To play the blues there are three essential things you must,
I mean must know.
1. Playing the flat 7 gives you a rootsy sound. It is a unique and needed part of the blues texture. This means you need to be familiar with what and where the flat 7 is! In A for instance the flat 7 is G one wholestep down from the root note A. It is best to know the flat seven of each chord in a one, four, five blues: For the one chord, A the flat 7 is G, the four chord D the flat 7 is C, the five chord E the flat 7 is D. Memorize where these notes are on your guitar and play them in your solos against the proper root,
(for more on this refer to the Sound and Feel of Blues Book).

2.Playing the flat 5th gives you a slightly dissonant sound and is usually used as a passing tone. The flat 5th in A is E flat. Find it and learn it.

3. Learn to play triplets with feel. For the most part you'll use 8th note triplets three notes per beat, this ones not as easy as it sounds.
First off you have to listen for triplets in the recordings you like and identify them. Next make sure they are played legato and with length. This means instead of going for a precision triplet with a strict classical feel, you might want to push the length and duration of each note to the limit of the beat, (For further definitions refer to the Sound and Feel of Blues Book).

Copyright 2008 Tapella