Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
  • Guitars
  • Amps
  • Pedals
  • Drums
  • Synths
  • Software
  • Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Recording
  • Buyer’s guides
  • Live
  • DJ
  • Advice
  • Acoustic
  • Bass
  • About us
  • More
    • Reviews
Magazines
  • Computer Music
  • Electronic Musician
  • Future Music
  • Keyboard Magazine
  • Guitarist
  • Guitar Techniques
  • Total Guitar
  • Bass Player
More
  • How to make an AI cover song
  • 84000+ free music samples
  • Foo Fighters' new drummer
  • Ken Scott on recording The Beatles
  • First EVH Jump synth recording

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. Home
  2. Tuition
  3. Guitarist

Blues Guitar Lessons: White Chicago blues

By Neville Marten
( Guitarist )
published 19 August 2011

The American Clapton?
Michael Bloomfield's white Chicago blues

The American Clapton?

In this tutorial, we examine the playing of a Chicagoan that many say was the 'American Clapton' - the great Michael Bloomfield.

The Clapton/Bloomfield comparisons came about for several reasons. There's the obvious 'white boy playing black music' connection, but the two players were also sidemen to leading blues lights in their respective lands - Paul Butterfield and John Mayall.

They got into playing vintage guitars at exactly the same point too; Bloomfield's use of 1950s Telecasters, P-90 Les Paul Goldtops and, of course, his '59 sunburst closely mirrored Clapton's taste at the time (EC had used Teles in The Yardbirds and actually wanted a Goldtop like Freddie King's, but found a sunburst instead).

Musically, though, while Clapton's take on Freddie, BB, Albert, Otis Rush and so on was very accurately executed, with 'finesse' being his musical watchword, Bloomfield attacked his licks, often adding wild vibrato and unexpected phrases.

The shock of Clapton for any of us lucky enough to hear him at the time, was the timing, taste and technique in his playing: Bloomfield exhibited more of the 'on the edge of your seat' approach that we've come to associate with Jimmy Page and Buddy Guy.

There were sonic differences between them too, with Bloomfield's generally cleaner tone due to his use of Fender (or Gretsch) amps, while Clapton's deployment of heavier-toned Marshalls is of course legendary.

These licks look at the edgy side of his playing, so some of them are a tad off-the-wall - but there's nothing wrong with that as far as we're concerned.

Click onwards for the tab, examples and backing track.

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
Lick one

Lick one

You can hear this technique in the playing of both BB and Albert King. It seems Bloomfield is ‘thinking’ D minor pentatonic (DFGAC), but targeting the key of D’s major third (F#).

He’s playing over the dominant A7 chord, so it might be seen as wrong, except that fortuitously F# is also the sixth of E. It’s typically ‘edgy’, though!

Listen:

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
Lick two

Lick two

Bloomfield loved to create ‘shapes’ in his solos using bends such as this.

The first bend is let down to A giving a sixth to fifth (B to A) movement. The next bend is more ambiguous, as it’s not sure whether it’s a semitone or tone (F# to E, or F to E).

F# against G7 is a challenging sound if isolated, but in the blues context (especially when bent slightly flat, as it is here) it kind of works.

Listen:

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
Lick three

Lick three

Any or all of the great blues players might have played this lick.

Bloomfield, though, gives it a bit of Buddy Guy attitude with that wicked tone and frantic vibrato.

Listen:

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
Lick four

Lick four

The repeated five notes at the start of this lick over the IV chord (G) neatly outline its b7, sixth, fifth and third in a way that players from Les Paul through Cliff Gallup, to Beck and Santana, have done.

Bloomfield made the timing seem on the edge, though - and his fluttering, almost unsure vibrato made it his own.

Listen:

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
Lick five

Lick five

The point about this is the fourth, to b5, to root movement (G-G#-D) at the head of the lick.

You don’t often hear the notes played this way around, with a skip from the third to the first string, missing out the second string on the way.

Again, the repetition strengthens a simple theme and gives the lick a recognisable shape and personality, even if the remaining notes are conventional pentatonic fare.

Listen:

Backing track:

(Download)

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
Neville Marten
Social Links Navigation
More about guitars
EarthQuaker Devices Disaster Transport Legacy Reissue

EarthQuaker Devices resurrects the OG Disaster Transport, with the cult classic ‘Delay Modulation Machine’ newly improved with expanded features

British Pedal Company King Of Fuzz Tone Bender MKII

The British Pedal Company launches limited edition King Of Fuzz Tone Bender to commemorate coronation of King Charles III with gnarly MKII fuzz

Latest
Foo Fighters: A colorised image of a Foo Fighters press pic reveals the finish of Grohl's new Epiphone

Is Dave Grohl’s new Epiphone DG-335… Gold?

See more latest ►
Most Popular
Try these 16 inspiring guitar chords that use open strings

By Total Guitar19 April 2023

Led Zeppelin II: Jimmy Page guitar lesson

By Total Guitar17 April 2023

Bored by your own guitar chord playing? Try inversions!

By Rob Laing17 April 2023

Learn 5 essential blues guitar turnaround licks for your solos

By MusicRadar15 April 2023

Computer Music 321 June 2023: free downloads

By Computer Music11 April 2023

Learn 7 extended jazz guitar chords

By MusicRadar11 April 2023

Learn 20 blues, prog rock, folk and funk guitar chords

By MusicRadar6 April 2023

Learn to play 4 awkward but awesome-sounding chords

By Leigh Fuge5 April 2023

How to use the '3 reverb approach' to nail reverb in almost any mixing scenario

By Jon Musgrave29 March 2023

How to optimize your PC for music production

By Matt McCracken27 March 2023

22 essential reggaeton production tips to help you sound like Bad Bunny

By MusicRadar22 March 2023

  1. Nirvana In Utero cover
    1
    Steve Albini recalls the secrecy around the Nirvana In Utero sessions: "I had to do everything I could to keep it under wraps to make sure that we didn’t get overrun by fans and the added nonsense"
  2. 2
    Joe Bonamassa tries Peter Green's Gretsch White Falcon: "You can play blues on anything"
  3. 3
    The unlikely story of Aphex Twin's weirdest gig, when he DJ'd with sandpaper and stuck a microphone in a blender
  4. 4
    Gryffin: "After I discovered deadmau5, Skrillex and Avicii, I immediately downloaded Ableton Live"
  5. 5
    Mick Hucknall on the 10 songs that changed his life: “The Beatles changed the way music sounded, but the Stones were the world’s greatest rock band”
  1. Joe Bonamassa
    1
    Joe Bonamassa tries Peter Green's Gretsch White Falcon: "You can play blues on anything"
  2. 2
    The unlikely story of Aphex Twin's weirdest gig, when he DJ'd with sandpaper and stuck a microphone in a blender
  3. 3
    Pedalboard tour: how Petter Carlsen from the Norwegian duo Pil & Bue gets his juggernaut guitar tones
  4. 4
    Spectrasonics Twisted Trees Sonic Extension review
  5. 5
    New Van Halen documentary takes us back to the early ‘80s to tell the story of how Eddie built 5150 Studios as the band were coming apart

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.