When I first moved to California I figured I’d better learn how to surf… so I grabbed a board and headed out into the ocean.<\/p>\n
And, as you can probably guess, that wasn’t my finest hour. So after drinking a half a gallon or so of salt water I headed pitifully back to the beach, and promptly gave that up.<\/p>\n
But a few months later I met a guy who surfed almost every day and he offered to teach me… what I didn’t expect was his instruction for my first day – “sit here on the beach and watch all these guys who know what they are doing.”<\/p>\n
Obviously I was a little surprised, but after an hour of watching them and seeing the rhythm of how they paddled into a wave and stood up at the right time to catch the descent, I started to see why my teacher told me to watch first.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to you… and you wanting to learn the play the blues (because, why else would you be here?)<\/p>\n
Well how much time do you spend listening to blues, or watching great blues players do what they do so well?<\/p>\n
Quality listening time (or, you may have heard me call it “active” listening) is a key ingredient in the recipe of blues guitar.<\/p>\n
So then, who do you listen to? And what do you listen for? That’s obviously a long and distinguished list, but if you’re kind of new to the blues (or maybe just want a little something different) here are some blues players you should know of:<\/p>\n
1. Albert King<\/strong> – Often called “The Velvet Bulldozer,” his tone and licks have been the stuff of blues legend ever since the 1960’s. Stevie Ray Vaughan named Albert King as his primary influence and you can hear it all over his playing on tracks like “Texas Flood.”<\/p>\n