Blues Guitar from Scratch - Fundamental Riffs, Chords and Scales

First things first: the venerable Twelve Bar Blues chord progression, the backbone of the blues. You'll learn how to use the 1, 4 and 5 chords to do chordal accompaniment, the Blues Shuffle and the Guitar Boogie in the most common blues keys, A and E.
Then comes blues lead playing and improvisation. The Minor Pentatonic Scale in the Key of Em will be our first concern, with additional notes added as needed. Then we move on to the C-A-G-E-D box patterns that are found up the neck in the Key of Am and learn how to shape-shift. Finally come sections on slide guitar playing in standard, open G and open D tunings.

Table of Contents

Comping for Twelve-Bar blues
Blues Shuffle in the Key of A
Swing Rhythm
Variations
Blues Shuffle in the Key of E
Alternatives to the B riff
Variations
Syncopation
Guitar Boogie in E - adding the 3rd
The Major-Minor ambiguity
Variations
Harmonizing the Blues Shuffle
Chordal comping for Blues in E
Harmonizing and comping in A
Blues lead playing Pentatonic Scale
Em pentatonic box pattern
Letter names of the notes
Exercises
Simple licks
Extra notes
Adding the 3rd
Adding the b5th and the 7th
Noodling with nine
Adding the 2nd and the 6th
Expanded box pattern
Blues turnaround
Singing the blues
Hybrid blues
Partial chord forms
Here we go up the neck
Movable Em box pattern
Em shape of the Am


pentatonic scale
Exercises
Simple licks
Extra notesAdding the 3rd
Adding the b5th and 7th
Bending the 4th
Adding the 2nd and 6th
Double-stops
Exercises in blues soloing
Other box patterns
Gm box pattern
Dm box pattern
Shifting between box patterns
Cm box pattern
Am box pattern
Back to the Key of E
Em box pattern / Em pentatonic scale
Shape-shifting
Major Pentatonic Scale
Key of G
Examples
Here we go up the neck
Keys of A and C
Keys of D and E
Slide Guitar
Standard Tuning
Am pentatonic scale
Right-hand muting
Open G Tuning
Chords and accompaniment
Playing lead
Twelve Bar example
Open D Tuning