Want to learn to play guitar like Joe Bonamassa?
This Joe Bonamassa Player Study will fuel your “Drive” to be a better blues guitar player. This course will take you through the theory, scales and techniques Joe Bonamassa uses to create his distinctive fast runs and beautiful melodies!
Background
Joe Bonamassa picked up the guitar at the tender age of four. His father was a big music fan and played him records of British blues players like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, which inspired the young Bonamassa. At 11, he was being mentored in guitar by “redneck jazz” pioneer Danny Gatton, and by 12 was gigging around Western New York and Pennsylvania on weekends with his band, Smokin’ Joe Bonamassa. Also that year, he opened for blues legend B.B. King for about 20 gigs.
Bonamassa played in a band called Bloodline with the sons of Miles Davis, Robby Krieger and Berry Oakley before putting out his debut solo album in 2000. He has released a total of 15 solo albums through his independent record label, 11 of which have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Blues chart.
In 2020, Bonamassa created an independent record label called Keeping the Blues Alive Records, dedicated to promoting blues musicians.
Style
Bonamassa has cited Eric Clapton, Jethro Tull, and Stevie Ray Vaughan as some of his biggest influences. He fuses rock and blues together in his playing, incorporating atypical groupings of notes in scale patterns. He also plays “outside of the box” by starting on second beats, utilizing string bends, and repeating rhythms.
Gear
Bonamassa has a huge guitar and gear collection. He got a head start on the collection since his parents own a music shop in Central New York. In 2019, he told Guitar World that he has more than 400 guitars and 400 amplifiers.
Bonamassa has said that his favorite guitar is his 1951 Fender Telecaster, nicknamed “The Bludgeon”. He also collaborated with Epiphone in 2021 to release a replica of his 1958 Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Once you’ve mastered Bonamassa’s signature style with the player study course, you can find tabs for 44 of his songs, including “A New Day Yesterday”, “If Heartaches Were Nickels”, and “Sloe Gin”.