According to neuroscientists, learning an instrument greatly engages your brain as a whole. There is no other exercise or activity recorded to this date that has the ability to engage all parts of the brain at once. The brain scan of musicians shows a burst of neurons throughout the brain. Apart from a great brain exercise, playing an instrument also creates peace and a soothing effect that helps to calm down our senses.
Out of all of the instruments, the guitar is considered to be a style/fashion symbol because of its look and sound. It is also easy to carry compared to many other instruments. There are many types and variations in guitars each with their unique sound, design, and style with importance in a specific genre. As far as rock and its sub-genres are concerned, the Blues Guitar is played in every contemporary rock music.
Today, we’ll be covering the 10 best blues guitar lessons for beginners. The lessons are focused on teaching you everything about the blues guitar’s functioning, key parts, music theory, strings, and note type. Most importantly, you will learn how to synchronize all these aspects to play beautiful music. These lessons do not require any prior knowledge. All of these lessons are listed right below:
10 Best Blues Guitar Lessons for Beginners Review
1) ArtistWorks: Keith Wyatt Online Blues Guitar Lessons
The instructor for this course is Keith Wyatt. He has been playing the blues guitar since he was a teenager. The love call for him with the genre and the blues guitars was when he heard, “The Sky is Crying” by Albert King for the first time. This made him practice and teach the art with a passion ever since. He has also served his 30 years as a Director of the Guitar Program at the Guitar Institute of Technology. Playing guitar within LA roots rock group called the Blasters made him famous and since than Keith has collaborated with many other experts from the field.
Keith has compiled a library of instructional and informational videos for the students to watch and learn at their own pace. These videos are detailed, specific, and cover each aspect of the art of the blues guitar. You will not only learn how to play the guitar but also how all parts function to give off beautiful music.
The unique aspect of the course is the ability to submit individual recorded training or practicing sessions for review. Keith will review each submission and will respond with a specific and detailed video.
2) Udemy: Acoustic Blues Guitar Lessons: Learn Blues Guitar
The instructor for this course is Jim Bruce, a true admirer, and practitioner of the art. He has an old and rustic style which brings back memories for the listeners but still quite relevant and engaging for the young generation. Jim was voted Number 2 as a top guitar instructor on Truefire back in 2013. It has been more than 40 years since he has been playing and teaching guitar now.
The love for guitars makes him play with the same passion. He also enjoys playing the guitar on the streets in Europe. His fingerpicking style is very crucial for mastery over blues guitar.
The main focus of the course is to master all fingerpicking styles. For this reason, the instructor, Jim has covered more than 15 artists from the 20s and 30s including Brownie McGhee and Floyd Council with unique fingerpicking styles.
Over years of practice, every artist develops his / her unique style, and for guitars, a unique picking style. After practicing diverse and unique styles from talented artists, students will be able to develop their own.
3) Udemy: Ultimate Blues Guitar Beginner Lessons
The instructor for this course is Dan Holton, in-depth, practical and working knowledge holder regarding all of the professional guitars in the industry. He has been practicing, performing, and teaching since he was a teenager. The company called Your Guitar Academy is owned and managed by him.
He started this company 7 years ago with the motive of bridging the gap between passionate learners and professional guitars. The company’s team has been developing guitar tutorials and custom lessons for all who want to master the skill.
This is an in-depth blues guitars tutorial divided into 10 base modules and other bonus modules. He brings his years of teaching expertise into the course and identifies the initial pitfalls that make fresh students quit the learning. All you need is a guitar and Dan will make sure to engage you in the course. The content includes videos, music sheets, and more.
4) Udemy: Beginners to Advanced Blues Guitar Masterclass
The instructor for this course is Henry Olsen, a professional and certified guitarist for well over 18 years of playing and 8 years of teaching the art professionally. He not only engages with a room full of students to teach guitar but also involves himself in 1 - to - 1 teaching sessions where he gets to interact and teach on a deeper level. He runs his official website where he offers his guitar services. An active and informative YouTube channel under his name has more than 17000 subscribers where he shares his guitar knowledge to masses.
This course covers the complete journey from level zero to mastery of the art. The instructor will explain all of the minute details to practice to be an efficient player. The thing that sets this course apart is that there are play-along sessions in the course that make sure the students practice and engage with the course. Students will master guitar chords and progressions in this course.
5) Udemy: Blues Guitar Lessons – Ragtime Blues Guitar
Yet another course by the legendary Jim Bruce that can help you learn the ins and outs of blues guitar. This course contains elaborative insight on performing a solid alternating bass thumb pattern and play ragtime guitar songs in multiple keys. You will also learn to play satisfied and ticket too by Mississippi John Hurt in this course.
The course helps you learn to play South Carolina Rag by Willie walker as well. Including some of the most popular tracks of Blues guitar, you are going in for a roller coaster ride around the strings to help you move your skills upwards.
Ragtime blues guitars are inspired by ragtime blues piano which was famous in the early 1900s. The skills guitarists of that time realized that the characteristic base signature of the ragtime piano could be played on a guitar easily. It was accomplished by striking three bass strings with picking thumb and then alternating them between the strings. This technique is crucial to execute ragtime blues guitar music. Jim will guide you, in this course, how to master this technique.
6) Udemy: Blues Guitar Lessons – Volume 1 – Blues Shuffle Essentials
This course has been created by FretHub, an online guitar academy. This musical guitar academy is run by 2 seasoned guitar professionals with over combined experience of more than 50 years in terms of practicing, performing, and teaching guitar. They have played and performed alongside Queen’s Brian May, Alice Cooper, Cliff Richard, and many more.
According to their students, their sessions are down to earth, engaging, and detailed like in-person sessions. They make sure to provide consistent and in-depth resource materials for the students.
This course requires a basic level of familiarity with guitars, especially with chords and scales. The course requires you to have an electric guitar, an amplifier, and a pick. However, the instructors suggest taking a complete foundational course in order to better understand this course. This course will enable students to develop their solo vocabulary using just a small area of the neck. You will learn some great ideas for using chord tones in the lead break.
7) Udemy: Blues Accelerator – 21 Days to Blues Guitar Mastery
The instructor for this course is Mark Thomson. He is a professional guitar trainer and has taught how to play the guitar at all levels, covering all styles to thousands of individuals. His major was in Music Composition at Arizona State University and a graduate from Guitar Institute of Technology, LA. He was also featured in a couple of magazines namely Guitar Player Magazine’s Spotlight and George Lynch’s Guitar Instructor and worked as a lead instructor at Music Store in Mesa, Arizona.
The aim of this course is to incorporate the guitar’s formal education with practical exercises to master the skill from in and out. After this course, students will be able to play over 12 bar blues, which is the sole and core skill for the blues musicians. The requirement for the course is an electric guitar and an amplifier.
8) Udemy: Blues Chords & Lessons: The Blues Guitar of Broonzy & McGhee
Jim Bruce has done a commendable job with this course as well like all others and this course helps you with some cool fingerpicking techniques that you can learn from the very beginning. Including some of the coolest tracks of all times that you can learn to play on the blues guitar, you are going to love this course.
There are 10 downloadable resources also added in the course that you can use to grow your blues guitar playing skills. You just need to have an intermediate level of skills with acoustic guitar and everything you need to excel in them can be found in this course.
This course is effective if you have a foundational knowledge of the guitar’s working. This course is focused on training students for the Broonzy and McGhee’s style and technique for playing blues guitar. They have their unique fingerpicking method and palm damping technique for a tight sound. The course includes an in-follow practice session that will engage the students while learning for better understanding.
9) Udemy: Blues and Advanced Guitar Lessons
The instructor for this course is Erich Andreas. He has been passionately playing and teaching guitar for the past 30 years, engaged in both, 1 – to – 1 and online training sessions with thousands and thousands of students. His primary medium of conveying knowledge and interaction is his YouTube channel with more than 658,000 subscribers and more than 100 Million views across all of his videos.
This course will make sure that the students learn the construction of the cord so that they can jam out to any song. They will learn the dynamics and requirements of a band so that they can develop confidence while joining one. The course includes rigorous practice sessions to make playing the guitar as second nature. Students will master Blues theory, scales, chords, and phrasing. The course has been designed to be full-proof in terms of failure. Erich guarantees mastery after successfully following the course.
10) BluesGuitarLessons.com: Lessons for Beginners
This is a platform for all passionate blues guitar students looking for a detailed and step – to – step guide to forming a strong base for paying the blues guitar. In this course, students will go through 12 detailed modules. These modules include the 12 – Bar Blues Progressions, Dominant 7th Chord, the Basic 12 – Bar Blues Riff, the Scale Shape, Blues Phrasing and Expression, Guitar Licks, and more. You can also watch these lectures on their YouTube channel. Make sure to visit back the learning platform for other resource materials needed to learn from the lectures.
Choosing the Best Blue Guitar Lessons for Beginners
Blues Guitar is a classic and relevant piece of art still loved and played by many musicians. It has that unique tone to it that engages the listeners. Moreover, a blues guitar player has a distinctive charm in his / her personality that attracts the audience. So, learning how to play the guitar will not only engage your brain in a healthy and wholesome activity, it will also make you stand out. Make sure to pick one of the courses, to begin with, and keep on practicing. It will take time and patience but the result is worth every effort. Good Luck.