Buddy Guy - Electric Chicago Blues Guitar Page Three

Perhaps a good analogy is that of whiskey, or any recipe for that matter
there are different distillations of it made with different ingredients.

Some are single malt and some are blended, the single malts define the genre such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker. The blends come later through trial and error and this is your job should you choose to accept it. George Thorogood does it well. So does Jimmy Vivino and Jimmy Vaughn. Joe Bonamassa and many more.

Then there are trend setters as in the one and only Chuck Berry who some say invented and popularized Rock and Roll. 'He got something on his finger so he put it on the wall!' Chuck does more than just strings the chords I IV V together. He uses the song radio medium to make a statement that he knows (hopes) will resonate.

Buddy's style is an amalgam of these other guitar players and he freely admits it. Its derivative.

The good news is that he shows you how to play these songs in your favorite guitar flavors such the guitar friendly keys of C, E, A. He throws in some cool T-Bone voicings which he says quite rightly "dress up the blues". He throws in a wah wah session with voodoo chile which we learn is a Muddy Waters riff Jimi copied. Way cool. He uses a cry baby wah in this lesson. Going down to Louisiana was the Muddy tune.

Buddy sometimes uses a small pick which he palms and you have to watch really close to see what he does. You get your moneys worth but are you ready for it? I wasn't! The first time I watched this I though he was just showing off. You gots to pay your dues if you want to play the blues well. An hour a day is a goal you can live with generally speaking. That's if you are young. If you are a late comer I'd spend double or triple that time practicing if possible at least for the first few.