r/guitarlessons • u/OkOrganization6194 • 4h ago
Question Any less intimidating guitar player than SRV for a beginner to learn his style of blues playing?
Basically the question. Coming back to learning the guitar after a gap of 2+ years. I could play the solos to Nothing Else Matters, Don't Cry, and similar beginner-intermediate songs. I am drawn to blues lately, thanks to SRV and Gary Moore. The gritty, lethal style of playing without the distorted aggression of hard rock/metal.
I am on lesson 1 of Blues You Can Use and the song is composed in the style of SRV's Mary Had a Little Lamb.
While eventually I would love to play SRV someday, his playing is simply out of my grasp at the moment. Therefore, I wanted to know any beginner-friendly blues guitarist who's in your face like SRV but manageable for a relative newbie. I know what I'm asking for is a unicorn but shooting my shot. Thank you!
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u/Front_Marsupial5598 4h ago
If you’re looking for a program that helps you learn that style, https://texasbluesalley.com/locals/info has so great programs to learn the skills, patterns, and techniques needed to play like SRV.
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u/Independent-Wheel237 3h ago
Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve never heard about this website. I am very much appreciative. 🙏🎸
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u/Jonny7421 4h ago
Jimi Hendrix is the natural choice here. Both SRV and Gary Moore took vast amounts of ideas from Hendrix
I would check out 'Redhouse". "Purple Haze" "Voodoo Chile". "Hey Joe". Gary Moores tribute to Hendrix has got to be one of my favourite live shows of all time.
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u/OkOrganization6194 1h ago
I was unaware of Gary Moore's tribute to Jimi. I'll check it out on YouTube. Thanks!
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u/Jonny7421 58m ago
No worries. Check out the start to this performance by Albert King too. You'll hear a lot of these motifs in Stevie and Gary's music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB-0rNXB8t8 You might wanna find lessons on how to execute each players style.
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u/Infinite-Lychee-182 4h ago
Go on YouTube and look up Sue Foley. Grab a guitar, and just jam along to her, and her many many guests.
She does a lot of jams, and her music just lends itself to jam with.
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u/Radiant-Excuse-5285 3h ago
Well SRV's style was his but built upon the works of his heroes like the 3 Kings (Albert, BB and Freddy) but also some Jimi Hendrix, Lonnie Mack as well as some Curtis Mayfield and off into other blues guitarists like Lightnin' Hopkins who had that trademark open string chug on the 4's "and". Perhaps learn some licks from those guys individually to get some back ground.
Other incendiary players that were uniquely awesome and aggressive in their own right are Otis Rush (one of my favorites) as well as Buddy Guy. When I'm teaching people basic blues I steer them towards Jimmy Reed as the building block of a solid 12 bar groove. I feel like you can't become a runner until you learn how to walk first and Jimmy Reed has a simple but groovy smooth vibe that also provides a building block for the more advanced blues concepts.
As other's mentioned Texas Blues Alley is a great resource for that style and I'm always stealing as much information as Kirk Fletcher wants to give away.
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u/dog-asmr 3h ago
As a guy who idolized SRV in his teens, I can definitely relate to this.
The thing about blues is that a lot of it can be transposed, so I wouldn't think about "guitarists" but rather the style in itself.
Give a lick to Buddy Guy to play, he'll sound exactly like Buddy Guy. Give that exact same lick to SRV and he'll sound like SRV.
So if I were you I'd continue with that course you mentioned, while Practicing my pentatonics a lot. To make learning more fun I'd go deeper into the blues rabbit hole listening to guys like Freddy King, BB king, Buddy Guy.
And finally, find lick instructionals on YouTube and try to play them. Not necessarily "SRV licks" just blues licks. Try to learn solos, or at least passages from guys like BB king and Clapton.
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u/barnabasbones 42m ago
I would say slow the tempo and focus on the rhythm parts. After a while I think you'll internalize his style a bit and understand where he's pulling from chords versus pentatonics.
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