Free Blues Guitar Lessons Can Give You the Blues

As an old Rock N Roll guitar player myself, the first thing I found out, when looking for free blues guitar lessons on line was this: I had learned to play guitar based on some really bad habits. My fingering and picking were all wrong from the start. In effect, I didn't know how to play guitar correctly which made it more difficult to perform blues riffs.

When I first decided to learn to play guitar as a teenager, I was told that the keys in learning how to play guitar successfully were to be able to read music, to learn theory, and practice, practice and even more practice. But, who had the time, energy, and money, to do all that when you are throwing together a garage band? We had one accomplished player in the group who taught the rest of us only the tunes we were going to play at gigs. We learned the rest on our own - by ear!

I was also told to find an instructor who spoke my language and who understood that I needed to start at the beginning. I quickly found out that most guitar teachers are either not very good at teaching or they just can't resist showing off their prowess. Most guitar teachers simply can't communicate the basics. I think they forgot what it was like to be in our shoes.

Teaching anything takes a certain kind of personality. Can you remember a favorite school teacher? That teacher stood out from all the others because they knew how to reach you at your level. I can only remember two great teachers. I excelled in their classes. Well, it's the same with guitar instructors. Most just don't know how to reach us to teach us.

If you long to learn how to play blues guitar, you have only a handful of really good free online videos, and courses to choose from on the web. But, finding free blues guitar lessons is a frustrating exercise that will eat up hours of time as you dig through all that is being offered. There is just too much bad stuff out there.

So, what's the next B. B. King to do?

If you have surfed the so-called free programs, you know that most leave you hanging or confused because they assume too much about your level of skill. They throw out technical terms as if we understand about open E tuning, 12 bar blues, tablature, and on and on they lecture. We get buried in theory that only Beethoven could understand. Most of these freebies are not for beginners or if you play other styles of music on guitar. Playing blues guitar has its own unique set of moves and techniques that must be learned on their own.

Now, it's completely up to you to choose which free blues guitar lessons that will suit your level of understanding and skill. At some point you need to choose your favorite learn how to play the blues program and just go for it. This is the trick. Which program will move you along the fastest so that, within a few weeks to a month, you will begin to see and hear the enormous improvements that are taking place in your style of guitar playing?

My quest right now is learning how to play blues slide guitar. It's something I've always wanted to do not only to impress family and friends but to accomplish a lifelong dream I've never let die. The sound of a great blues player just does something for me that I can't explain.

Playing slide blues seems physically easy in one sense. You just drag a slide over the strings and instantly hear the effect. Well, I can tell you that, at first, it can be difficult to get sliding under control to play in tune and keep the accompanying buzzing and rattling sounds from making your cat run for cover! Now, slide guitar doesn't require left-hand strength the way normal acoustic guitar playing does, but it does require learning the basics and learning the right touch!

Free blues guitar lessons are great to get your juices flowing but, if you really want to learn how to play blues guitar, my advice is to go to your local bookstore or look on line for a course that starts with the basics. You just have to start at the beginning if you want to sound like the great blues players.

Jim DeSantis