Learning to play electric: artists I should look at?

[Pickcity]

Originally Posted by Rodger Knox

Check out the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, and Lynard Skynard.

Jimmie Vaughn(Stevie's older brother) mentioned already plays in the Fabulous Thunderbirds, also worth checking out.

Since you're only 23, I'll point out that Clapton also played with the Yardbirds, John Mayhall Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos if you are not familiar with Clapton's earlier work.

There's also Jimi Hendrix...

A lot of excellent suggestions here. I will also add Molly Hatchet to the list at the top. That should keep anyone busy for a while.

I could not agree more about Clapton's early stuff. I am not a big fan of Clapton, but I really appreciate his early stuff. It is easily his best work, IMO.

Jimi always seems to come up in these discussions, so I would like to make a suggestion. It is easy for someone to say "Jimi" and expect everyone take it with a grain of salt, and naturally, most of us do. The best way to utilize this advice is to borrow the simplest licks from Jimi, in an effort to add some spice to what we're doing. Just like anything else in our world, nothing is magic, and sometimes the best stuff is simple. Jimi was no exception to this rule, and took full advantage. He played some crazy stuff, no doubt, but he also played some simple but tasteful guitar pieces all the time...It's not what you play, but how you play it...Start with the easy but tasteful licks and incorporate them into your playing, and particularly in your rhythm playing...Start sneaking a few of the licks in, here and there... I believe this is a good approach to borrowing from a great player, like Hendrix, or any other, especially in the first couple of years.


It all depends on your particular style/direction. If you have a sound in mind, find other players who are producing something close to the sound you are seeking, and borrow from them. We all do it, if we're being honest. Overall, learn everything you can and discard nothing until you've given it an honest break. Lastly, the most popular music or artists may not be the the greatest inspirations for you. We must be inspired to reach our maximum potential, whatever that may be. Striving for it is much of the joy. Good luck.

[DissonantTimbre]

Neil Young, especially the stuff with Crazy Horse. Although his electric approach might be a little "noisy" for your liking. Songs like "Down By The River", "Cowgirl in the Sand", "Powderfinger", "Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)". "Cortez the Killer", "Like a Hurricane", and "Rockin in the Free World" are some of the best examples.
Probably the best album to listen to would be the live album Weld especially if you like live albums.

Eagles, I know they are like the 70s Nickelback in that it is cool to hate them. However they had great guitar parts from Bernie Leadon's more country influenced style on the Eagles, Desparado, On the Border albums to the more rock style from Don Felder and Joe Walsh later on.
Riffs like "Already Gone", "Witchy Woman", and "Life in the Fast Lane" are incredibly fun to play. Of course "Hotel California has one of the best solos of all time and probably the greatest dual guitar solo ever. It's probably an intermediate level solo but it's great to have things to work towards.

Ozzy era Black Sabbath is great as the riffs tend to be simple but iconic and most of the solos are bluesy. The first six Sabbath albums are absolute masterpieces. The first two albums are in standard tuning but afterwards most songs are downtuned usually to C#. Dio era is great as well but the songs tend to be faster and therefore more difficult, especially the solos.

As for specific albums
Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet to Exile on Main St.
Santana first three albums, if you like jazz keep listening
Boston
Led Zeppelin IV
Guns and Roses Appetite for Destruction
All the Hendrix Experience albums
Van Halen all the David Lee Roth albums
Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz
Rush 2112 to Moving Pictures
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall
Allman Brothers Band first four albums and Live at Fillmore
Lynyrd Skynyrd every studio/live album to Street Survivors

I'm going to recommend some instrumental or near instrumental guitar albums however they may not be your cup of tea.
Joe Satriani Surfing with the Alien
Jeff Beck Blow By Blow
Eric Johnson Ah Via Musicom
Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy
Steve Vai Passion and Warfare
Buckethead Electric Tears or Colma (Colma is more acoustic)
Jason Becker Perpetual Burn
Yngwie Malmsteen Rising Force (This has the famous insturmentals but as albums Yngwie's next three have better songs)
Michael Angelo Batio No Boundaries
Allan Holdsworth Metal Fatigue
John Petrucci Suspended Animation
Vinnie Moore Mind's Eye

If you like metal or have an interest in it I can recommend a lot of albums.

If you want to learn how to play faster, more ergonomically, and with more efficiency I can't recommend Troy Grady's Cracking the Code series enough.

[redir]

Without reading all the posts... I'm not sure anyone can really answer this question for you. Just like any type of guitar there are many genres within it, blues, jazz, rock and so on.

The answer might just be seek out as much music as you can.

I wanted to play electric guitar because of Frank Zappa. I wanted to play acoustic guitar because of Arthur Blake.

I think these are things that you need to discover yourself.

[Scott O]

All great suggestions I'll add Jack White/The White Stripes - very catchy hard rock/Blues.

U2 - not too complex playing but a lot of effects

Ac/DC - the Young brothers just might rival Keith Richards for cool, easy, memorable licks.

[1neeto]

Originally Posted by Scott O

All great suggestions I'll add Jack White/The White Stripes - very catchy hard rock/Blues.



U2 - not too complex playing but a lot of effects



Ac/DC - the Young brothers just might rival Keith Richards for cool, easy, memorable licks.

I think the Highway To Hell riff is a must learn riff for every electric guitar player. [emoji23]

[mtcross]

Many of the guitar players I would mention have been listed in previous posts, I would add, based on the artists you listed, Buddy Guy. Guy was a big influence on both Hendrix and Clapton among many other guitar heroes.

I would also suggest you listen to Muddy Waters, and Howlin Wolf. Muddy played some nasty licks and had some amazing guitar players in his bands over the years. Wolf had Hubert Sumlin and that is about all anybody needed.

[BoneDigger]

If you'd like to start fairly easy and like a somewhat bluesy sound, look into the songs of Gordon Lightfoot. His lead players, Red Shea and Terry Clements, were quite good and didn't feel the need to be too flashy. Three good examples:

https://youtu.be/UCd_FWocJkM

https://youtu.be/s8rR7E6NfY4

https://youtu.be/9vST6hVRj2A

[fray]

I would add John Lee Hooker to this list.

[rwmct]

On the Peter Green front, I love this little lesson on the opening intro to "I need your love so bad."

To me, this is a perfect kind of thing for learning electric guitar, because there is nothing really difficult going on except for "touch" and "feel." So you can learn the fingering in short order, but then have lots to work on trying to get it to sound just right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOKH6xZtw0o