Blues Rock Guitar
Blues rock is where technique meets soul. Built on the 12-bar blues, pentatonic scales and expressive bending, it's the genre that taught rock guitar how to feel. Every rock guitarist owes something to the blues.
Cream, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan are all here. Their songs will teach you bending, vibrato, call-and-response phrasing and improvisation.
Guitar Through the Decades
The 1960s
Blues rock took shape in the 1960s as British guitarists absorbed American electric blues and pushed the volume and gain much higher. Cream, with Clapton's Les Paul through a Marshall stack, showed how a three-piece could build enormous guitar-driven sound from 12-bar foundations. Jimi Hendrix brought thumb-over fretting, heavy string bending, and whammy bar techniques that expanded what blues guitar could do.
17 songs in our catalog from this era
The 1970s
In the 1970s, blues rock stretched toward hard rock and heavy riffing while keeping blues phrasing at its core. Led Zeppelin leaned on open and drop tunings, slide work, and Page's loose, behind-the-beat rhythmic feel to give blues structures a heavier, darker character. Bands like Rory Gallagher and Free kept a rawer, more direct approach, emphasizing tone and feel over complexity.
19 songs in our catalog from this era
The 1980s
Stevie Ray Vaughan revived blues rock in the 1980s with a thick, aggressive tone built on heavy-gauge strings and Eb Standard tuning, bringing speed and power without losing blues expression. His Texas shuffle rhythms and hard-attacking pick style set a new standard for technique in the genre. Players like Robert Cray took a cleaner, more restrained approach, showing that blues rock had room for subtlety alongside intensity.
28 songs in our catalog from this era
The 1990s
In the 1990s, blues rock absorbed some influence from grunge and alternative rock, with heavier rhythm parts and darker tonality appearing alongside traditional pentatonic lead work. John Mayer, Gary Moore, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd kept the genre grounded in expressive bending and call-and-response phrasing. Tone remained central, with players mixing vintage amp sounds and modern drive pedals to shape their voice.
27 songs in our catalog from this era
The 2000s
Blues rock in the 2000s saw players like John Mayer and Joe Bonamassa bring the genre to wider audiences while staying close to its core vocabulary of pentatonic scales, slow blues phrasing, and dynamic bending. Guitar tone leaned toward cleaner Fender-style sounds for rhythm work paired with natural amp breakup for lead passages. The emphasis remained on feel and note choice rather than technical speed.
5 songs in our catalog from this era
The 2010s
In the 2010s, blues rock continued as a style rooted in tradition, with guitarists drawing directly from the vocabulary of Clapton, Hendrix, and Vaughan while finding their own voice within it. Bonamassa and others refined a modern take that combined vintage gear preferences, including old Marshalls and Dumble-style amps, with precise technical command of bending and vibrato. Slide guitar and open tunings also saw renewed interest as players explored earlier Delta and electric blues influences.
2 songs in our catalog from this era
Gear & Technique
Blues Rock Guitar: Feel Over Speed
Blues rock guitar is all about phrasing. The minor pentatonic scale is your home base, but what matters is how you play each note: the bend, the vibrato, the space between notes. A single bent note from Eric Clapton can say more than a hundred fast runs.
Stevie Ray Vaughan played in Eb Standard with heavy strings, producing a thick, aggressive tone that redefined blues guitar in the 80s. Cream (with Clapton) pioneered the power trio format. Led Zeppelin took blues riffs and turned them into hard rock anthems.
Start with I Feel Free for classic blues-rock rhythm and tone. Pride and Joy teaches Texas shuffle rhythm and aggressive string bending. Gravity shows how blues phrasing works in a modern context.
Related: Blues, Classic Rock. Or explore songs in Eb Standard tuning.
All Blues Rock Artists
Browse every Blues Rock artist in our catalog, A to Z.
Andy Timmons 4
Bill Withers 1
Blues Brothers 1
Cream 7
- 1 Badge TAB 1969
- 2 Crossroads LESSON 1968
- 3 Crossroads Pt.1 - Intro, 12 Bar Progressions & Outro Section LESSON 1968
- 4 Crossroads Pt.2 - First Guitar Solo LESSON 1968
- 5 Crossroads Pt.3 - Second Guitar Solo LESSON 1968
- 6 I Feel Free LESSON 1966
- 7 Sunshine Of Your Love LESSON 1968
Eric Clapton 17
- 1 Cocaine LESSON 1977
- 2 Crossroads Cream TAB 1968
- 3 Hey Hey TAB 1992
- 4 I Shot the Sheriff TAB 1974
- 5 I Wish it Would Rain Down - Phil Collins LESSON 1989
- 6 Layla TAB 1970
- 7 Layla Unplugged - Intro LESSON 1992
- 8 Layla Unplugged - Solo LESSON 1992
- 9 Layla Unplugged - Verse & Chorus LESSON 1992
- 10 Layla Unplugged Acoustic TAB 1992
- 11 Layla Unplugged Pt.1 - Intro LESSON 1992
- 12 Layla Unplugged Pt.2 - Verse & Chorus LESSON 1992
- 13 Layla Unplugged Pt.3 - Solo LESSON 1992
- 14 Old Love Unplugged - All Rhythm Guitar Parts LESSON 1992
- 15 Tears in Heaven TAB 1992
- 16 Tears In Heaven - Acoustic LESSON 1992
- 17 Wonderful Tonight LESSON 1977
Freddie King 1
Gary Moore 10
- 1 Parisienne Walkways TAB 1978
- 2 Still Got the Blues TAB 1990
- 3 Still Got The Blues - Intro & Main Solo LESSON 1990
- 4 Still Got The Blues - Outro Solo LESSON 1990
- 5 Still Got The Blues - Verse, Chorus & Bridge LESSON 1990
- 6 Still Got The Blues Instrumental LESSON 1990
- 7 Still Got The Blues Pt.1 - Intro & Main Solo LESSON 1990
- 8 Still Got The Blues Pt.2 - Verse, Chorus & Bridge LESSON 1990
- 9 Still Got The Blues Pt.3 - Outro Solo LESSON 1990
- 10 The Loner TAB 1987
John Mayer 7
- 1 Gravity LESSON 2006
- 2 Last Train Home LESSON 2010
- 3 Slow Dancing in a Burning Room TAB 2006
- 4 Waiting On The World To Change - Solo & Outro LESSON 2006
- 5 Waiting On The World To Change - Verse & Chorus LESSON 2006
- 6 Waiting On The World To Change Pt.1 - Verse & Chorus LESSON
- 7 Waiting On The World To Change Pt.2 - Solo & Outro LESSON 2006
Kenny Wayne Shepherd 1
Michael Lee Firkins 1
Otis Redding 1
Ray Charles 1
Robert Plant 1
Robin Trower 2
Rory Gallagher 2
Stevie Ray Vaughan 27
- 1 Cold Shot LESSON 1983
- 2 Lenny TAB 1980
- 3 Lenny - Famous Riffs LESSON 1982
- 4 Life by the Drop LESSON 1991
- 5 Little Wing TAB 1990
- 6 Mary Had a Little Lamb TAB 1983
- 7 Pride and Joy TAB 1983
- 8 Pride And Joy - 1st Two 12 Bar Progressions LESSON 1983
- 9 Pride And Joy - 3rd Twelve Bar Progression LESSON 1983
- 10 Pride And Joy - Intro LESSON 1983
- 11 Pride And Joy - Main Solo LESSON 1983
- 12 Pride And Joy - Outro Section LESSON 1983
- 13 Pride And Joy Pt.1 - Intro LESSON 1983
- 14 Pride And Joy Pt.2 - 1st Two 12 Bar Progressions LESSON
- 15 Pride And Joy Pt.3 - 3rd Twelve Bar Progression LESSON 1983
- 16 Pride And Joy Pt.4 - Main Solo LESSON 1983
- 17 Pride And Joy Pt.5 - Outro Section LESSON 1983
- 18 Scuttle Buttin' TAB 1984
- 19 Texas Flood - Guitar Solo LESSON 1983
- 20 Texas Flood - Intro LESSON 1983
- 21 Texas Flood - Verse 1 & 2 LESSON 1983
- 22 Texas Flood - Verse 3 LESSON 1983
- 23 Texas Flood Pt.1 - Intro LESSON 1983
- 24 Texas Flood Pt.2 - Verse 1 & 2 LESSON 1983
- 25 Texas Flood Pt.3 - Guitar Solo LESSON 1983
- 26 Texas Flood Pt.4 - Verse 3 LESSON 1983
- 27 Voodoo Child TAB 1984