Learning Blues Guitar - Breaking Through To A Higher Level

Don't get in a flap - it's not unusual for your progress to become sluggish periodically. Every guitarist, whatever what their style, knows the signs. One day you realize that you've played the same song for some weeks, and it's not improving. Also, you don't try to add other tunes to your repertoire. What's happening? You've hit the wall, reached your plateau, you're blocked, resigned never to get better and reach your goal, which is to be recognized the best guitar player that ever played.

Is there something you can do?

Well, of course there is. At least, let me confide in you some tips and approach that has an effect in my case. As you might probably guess, most of it is in the mind, unless you are just playing for so long that you're actually fed up of playing! Some blues guitar masters, such as BB King, don't practice at all, and just perform. Incidentally, he also confided that he's afraid each time he plays, saying to himself that 'it won't work this time' and 'I'm just not good enough'.

Attempt to and leave the guitar alone!

Obviously a difficult thing to do for committed guitarists. Most the best players indicate that they played licks and pieces a hundred thousand times to be at the top (and I believe them), so we need to practice until we're blue in the face, right? yes and no.

We know that we are developing and training the motor skills by putting our fingers in the right places repeatedly, but if these actions are mechanical, without the passion behind it, then we won't progress. Get your thoughts trained - why why do you play? Because you love it.

Take it easy for a while. Put out of your mind that difficult passage you've been working on. After several days without practicing, you'll probably find that the technique just appears naturally.

Let's go back to the first steps

Inevitably, when we improve in our playing, more basic techniques might be taken as learned as we improve our skills. As we progress, we can become a little slapdash with our basic techniques, which have a beauty all of their own. Return to them and learn them again. Explore the music of the old masters and understand how their techniques were based on solid foundations.

Play only easy techniques for a week or so, but play it with feeling and pay attention to the smallest detail.

Get Comfortable With Your Instrument.

If you are at ease with your music, then it will flow and comes naturally. Each one of us can improve, but its a fact that every one has their boundary of playing ability. Recognition of this and acceptance of it, will make you at ease. Just say to yourself "perhaps I can't improve further - let's make the music I do play as good as I can make it." Once you achieve this state of mind, you will get better! It's almost supernatural!

We all have many levels of expertise, and we can't all be at the top of the tree. As one man put it "if just the brightest were allowed to sing in the woods, it would be a be very quiet place indeed". Accept your place and be at ease with it. Every one of us is unique and will make unique sounds. Eric Clapton is revered as a super blues guitar player, but on acoustic style, Tommy Emmanuel makes him appear merely adequate.

We All Know That, It's All Psychological.

I'm not sure where I'm headed with this advice, but here's the tale. When younger, I played guitar with another guitarist, who was not quite as good as I was. I think I played much longer than he did back then. I was fascinated by 'Police Dog Blues' by Arthur Blake but I always found it was too tricky to tackle.

My friend moved away and perhaps a year later, while speaking over the phone, he casually told me that he had taught himself 'Police Dog'. The idea that a 'lesser' guitar player had learned this song was difficult to take. I picked up the guitar and mastered the song in about three days. This isn't a testimony to my talents, but rather more an indictment of my psychological make up. Good guitarists have a significant amount of arrogance, and quite a sizable ego.

This needs to be taken on board, controlled and channeled to the good side of the Force!

Play With Other Musicians - One Of The Most Important Blues Guitar Lessons!

It's wonderful to play with other musicians from a couple of ways of thinking. First of all, it's great fun. There's nothing quite like playing along with other guitar players, even if it presents a spirit of competition. This competition urge you to get better. Even while playing together, musicians are aware of each others capabilities. Each one of us have our strong and weak points, and the wise player reinforces your strength with his own. He can also attempt to hide your weakness, and the overall music is a great example of synergy - which indicates that the end result is greater than the sum of all it's parts.

If the players are more experienced than you, of course this will gently stretch you, giving you a new approach and helping you to improve.

Move Away Your Style.

I go for this one, because it's great fun. If your normal style is classical, then teach yourself some jazz. If you are a picker, then strum. I think you know what I mean. Sometimes we become stuck in a rut and call ourselves this or that kind of guitarist. We just pick the guitar and learning a variety of musical styles will inevitably aid us to play higher standard.

Relax Into It.

Let go. It's no big deal. You won't play great guitar by being tense or too serious. Many present day blues guitar players can be a tad intense and I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because we want to play like the classic blues players and the serious, intense point if view goes with the territory. Don't bother with that kind of thinking. You will never be be the legendary blues man, because our lives are completely different. Be who you are, that's all that has to be done - everything else will follow.


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Jim Bruce is a working blues man making a living playing blues guitar. His acoustic lessons are fast becoming the standard to reach for students wanting blues guitar lessons.