Learn Blues Guitar

There are five steps to learning to play blues guitar but before I give them to you let me explain something very important.

The decision to learn anything is

• just an idea.
• The daily practice it takes to become proficient and then get good is another.

The Secret

The biggest single mistake my guitar students consistently make is – lack of practice.

Dedication to practice is serious.

Example

Just two hundred years ago, boys choir members would undergo castration to keep their voices from changing to a lower register.

That is dedication.

Laugh, but I am serious. I wouldn't want you to do that but the concept will shock you into the right mode of thinking.

Gymnasts often move thousands of miles away from home at an early age just to

• study daily with an excellent coach and
• to be immersed in the discipline it takes to reach excellence.

If you think practicing a few guitar scales for an hour or two a day is too hard, or it's not your cup of tea. This is not for you.

Really?

But if you want to learn blues guitar and be on fire with the hottest licks on stage, then follow this article and you can have it all. That's my promise.

Now here are the five steps needed for you to learn blues guitar.

One- Get a goal. What exactly do you want to learn? Pick a song, pick a style and make it your goal. If you want to learn Red House by Jimi Hendrix, that's a goal. If you just want to tinker around and learn a few riffs, that a lesser goal. Don't make me come over there and man slap you about goals.

• Pick a few and write them down.
• Give yourself a deadline that is reasonable. A month if you are a beginner.
• If you already play, a week is a good time frame.

Two- Get a plan that has been proven to be successful. I can tell you the best plan for learning blues guitar is explained in the next step.

To find someone who is already where you want to be and copy them. Figure out what they did. Do that.

Of course you will need a guitar and the first part of your plan might be to simply get a guitar. Save your money, borrow one or whatever it takes but get one.

See how a plan helps? It's a blueprint and makes your goal real.

Three-Find a partner or mentor.This one is easy. You can find a teacher who already knows what you want to know, a DVD, a Youtube video, a live performer, a neighbor or a bluesman who lives in a rest home like on the movie Crossroads.

Nobody has ever learned the blues guitar without a mentor. Some say Robert Johnson learned from the Devil, but that's still a mentor.

You can save a lot of time by getting a good teacher. Do you know the riff that starts the song Sweet Home Alabama? It is played by Ed King. He was a teacher of mine. There's nothing better than a good teacher.

Hey, no fair!

The legendary James Taylor's brother once laughed and told me that James would not share his chords. He wouldn't teach his brother.

Four-Action. Get your plan in action. Make a list of things that have to be done to reach your goals and start doing them as soon as you finish reading this article. I am serious. Never leave the scene of a decision without taking action.

This step includes

• Practice, like speed guitar lessons
  
• Changing strings
• Tuning
• Learning lyrics
• Finding information
• Books, tapes, dvds

Five-Momentum. Keep working on a regular schedule.

If you cannot practice every day, then

• every other day,
• or ten minutes four times a day or
• some creative combination that builds more and more momentum.

On any given Tuesday three months from now what is the one thing you are certain you will be doing? That's right, playing the blues on a guitar.

When you start a new project you will get a surge of excitement. Take advantage of that and use it to propel you forward with determination.

But in a few days that excietment will start to wear off. That's a good thing. Now you are actually in the phase of building momentum.

It becomes a way of life. That's when you need to stay with it. Make your practice into a habit.

Come back to these five steps and review them often.

I have been playing blues guitar for decades and I still play every day.

Funny, playing the blues makes me happy.

Scroll down and check out the video below. Jimi doing "Red House".