Chapter 1
Introducing the Blues and Playing Blues Rhythm
IN THIS CHAPTER
The roots of blues guitar
Mixing up your playing with downstrokes and upstrokes
Applying syncopation to your sound and discovering different muting techniques
Checking out some classic fingerstyle blues and playing different grooves and feels
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The guitar and blues go together like apple and pie. The guitar allows you to sing along with yourself (try that with a flute), and singing was the way the blues started. And it’s much easier to bring out on the front porch than a piano. It’s cheaper to own (or make yourself) than many other instruments, and that helped bring the blues to many poor folks — the people who really had the blues.
As the blues developed, guitar makers adopted features that helped bring out the qualities of the blues to even better effect. An electric guitar is played with two hands and leaves your mouth free to sing (as an acoustic does), ...
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