{"id":14710,"date":"2020-07-30T08:59:34","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T13:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/?p=14710"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:55:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T20:55:35","slug":"acoustic-blues-guitar-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/online.berklee.edu\/takenote\/acoustic-blues-guitar-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Play Acoustic Blues Guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Delta Roots to Modern Masters: The Essential Techniques of Acoustic Blues Guitar<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The following information on acoustic blues guitar is excerpted from the Berklee Online course Acoustic Blues Guitar<\/a>, written by Dan Bowden<\/a>, and currently enrolling.<\/i><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re looking to learn acoustic blues guitar, then perhaps you\u2019ve been inspired by contemporary blues artists such as Gary Clark Jr., Taj Mahal<\/a>, Keb\u2019 Mo\u2019, or Bonnie Raitt. Even for artists who fall into the rock category (Elvis, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and Cream, White Stripes, Black Keys), their style is still heavily influenced by the great acoustic blues guitarists of the past century. When learning acoustic blues guitar, it\u2019s important to learn the traditional techniques that these contemporary artists employ, such as finger-picking and slides, as well as the history of where the genre originated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Blues and Where Did it Originate?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Blues is a word that describes a distinctive form of musical output, developed by African Americans that lived primarily in the South. Blues was conceived in the cotton fields, from field hollers and work songs that expressed the hardships of an oppressed and exploited African American underclass. The musical elements of blues are distinctly African in origin\u2014the pentatonic scales, polyrhythms, use of microtones and pitch bends, and call-and-response phrase structure all originate from the African continent. The first strains of what we would identify as blues were identified around the turn of the century, around the same time recording technology was developed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that we’ve done a very brief overview of the history of acoustic blues guitar, let’s dive into these four tips to improve your playing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Start with a Driving Bass Line<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From its beginnings, fingerstyle acoustic blues guitar has been anchored by a driving bass, provided by the thumb of the picking hand. Most acoustic blues guitarists use a thumb pick to play the root of the chord, driving the rhythm of the bass line, which takes the place of percussion. The reason for this is traditional acoustic blues guitar players operated as a one-person band, providing the groove for dancing all night long in juke joints, at parties, and at Saturday night fish fries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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