Playing Blues Guitar - The Father Of The Blues

(Note: If you’re interested in the Blues, visit: Beginner Blues Guitar)

The first instrumental hit playing blues guitar was in 1912, called “Memphis Blues,” composed by W. C. Handy, also known as the Father of the Blues. Handy was born in 1873, in Alabama, and began his entertainment career in the 1890s. His first gigs were touring with all black musical troupes. After serving as bandleader of the Mahara’s Minstrels for four years, in 1903 Handy moved to Clarksdale, Mississippi where he first heard the Blues. In his book, he describes his introduction to first hearing the blues guitar as “the weirdest music I had ever heard” (Handy, 74). It was from then that Handy emerged from being a beginner blues guitar player, into a world-renowned Blues guitar musician. In 1914, this once beginner blues guitar player composed “St. Louis Blues,” considered one of the most popular blues guitar songs ever recorded.

While Hendy is considered the Father of the Blues, B.B. King, born Riley King, in Indianola, Mississippi in 1925, is by all accounts considered the King of the Blues. When King was approximately nineteen years old, he started to take beginner blues guitar lessons from his cousin, Bukka White, a well-known Blues musician in Memphis, Tennessee. While working as a disk jockey in an all black music format radio station, Riley took on the name “Blues Boy,” which eventually was shortened to B.B. King’s first national record debut was in 1951, when his “Three O’ Clock Blues” was released. By the 1960s, his haunting guitar playing and trilling blues guitar style, was influencing not only blues guitarists, but also emerging rock musicians. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, King inspired a new musical format - long guitar solos, which practically became the standard for most rock and blues guitar songs. Apparently, this musical style is attributed to King’s inability to sing and play guitar at the same time, and hence the non-vocal, long guitar solo was born. For more information on the full biographies of these and other musicians and how they began their careers as beginner blues guitar players, please see the links below.

Interested in beginner blues guitar? Click here to learn How To Play Blues Guitar!

Bibliography:

Handy, W. C. Father of the Blues: An Autobiography. New York: Macmillan, 1941. Reprint, New York: Da Capo, 1991.

Freeland, David. “King, B.B.” Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians Since 1990. Ed. Stephen Wasserstein, Ken Wachsberger, and Tanya Laplante. Vol. 1. Detroit: Schirmer Reference, 2004. 361-362.

Guitar Style

Guitar Style

An important aspect not to overlook is that guitar looks alone is not a prerequisite to a guitar which will be perfect for you and that you will be absolutely, perfectly happy with.  Sure, guitar looks are important, as each guitar beginner will naturally build up from the very start an emotional attachment to the guitars that they are interested in.  One thing to remember though is that it is no good rushing into to buy a guitar based on looks alone.  It serves no purpose to buy a guitar purely for the reason that you wish to wow your friends, if upon coming to play guitar, you find that this particular guitar afterall, it’s sounds quality, is not for you personally.

All is not lost however.  Sure you can find a great looking guitar from the marketplace out there, upon seeing a guitar that you like the look of first though - go to a guitar shop or guitar store and share with the owner of the guitar store the guitar make and model that you are ultimately interested in purchasing.  Heed their advice, take their guitar experience onboard, listen to what they have to say, as they really will only have your best interests at heart.

It may just be that the guitar that you think looks wickedly cool, the one that you thought would really impress your family and friends actually does not produce the right kind of guitar sound that you are after.  What you want to do obviously is to seek to find a balance between the two, good looks and a great guitar sound.

By all means, ask any dealer for their advice.  As a guitar beginner, no question is too dumb to ask.  The guitar dealer has heard all of these same questions before many times over and he or she will not mind at all you asking the same questions too.  He / she knows from their own guitar playing experience most likely within just a few sentences, the kind of guitar look and sound that you want, let them advise you, take full advantage of their guitar knowledge and be guided by their words of guitar wisdom.

You only have to ask too, and the guitar dealer in your guitar store will with a very high likelihood allow you to hold and play the guitar of your choice.  Try out various guitar models, see how they feel in your hands, don’t just stand there, if there is room, feel free to move around with the guitar, just as you would naturally, as if you were playing it, of course being careful not to inadvertently break anything!

A guitar which feels natural in your hands, fits your stature and build very well, produces a beautiful guitar melody and sound, you’ll just know when you’ve hit on the right guitar note for you.  Even if you don’t buy there and then, at least now you have it fixed in your mind the guitar that you want to buy.  Take your time with your guitar buying experience, and enjoy and learn as much as you can at the same time.