How to Use Blues Riffs in Live Music

As a mainstay of melodic tradition, blues music is popular around the world. Many musicians blend it with other genres to get a sound that resonates with listeners. The blues has certain conventions that you can recognize almost immediately. Here are some ways to put blues signatures on a piece of music.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Play in basic blues harmony. On guitar, this usually means playing a 1,4,5 chord progression. True music techs call the 1 chord the "tonic," the 4 the "subdominant" and the 5 the "dominant" chord, but to most live players, it's still just 1,4,5. In key of C, it's C - F - and G.

2. Use a 12 bar blues progression. Take the 1, 4 and 5 chords and play them according to a 12-bar pattern. This chord progression goes along with all of those blues lyrics you hear on the radio or CDs. The progression starts out on 1, moves to 4, back to 1, and tops out with the fifth chord on the last of three lyrical lines. This is another bit you can work into live music.

3. Try walking blues scales. One blues progression you can play in live music is the major scale. Start with the "base note" for your key and play up and down the major scale in rhythm, and you'll hear how this simple element sounds "bluesy."

4. Overlay high-octane electric guitar for a blues sound. When you have a rhythm background set up from the steps above, add a screaming electric guitar in the same key and in the major chord progression. However, for the electric guitar, you don't need fancy scales. Just find a few harmonic notes and play the heck out of them for a hectic "blues explosion."

5. Add bends or slides. These guitar techniques add blues tones to music. You can get blues sounds with a slide, by bending strings, or with other picking techniques, to enhance a song.