E-asy Blues Base Line For Guitar

If you have a friend who plays the guitar, one of you can play the rhythm part, while the other one plays the base line.

Be sure to alternate with each other so that you can practice both parts.

You could also record the rhythm part and then practice playing the base line along with it.

This is a great exercise because all your fingers will be involved.

Tips:

It's important to use first position fingering at this stage, because it will help to reinforce your awareness of the fretboard.
Try to keep your arm relaxed and relatively straight from your elbow through to your wrist.
Be careful that you do not hyper-extend your wrist as this will create undue stress.

When the wrist is stressed over a prolonged period of time it can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. This is a very common injury among musicians and can be quite disabling.

So, be careful when practicing this guitar lesson, not to overdue it. If your hand begins to feel tired, take a break! You need to give yourself time to develop strength and coordination skills when you are new to playing the guitar.

You will notice these symbols: > > above the notation. They are called accent marks.

An accent mark simply emphasizes the duration of a beat slightly. In this case the first down beat of each pair of eighth notes is emphasized. So, you would strike the notes that fall on the numbered part of the count a little stronger and the &'s a little lighter.

Example:

1- & 2- & 3- & 4- & (etc.)

Once gain, here is the link for the pdf file:

Easy Blues Base Line

Lesson Objective:

Developing finger coordination, strength and "feel" through using a typical blues base line for guitar.

Practice:

Play the base line slowly at first. Concentrate on developing a smooth rhythmic feel. Be sure to get a clean sound from each note. Practice playing the base line along with the 12-bar blues rhythm in lesson 9.

Learn More:

Free Blues Guitar Video Lessons

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