Scott Henderson Discussion

[stratos]

Hi Scott,
I would like to ask you what is in your opinion the best way to learn blues improvisation. What is the improvisational 'roadmap' for blues for a beginner guitarist?

Thanks very much for your music!

I hope to see you soon in Italy

Claudio

[Scott Henderson]

Blues can be even harder to learn than jazz because it's often played rubato, which means "out of time". Many of the rhythms can't be written as conventional quarter notes, 8ths, 16ths, etc. - it's more about feel than anything else. Phrasing and tone are the most important things to learn, since the vocabulary isn't that difficult - mainly the pentatonic scale.

Transcription is a must - I wrote a good definition of that in a previous post. Read my first reply to Music major....Jazz?

The very first thing I did when I got my first guitar was to learn licks from Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin II. Learning from the greats (all of them) is the fastest and most productive way to become a great player yourself. If you don't own records by these guys, go buy them, and listen to them 24/7.

Jimi Hendrix
Albert King
Albert Collins
BB King
Buddy Guy
Jeff Beck
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Ronnie Earl
Kirk Fletcher
Michael Landau

I'm sure I've left out some names but this is a good start.

[stratos]

Hi Scott,
thank you very much for your advice and for the listening recommendations.
I start listening to Albert King and Kirk Fletcher...wow, amazing bluesmen!
I think that my main problems as a beginner guitarist are that I don't know by heart the position of the notes on the guitar's keyboard and that I use the tablature rather than the standard musical notation to learn (by heart) the guitar solos I like. This approach is probably a waste of time at the end.

[Scott Henderson]

Yes, learn the notes by ear and you'll figure out the best place to play them on the fingerboard. I'd also suggest finding a good private teacher who's a good blues player - that will speed up the learning process a lot.