Blues & Improvisation

When guitarrists start to play, they almost always have to play songs that other people composed, playing the same ones over and over again. I always think that once you like a song you can try to play it several times with no interruption, but lots of my friends stop playing the guitar because they are tired to play the same thing and they still don't understand how create songs.

It is valid for the begginers to play songs from other musicians, but they should play these songs with your own harmony and rhythm, which gives you more incentive. Learn how you can improvise the music. This way, you can start thinking about how to create your own songs  

Musicians don't play to other musicians. They play with them. It is possible vary the notes even in the same song. It all depends on how much you know, how you use the neck of your guitar and how you know your instrument (not only the guitar, if you play another one).

To know how to improvise, we'll have to exercise the chords and notes, and after this we'll learn that the notes construct the chords. And after this we can start to use all notes that compound a chord.

The notes on the neck

Available in: http://guitarwizard.hubpages.com/hub/Guitar-in-Blues

Basically the chords that we see in the other post, they are formed by the junction of a lot of notes in the guitar neck. So maybe you don't know anything about scales or musical harmony, but you're using this every time you make a chord.

About the guitar neck and the scales, we can deduce that it always follows the same sequence, is natural scale of C(Do)
   

C(do)>D(re)>E(mi)>F(fa)>G(sol)>A(la)>B(si)>C(do octave higher)

Between tones we have semitones, just not for E and B.

Ex:        C>C#>D         G>G#>A
              E>F>F#          B>C>C#


The solos and the accompaniment walk together when we listen songs. This is harmony.

Every song has a tone, this tone has a scale and all the other notes come from here. That is how we can make the construction of a song, and choose what notes are appropriate to use.

Class I

Discovering guitars

    

   The guitar is a popular musical instrument classified as a string instrument with anywhere from 4 to 18 strings, usually having 6. The sound is projected either acoustically or through electrical amplification (for an acoustic guitar or an electric guitar, respectively). It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the right hand while fretting (or pressing against the fret) the strings with the left hand. The guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning.   

   Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930s, use an amplifier that can electronically manipulate and shape the tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was eventually found more suitable, as it was less prone to feedback. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture.The guitar is used in a wide variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop. (Wikipedia - Search for Guitar)

We got six strings in guitars, and we can count like:

1 st - E (Mi) (High E)

2 nd - B 

3 rd - G 

4 th - D

5 th - A

6 ht - E (Low E)

Chords

BASIC MAJOR CHORDS

BASIC W/7TH CHORD 

BASIC MINOR CHORDS

Image from
http://guitarchords4all.blogspot.com.br/2011/06/guitar-major-chord-charts-free-download.html

Clapton & Hendrix

Jimmi Hendrix

If someone asked me who is the best guitarrist of all times, I would say it's Jimmi Hendrix.
This fellow discovered how to use his guitar to make everything that HE WANTS. He really know how to use that instrument, even with his teeth.

He played in Woodstock with his Psychodelic Rock'n Roll band, The Jimmi Hendrix Experience, and then exploded for all the world with his presentations crashing the guitar, amps and setting his guitars on fire.

Eric Clapton

Other musician that  was recognized for playing beyond the general songs, giving more variety for the old Blues music was Eric Clapton.
Clapton played in the band CREAM, another awesome Rock'n Roll band.

Clapton used to play Classic Rock'n Roll, Blues and Jazz. He is a Jamming player and also a composer, like Tears in Heaven was composed to his four year old son who fell from the 54th floor window.

Hendrix always liked to play with distortion and make all noise the he can, but a harmonic noise. Abbusing a lot of psychodelics drugs.

The songs are completely different, but the connection with the instrument is similarly profound, like they are the "creators" of the guitar, putting each note in the right time. They are Legends.