Styles of guitar music.

What's your favorite guitar style?

Blues - I think the highest percentage of requests I get from my students is how to play the blues. The idea of being able to play a solo over a twelve-bar repeating blues progression, in any key, seems to be one of the most attractive goals for taking guitar lessons. It's completely understandable. Blues is the trunk of the tree of American music. It's that simple. If you can practice and learn how to play basic pentatonic blues scales in a few different keys, you could jam all night with your friends and have a great time.

Rock - Like the blues, rock is based on the same ideas and structures as the blues. You can play the blues with just one guitar and someone singing or maybe blowing on a harmonica, sitting around a campfire, and that's a good night. Rock requires electricity because it's usually played louder. Almost all rock music requires a rhythm section, like a drummer and a bassist. Rock spans many wide genres and many decades. Blues and rock music can be played on acoustic or electric guitars. It all depends on how loud you wanna be.

Country - This style of music is about as American as the blues. When you break down the basic math and theory behind blues, rock and country, it's easy to understand why they are all so similar to each other. Country music goes back to the original style of blues. This was just before rock hit the radio airwaves. Country also has many variations of genres from Western and Bluegrass, to crossover rock and blues country styles. Like blues and rock, country can also be played on acoustic or electric guitar.

Jazz - Jazz comes from the blues. Jazz music goes back several decades to the swing band era of the 1930's and 40's. Jazz guitar started around 1935. Over the decades jazz guitar took on many variations of styles. Jazz guitar is considered by many musicians as a much more difficult style of music to play on the guitar as it requires more music theory knowledge and extensive practice.

Pop - Pop music guitar covers many decades of music. From the early days of the 1950's to the grunge era of the 1990's, pop guitar music has arguably been the most successful of all guitar genres. Pop music covers all styles of music.