How To Master the Blues Guitar Scales
If you are starting out as a guitar player who wants to make his line of expertise a profitable one, then this article will be very helpful to you. Why? This is because the basic things that you have to learn in order to become a great guitar player and interpreter of blues music. If you are not a fan of blues music and would like to pursue a guitar-playing career of a different genre, then you can still use this article to learn a thing or two about blues guitar scales in general and may be applied to all kinds of music.
The first, and probably most important, kind of all blues guitar scales is the minor pentatonic. Penta normally refers to the number five. In this case, the pentatonic scale is a scale composed of five notes. The A minor scale starts at a root note, where the A is at the fifth fret and the sixth string. If you are a player who is more experienced with playing barre chords, you may simply barre the fifth fret. In doing so, you have the option of using your third and fourth fingers in order to play the seventh and eight fret notes. Since the first note of the minor pentatonic scale is a root note, all you have to do to play the scale in different keys is slide your finger either up or down in the guitar neck. When you move the barre onto the eight fret, you will get the root note C. Added notes to the minor pentatonic scale gives the music produced a more “bluesy” feeling.
You may also play the minor pentatonic scale in various positions. But you first have to learn where your notes are, since similar notes that are played on separate strings will sound different. This means that the more positions you play, the more variety of sounds you can play.
Once you master a certain scale in one position, just experiment with it. Try to bend the notes and try the other notes that will sound good with the current notes in the scale. Simply put, try to make your scale sound more individual. If you cannot put individuality in your guitar, then by all means just return to imitating other guitar players. Do not feel worried about copying material out of other guitarists. Majority of the most successful guitarists started off exactly this way. When you use the licks of other musicians, you will be hyped up. Soon, you will be performing your own licks.
As soon as you get a basic understanding of blues guitar scales and you start playing it in more than one position on your fret board, you may look into the phrasing. There are numerous blues music songs all these years that you may listen and emulate. It does not necessarily mean that you have to accurately play the song. However, many of the top blues guitar players use great tracks as starting points for their own original works. The one thing that you should always remember, particularly if you are a beginner in blues guitar playing, is that you need not play all the notes at the same time. Bend the notes, hammer them, slide or practice them into vibrato. Just make the notes yours and you will definitely succeed.
