How to Play Blues Guitar Bends

Series Summary

The instrumental and vocal style of music commonly known as 'the blues' is actually derived from a repetitive 12 bar pattern and the blue notes. It was born in the slave camps of the United States in the form of hymnals, gospel tunes and spirituals, and evolved into a highly influential genre that has inspired everything from jazz to rock 'n roll to hip hop. Blues guitar is one of the purest forms of the genre, since slaves were typically allowed to have guitars or homemade banjos. The beginnings of blues music are steeped in tradition and at their purest when combined with stringed instruments. In this free video clip series, our expert will introduce you to blues guitar by demonstrating commonly used scales, box patterns, bends techniques, shuffle patterns and tips for paying rhythm blues guitar. Tips on blues guitar solos are also included.

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is John Armstrong from ExpertVillage.com. Today I will be discussing with you the ins and outs of electric Blues Guitar. Ok, now you may have noticed that a couple of times when I am playing the lead guitar stuff with the blues I am doing a lot of bending notes. We have bends, where the note is either bent or has some vibrato on it or where is note is either bend and stopped, and we have also always refer to it as a bend and release, where the note is bent from its original pitch, and allow to fall back to its original pitch. Another type of bend that can be really cool to use with the blues is what is called a double stop bend, this is where two notes are played and either one note is bent or both notes were bent, for example here if I just use this D note, and this E note, bending just the D note, so that it matches the pitch of the E, and you kind of walk that up to the neck of the guitar. As far as I use this type of bend here I use a D note, and in G note, okay, this is once again the key of A I am using my pentatonic scale, or if I also take the A pentatonic scale and bend just the C and the E bending both the notes together, it is like a half step bend… on the key of A at a very high octave like we bend an A note, and this G note, or at that same high octave or even lower octave to bend this D note and this G note."