Category: Blues Chat

  • What is a 16 bar blues?

    Let’s start with the easy bit, what is a 12 bar blues? From here it’s easier to show the difference with a 16 bar blues. Typically the 12 bar pattern is 1 1 1 1 4 4 1 1 5 4 1 1 If you are wondering what these numbers mean the simplest way to…

  • What’s an 8 bar blues?

    Not all blues is 12 bar blues! Typically the 8 bar pattern is 1 5 4 4 1 5 then a turnaround of 1 5 If you are wondering what these numbers mean the simplest way to explain is to think of the 8 major tones in music  CDEFGABC, then number them 1234 and so…

  • Singing the blues – at least singing your licks

    A top tip my guitar teacher gave me is that top blues players can always ‘sing their licks’. If you think about it, it makes sense. If you can’t hear in your head what you want to play  before you play it, what you’ll produce will be a bit random! My teacher would literally hum the licks…

  • Why do directors of music videos do that?

    Here’s just a quick observation. I don’t know about you but when I’m watching a DVD or video of one of my blues guitar heros, I really want to see what he’s doing on the fret board. But it often seems to be the case that just when he launches into an amazing solo, the director…