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Kick-start your next jam session with these three guitar parts
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Get Playing
These parts are not etched in granite but are simply guides to get you to experiment with playing different parts over a simple structure. Make up your own rhythm parts, using some of the elements of these examples as ingredients or alternating between two (or all three!) of the parts, playing one chorus (one time through the 12-bar blues) of each. When you try them out in your next jam, make sure you not only listen to your part, but also listen to the sum total of the music being made.
The simplicity of blues allows for a lot of freedom of interpretation. I encourage you to find your own voice in the blues by experimenting, and most importantly, if you are having fun, this will always translate to your audience. So feel free to make mistakes. As one of my teachers used to say, “If you play a bad note once, it’s a mistake. If you play it twice, you meant to do it.”
Set Your Sound Apart
Any of the parts in this lesson can be played with your electric guitar’s bridge pickup (the one closest to the bridge), neck pickup (the one closest to the neck), middle pickup (if it has one), or some combination. Using different pickup settings is another way to make your part stand out from someone else’s. So if your friend is going for a growling bridge-pickup sound, you might want to switch to the neck pickup for a mellower tone or use some other combination that makes your guitar’s sound stand out.
Shufflin’ the Blues on CD
Robert Johnson, “Sweet Home Chicago.” Called the King of the Delta Blues, Johnson has influenced many blues and rock musicians such as Elmore James and Eric Clapton.
Big Bill Broonzy, “Pig Meat Strut.” The second guitar in “Pig Meat Strut” plays the walking-style bass line that you learned.
Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Look at Little Sister.”
ZZ Top, “Tube Snake Boogie.”
George Thorogood, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”
Freddie King, “Hideaway.” One of my favorite electric blues, this is an incredibly rich source for blues licks.
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Printable Version
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