Blues Guitar Chords – Using 7th Chords

By Keith Dean

You hear a song and instantly know it’s a blues tune. How do you know?

It might be in the tempo or the rhythm pattern. Maybe it’s a fast shuffle, or the deliberate staccato of a slow 12/8 beat.

It may be the familiar changes of a I, IV, V chord progression that tips you off – or the lyrical ramblings lamenting lost loves and “you-done-me-wrong’s”.

But there is a good chance the recognition was triggered by structure of the song’s underlying chords.

Most beginning guitarists become familiar early on with major chords and minor chords. And millions of songs from many genres of music can be played using them.

But in blues music, it’s rare to find the use of a standard major or minor chord. Not unheard of, but rare.

More typically, you will encounter 7th chords, minor 7th chords, 9th chords, and augmented chords – just to name a few.

Many of these chords are very similar to their major or minor parent, with only a small change in one of the notes of the chord.

But it’s this subtle change that gives these chords the “bluesy” sound that tells your ears that you’re listening to the blues.

Here we will talk about 7th chords and how to use them to create blues progressions.

Technically, a 7th chord is formed using the major triad, and adding a flat 7th to it.

From a practical standpoint, let’s take a look at how to form a simple 7th chord from a standard “G” barre chord at the 3rd fret.

E———-3———-3—–

B———-3———-3—–

G———-4———-4—–

D———-5———-3—–

A———-5———-5—–

E———-3———-3—–

The first chord in the TAB above represents a G barre chord played on the 3rd fret.

The second chord is a G7 played at the same position. The only difference is the note on the D (4th) string. That note was lowered from the 5th fret, to the 3rd fret to make the G chord a G7.

A much easier way to visualize this is to think of the fingering pattern used when playing a G barre chord in this position. All you have to do to make it a G7 chord is to lift the 4th finger. No other change is necessary.

The neat thing about guitar is that you can transpose this to any key by simply sliding this chord position up or down the neck. In this way you can now play 7th chords anywhere.

Another commonly used 7th chord can be formed using barre chords in the “A” shape.

For example, a “C” major barre chord in the “A” shape, played at the 3rd fret would look like the first example below:

E———-3———-3—–

B———-5———-5—–

G———-5———-3—–

D———-5———-5—–

A———-3———-3—–

E—————————-

The second example above represents the C7 chord which is formed by lowering the note on the 5th fret of the 3rd string two frets to the 3rd fret. This requires a minor change in fingering, but is easily accomplished.

These 7th chords can also be transposed to any key by simply sliding them up or down the neck to the desired position.

By using the two formations of 7th chords shown above, you can now apply these to a multitude of blues songs.

To illustrate, a song using a I, IV, V chord progression in the key of “G” would consist of the chords G, C and D.

You can make this into a blues sounding progression by substituting the major chords with 7th chords.

The result would be a chord progression comprised of G7, C7 and D7.

The G7 would be played using the formation in the first example above – the C7 would be played using the second example above, and the D7 would be played by sliding the C7 chord formation up two frets.

Experiment with these chords in different keys and get used to playing them. You’ll find that you will use them over and over.

The subtle difference of changing a major chord to a 7th chord can take a standard rock or country song and turn it into blues song just by inserting these simple blues guitar chords.

For more information on how to play blues guitar visit: http://learnandmasterbluesguitar.com/

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Acoustic Blues Guitar Lessons

So you want to learn how to play the blues on your acoustic guitar? On this page you will find a collection of excellent acoustic blues guitar lessons that I gathered from YouTube from the folks over at Next Level Guitar. I can’t promise you will become the next B.B King or Stevie Ray Vaughn after watching these lessons, but you will certainly gain a lot of great insight into playing the blues. Enjoy and happy blues guitar playing!

Beginner Acoustic Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson

In this beginner lesson we a fun and easy beginner blues rhythm. Play it on acoustic or electric -- rock on!

Acoustic Blues Guitar Lesson -- Spice Up that Bluesy Playing

In this lesson we teach an acoustic blues lesson on how to spice up some blues progressions and move around the guitar neck. Works with electric guitars also

Acoustic Rhythm Guitar Lesson -- How to Play the Blues ZZ Top

Beginner Acoustic Guitar -  Learn 7th Chords

In this guitar lesson we expand your chord catalog by teaching some open position 7th chords on the acoustic guitar and also some practice progressions using these new chords.

Learn Acoustic Blues Lead Guitar Licks and Solo Playing

In this lesson we teach how to embellish and play lead licks over an acoustic blues. LOts of fun and the licks can be played on acoustic or electric guitars.

Acoustic Blues Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson

In this video we teach some acoustic blues fingerpickingin the styles of Eric Clapton and Robert Johnson and many more.

3 Blues Guitar Soloing Secrets

By Gary Fletcher

Running up and down a pentatonic scale is an easy way to get started playing blues guitar solos, but you soon realize that there’s more to it than that to create the sounds of blues players you listen to. Here are three secrets to help you extend your pentatonic skills and sound more like your blues guitar heroes.

Minor and Major

Instead of running around minor or major pentatonic positions, get into the habit of using both.

Many blues players use a mixture of both the minor and major scales as well as the blues scale. This one secret will give your solos a whole new dimension.

An easy way to do this is to use the pentatonic major scale over the I chord, and switch to the pentatonic minor on the IV and V chords. Pop on your favourite blues jam track and try this out.

If you play the major scale over the IV chord you’ll notice that it sounds kind of odd. The major third tone is the major seventh of the IV chord and clashes with the chord’s dominant seventh note. The minor third hits that dominant seventh and sounds way better.

Play Less Notes

A big mistake lots of novice blues soloists make is to play too many notes. Once you’ve learned the pentatonic or blues scales you’re usually eager to show off your knowledge by trying to go as fast as you can and play as many notes as possible in the least possible time.

Your licks and solos can be made much more effective, though, by limiting the notes you play, and their quantity. To develop this skill select at most three or four notes from the available scales and practice licks and whole solos with only those notes.

Throw In Some Chords

You can improve your solos by developing your skill with the blues scales, but another way to get ahead fast is to throw in a few chords from time to time.

As with any other trick, the skill here is not to overdo it. Don’t start playing chords on every bar, but punctuate your single note licks with chords or chord fragments from time to time and you’ll take your solos to new heights.

Of course, the other important trick with this technique is to hit the right chord. You can practice this by firing off one, two or four bar licks and ending each one by hitting the right chord for that bar. Again, use a jam track, or record a simple chord backing, so your mistakes will stand out.

Bonus: Getting Chromatic

Here’s a bonus secret for you, you don’t have to stick to the scales all the time. Throwing in out of scale notes builds tension in your solos that you release by ending on a scale tone.

Practice linking notes of the scale with chromatic runs. This technique works well as a lead in to new phrases. You can take the tension to its maximum by using out of time rhythms too.

The basic ingredients of blues guitar solos are quite simple to learn, the pentatonic scale positions can be learned and memorized relatively easily and quickly. But don’t stop there, there are plenty of different ways to apply them to create more interesting sounds. These three secrets will give you a good start, but keep on the look out for more to build your bag of blues solo tricks.

Guitar article writing: Gary Fletcher writes quality, original content for your guitar web sites. Learn about his guitar writing services for web sites, blogs and newsletters. Visit http://www.writescribe.com/guitar to learn more.

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Learn to Play Slide Guitar Like a Pro

By Jason C Diggs

What is referred to as a “slide guitar” is actually a technique, not an instrument. slide guitar is played two ways: the player can hold the guitar normally or horizontally. If it is held normally then the player puts a covering on one of the fingers on his or her left hand and makes sound by sliding the left hand up and down the strings. The object covering the players’ fingers is often referred to as a bottleneck because that was the first material used. If the player holds the guitar horizontally then the player uses a steel, which is similar to a bottleneck but, not surprisingly, composed of steel. To play the guitarist will slide the steel up and down the frets of the guitar. This is referred to as playing a “steel guitar”.

The slide or steel guitar is an essential part of popular music. While it is true the genres of soul, country and jazz have had their share of great slide guitarists throughout the years, legendary slide guitarists always seem to gravitate towards the blues. Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, for example, Name a blues luminary and chances are he is an accomplished slide guitarist. So if you want to play blues guitar or soul or country or any of a number of other genres you’d best learn how to play the slide guitar.

The slide guitar can be played on either an acoustic or an electric guitar as long as it doesn’t have nylon strings. For a slide guitar to play correctly it must be set up differently from a traditional guitar. The instrument must be strung with heavier strings (no super-slinky) and a high action. With respect to tuning there are two options; standard and open. A player who has enough guitars to dedicate one exclusively to playing slide should experiment with open tuning. Otherwise it is easiest to use standard tuning for slide playing.

Through the years different musicians have made their slides in many different ways. The most common materials are glass and metal though some early musicians used a bone or a knife. Different materials make different sounds; it’s a matter of preference. Slides can be purchased from your local music store or they can be made at home. Copper tubing and the tops of glass medicine bottles are the most popular homemade slides. Duane Allman, considered by many to be the greatest slide guitar player ever, used a Coricidin medicine bottle. The company and medicine are now defunct but replicas are still made for guitar players.

The slide can be placed on the second, third or pinky finger. The second finger is the largest and gives you the ability to hold down all the strings with the slide. If you play with the slide on the second finger you have hold the third and pinky fingers in the air, which makes it unnatural to most guitarists. Also, it leaves only one finger to mute the strings, which proves difficult. The third finger gives you a little less fret coverage and not quite as strong sound but it also gives you two fingers to mute the strings. This is how Duane Allman played.

The last option is to put the slide on your pinky finger. This allows you to play normally with your first three fingers and consequently is the choice for those desiring to combine slide and normal playing. The pinky slide is much smaller and generally don’t cover all the strings. Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters play using this method. Slide guitar playing has been around for over a hundred years and has been used by countless celebrated musicians. It is a great technique for any aspiring guitarist to learn.

Stop wasting money on 1-on-1 guitar lessons! Check out Steve Krenz’s Learn & Master Guitar – it beats the pants off anything out there. It’s the most comprehensive and thorough instructional guitar course available today

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The Blues Guitar Scale and How to Master It

By Ricky Sharples

If you are new guitar player who wants to make a career or a hobby out of playing blues guitar, then this essay will give you the basic points to get you on your way as a player and interpreter of the blues. Or maybe you have no intention of specializing in blues guitar playing. In that case my essay will give you the bare bones of musical interpretation using the guitar. These basic points can be applied to any genre of guitar music.

So, let us start with a minor pentatonic scale. Whenever you see the word pentatonic you know the scale has just five notes. This is the A minor pentatonic scale starting at the root note – A at the fifth fret of the sixth string:

E———————————5–8—-

B————————–5–8———–

G——————-5–7——————

D————-5–7————————

A——5–7——————————-

E-5-8————————————-

If you are used to playing barre chords, just barre the fifth fret and use the third and fourth fingers to play the notes at the seventh and eighth frets. As the first note in this scale is the root note, all you need to do to play this scale in other keys is to slide your first finger up or down the guitar neck. So now we move the barre up to the eighth fret which gives us the root note C. You will notice that now we have added some extra notes. This is the blues scale in the key of C. The notes we have added to the minor pentatonic give you more opportunity to give your music that “bluesy” feel.

E———————————–8—11

B—————————–8—11——

G——————–8–10–11————

D—————8–10———————

A——-8–9–10————————–

E-8—11———————————-

The minor pentatonic scale can be played in other positions on the fretboard. You need to learn where the notes are because the same note played on a different string sounds different. So the more positions you can play in the more variety you can put into your playing.

A word of warning here. Do not spend all your time learning the scales by heart. Once you can play a scale in one position, play with it. Try bending the notes, see what other notes sound good with the notes in your scale. In other words, give the scale some of your individuality. If you do not feel confident about doing this, then just fall back on imitating what other guitar players do. Do not worry that you are copying other guitarists’ material. Most guitar players start off this way. Using other musicians’ licks as a springboard for your own playing will get your juices flowing and you will be adding your own licks in no time.

Another way to approach learning scales is to learn a melody by ear and try to work out the scale it comes from. This might seem like hard work at first but it is a very pleasant way to learn music. Another thing to remember that blues music has a resolution. Your solos are all travelling to the end of the twelve bars or whatever style of blues you are playing, so any note you play on the way is fine.

Once you have a basic understanding of the blues scale and you can play it in a couple of positions on the guitar fretboard, you will need to look at the question of phrasing. There are so many excellent blues music tracks on record going back over a hundred years all you need to do is listen and imitate. Of course, your imitation does not have to be one hundred percent accurate, but other guitar players blues solos give you ready made starting points for your own original blues playing. One point to remember for beginner blues guitar players is that now you have a blues scale to play, you do not need to play all of the notes all of the time. If you have a backing track or some music you would like to solo over, start with one or two notes in the scale. Bend them, hammer them on, practice your vibrato, slide into those notes, make them yours.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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