundreds (thousands) of different recorded acoustic blues guitar tunes. They come in different styles and genres with varying degrees of complexity, from fairly simple, mostly-strumming to fairly difficult fingerstyle tunes, and with variations in the complexity of the progressions used. The most basic is the 12-bar I-IV-V that Ninjato mentioned. Use the 12-bar blues progression, with a bit of a "shuffle" rhythm to it, then add a few simple blues-scale (minor-pentatonic-based) notes or figures over it. I'm going to assume you know what a 12-bar I-IV-V progression and a "shuffle" rhythm is at this point (and if not just say so). A common "simple" blues tune might be Muddy Water's "Rock Me Baby."

Rock me, Baby...
Rock me all night long.
(Yeah) Rock me, Baby...
Rock me all night long.
I want you to rock me
Like my back ain't got no bone.

(In E...)
[E]Rock me, Baby...
Rock me all night long.
[A](Yeah) Rock me, Baby...
Rock me all night [E]long.
I want [B7]you to rock me
[A]Like my back ain't got no [E]bone.


And of course there are several other verses, (even variations on the progression itself) but one's enough to practice with. Choose a simple key, like E (E,A,B7 chords) or A (A,D, E chords) and just start in.

[ninjato]

http://members.tripo...omino/blues.htm

[Sabbath89]

Early Eric Clapton stuff. Like Blue Before Sunrise.

[MakoMako]

Wow, I totally read that question wrong. Sorry about that.

[mainor57]

Anyone know some nice blues guitar songs? I'd like to learn some but don't really know where to find some...

Anyone?

A lot of Eric Clapton is pretty good, maybe some really early Led Zeppelin too. Then, of course you've got the 1920s artists too like Robert Johnson, Son House, Charlie Patton etc.

[dadfad]

Yes, there's a lot of great stuff in the old pre-war solo acoustic blues, although often it's fairly complex fingerstyle. Not the easiest to start with if one is just getting into blues (unless there's a pretty fair starting-base already of fingerstyle ability and familiarity with the structure). Clapton's covers are much easier to start with, or just sort of generally working with generic basic blues-progressions and putting words (whether made up or from recorded tunes) to them.

[nealmac]

Some of Chuck Berry's stuff can sound quite god accousticly

[Stagestruck]

How 'bout this one?

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=xIZMTQrOiBc Bankers Blues

There might be a tab on www.bluestabs.net

[AcousticSmash]

Geeze you got lots to choose from, I personally like Clapton's Unplugged session for blues tunes, I have the songbook actually and the blues pieces are all fairly difficult, fingerstyle of course. You got other guys like B.B King, Son House, Robert Johnson etc. Take your pick really. Before You Accuse Me by Clapton is one of my favourites.

[enzed]

if you are keen to write your own lyrics, have a look at this (tongue-in-cheek)

How To Sing the Blues
1. Most Blues begin “woke up this morning.”

2. “I got a good woman” is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in right away:
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.

3. Blues are simple. After you have the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes. Sort of.
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
I got a good woman—with the meanest face in town.
She got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weighs 500 pounds.

4. The Blues are not about limitless choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars are Chevies, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Other acceptable Blues transportation modes include Greyhound buses and southbound trains. Walkin’ plays a major part in the Blues lifestyle. So does fixin’ to die. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running.

6. Adults sing the Blues. Teenagers can’t sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. In the Blues, "adulthood" means old enough to get the electric chair when you shoot that man in Memphis.

7. You can have the Blues in New York City, but not in Brooklyn or Queens. Hard times in Vermont, Tucson, or North Dakota are just depression. The best places to have the Blues are still Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg while skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg when your broken-down pickup truck rolled over on it is.

9. The following colors do not belong in the Blues: violet, beige, mauve (unless you’re truly desperate for a rhyme).

9. You can’t have the Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is just plain wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places to have the Blues: the highway, a jailhouse, an empty bed, the bottom of a whiskey glass. Bad places to have the Blues: ashrams, gallery openings, weekends in the Hamptons, golf courses, Tiffany's, and Ivy League institutions.

11. No one will believe it’s the Blues if you wear a suit, unless you happen to be an old black man—and it’s an old black suit.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
Answer “Yes” if:
a. your first name is a southern state—like Georgia
b. you’re blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis.
d. you can’t be satisfied.
e. you're older than dirt
Answer “No” if:
a. you once were blind but now can see.
b. you’re deaf
c. the man in Memphis lived.
d. you have a trust fund or an IRA.
e. you have all your teeth
f. you were once blind but now can see

13. Blues is not about color, it's about bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues; Gary Coleman could. Ugly old white people got a leg up on the blues. Julio Iglesias and Barbra Streisand will never sing the Blues.

14. If you ask for water and baby gives you gasoline, it’s the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: wine, whiskey, muddy water, beer, black coffee. Blues beverages are NOT: mixed drinks, kosher wine, sparkling water, Snapple, Starbucks Frappuccino, or Slim Fast. Although Rubber Biscuits and the Wish Sandwich are famous blues snacks, better stick to common blues grub like Greasy Bar-b-que, Fatback and beans, and Government cheeze. Blues food is never: Club sandwich, Sushi, or Crème brule.

15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is a Blues death. So is substance abuse, the electric chair, or being denied treatment in an emergency room. It is not a Blues death to die during liposuction or from tennis elbow.

16. Excellent names for female Blues singers: Sadie, Big Momma, Bessie, or Fat River Dumpling. Excellent names for male Blues singers: Willie, Joe, Little Willie, Lightning, or Big Willie. Singers with names like Muffy, Sierra, Auburn, Alexis, Gwenyth, Sequoiz, Brittany or Rainbow are not permitted to sing the Blues, no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

17. The Build Your Own Blues Singer Name Starter Kit:
a. Name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, Asthmatic)
b. First name (from above lists) or name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi)
c. Last name of a U. S. president (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Okay, maybe not "Kiwi"…)

18. I don't care how tragic your life; if you own a computer, you cannot sing the Blues.
You'd best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or shotgun.
Maybe your big ass woman just done sit on it. I don't care

19. Hey there, you can READ! This too be a big ol' problem. Most folks singin' the
Blues ain't never had much a chance for education. In the Blues… the three R's stand
for Railroads, Runnin' and Rehab.

20. It gots to be dark to sing the blues, preferably after midnight. Singin' da blues at noon is forbidden.

21. If none of the above works, try one last, pathetic stab at authenticity: name your guitar. Remember, Lucille is taken.

22. Epitaph on a blues musician's tombstone: "I didn't wake up this morning"


taken from www.bluesguide.com

[Musemaniac]

I lol'ed.

[SRVfan2004]

try some SRV acoustic stuff like "life by the drop" and "rude mood" stuff like that will get you goin as he has quite an awkward style.

[jenniferdurst]

In my history of rock and roll class this semester, we decided to write our own blues song as a class project at the end and we used those very rules for it.

[Kite Man]

if you are keen to write your own lyrics, have a look at this (tongue-in-cheek)

How To Sing the Blues
1. Most Blues begin “woke up this morning.”

That is sooo true.

Waking up in the morning is an achievement for a blues man.

[Scott Gibson]

[lmao!!!!!!

This post has been edited by Scott Gibson: 22 May 2007 - 11:37 PM