Eric Clapton is considered one of the great Blues Guitar ambassadors. So how did Eric Clapton learn guitar?
Eric Clapton learned guitar by listening to blues albums repeatedly. He would then use a reel to reel recorder to record himself playing riffs he heard on the record. He would not stop until he got the riff perfectly. Clapton had a good ear and was able to learn riffs faster then many other guitarists.
Continue reading to discover how Clapton learned guitar and became a blues guitar ambassador.
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When Did Eric Clapton Start Playing Guitar?
Eric Clapton started playing guitar in 1958 at the age of 13 years old. Clapton got a cheap steel-string Hoyer German guitar and started trying to play the blues he had heard on the radio. After half a year of trying and failing to play well, Clapton retired the instrument. It wasn’t until a year or two later that he picked up the guitar again.
“For most of my youth, my back was against the wall. The only way to survive that was with dignity, pride and courage. I heard that in certain forms of music, I heard it most of all in the blues because that was an individual. It was always one man with his guitar versus the world. He had no options or alternatives other than to sing and play to ease his pain. That echoed what I felt in many aspects of my life.”
Eric Clapton, Yardbirds Interview
How Did Eric Clapton Learn Guitar?
Eric Clapton learned guitar by ear. He would collect blues albums, tape them with his reel-to-reel recorder and play back individual phrases repeatedly until he got them perfectly. Clapton also used the book Play in a Day. This book was used by many guitarists in the day like Jimmy Page and George Harrison. It provided great instruction on simple chord formations, how to hold your guitar, and various practice exercises.
Eric Clapton got a cheap German guitar in 1958 as his first guitar. After a year and a half of trying to play the blues, he gave up. Although, it would not last long. Clapton’s fascination with the blues was too strong. After getting kicked out of art school, Clapton really started concentrating on learning something on the guitar.
Clapton realized that there were blues contributors and blues imitators. Everyone starts off as a blues imitator but many remain in that hole. Clapton understood this at a young age and strived to become a contributor. Someone who was able to dissect different blues musicians guitar phrasing and create it into their own style. So that’s what he did. Clapton used his reel-to-reel recorder to record himself playing various legendary blues licks all intertwined. He added his own flare to them intermittently and started forming his own style.
“I began to play things I had heard on the record, but to add my own touches. I would take the bits that I could copy from a combination of the electric blues players I liked, like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Chuck Berry, and the acoustic players like Big Bill Broonzy, and amalgamate them into one, trying to find a phraseology that would encompass all these different artists.”
Eric Clapton, NPR
Eric had a few small bands as a teen but none were serious, resulting in Clapton leaving them. One night, Clapton went to the club where a few of his friends were playing a gig. He told them he was better then the guitarist they were using. The next day, he was in the band. Now that is some confidence. This band was called The Yardbirds.
The Yardbirds had an initial bluesy sound to them. A sound that was created by Clapton as the lead guitarist. Although, that quickly changed. It became apparent that their music was edging towards the pop genre and Clapton did not want his guitar to go in that direction. Instead, he quit the band. At that time, he knew exactly what he wanted and what he wanted was to play blues guitar. He joined the Blues Breakers to fulfill that need. In this band Clapton dug deeper into the blues roots. There he continued to master his craft, deeply rooted in the blues.
At nearly 20 years old, Eric Clapton already played like a master. Since joining the Blues Breakers, no one in England had ever heard someone play the guitar like him. With John Mayall at the helm of the Blues Breakers, a blues scholar, Clapton was able to learn blues guitar immensely fast after being exposed to more and more blues music. Mayall had a deep collection of blues and jazz records. Far more then Clapton had.
When Clapton was with Cream, his guitar skills developed even more. His bandmates were older then him and had been playing for much longer. They had expertise in regards to rhythm and timing. Jack Bruce made a comment that Clapton’s sense of time had dramatically improved quickly after Cream’s formation.
Is Eric Clapton a Self Taught Guitarist?
Eric Clapton is a self-taught guitarist. He received no formal training and did not take lessons of any kind. Instead, he would copy riffs from his favorite blues musicians, record them, and play each phrase back. Eric Clapton learned by ear and did not know music theory. Clapton’s grandparents were music fans and his grandmother played piano. Although, he did not learn music theory from his Grandma despite her knowledge on the subject.
Who Were Eric Clapton’s Biggest Influences?
The first time Eric Clapton heard the blues was when a children’s radio show called “Uncle Mac” played Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee’s “Whoopin’ the Blues“. This fascinated Clapton. It provoked him to get his first guitar.
“I think the purity of what they were trying to do undercut everything else that you could hear on the radio. Aside from great classical music or great opera, there was a seriousness about it that none of this other music had.”
Eric Clapton on Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcghee
Early on in Eric Clapton’s guitar journey, he became infatuated with Delta Blues guitarist and singer Robert Johnson. Studying his records and trying to play it. Clapton was given the album King of the Delta Blues Singers. A collection of seventeen songs by Robert Johnson. After a few times listening to the album, Clapton realized he found the master. Clapton was inspired and tried to copy Johnson.
Other guitarists that Clapton studied and listened to were Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy. He loved Broonzy because of his technical and accurate rhythm playing. Clapton describes Broonzy’s rhythm playing as “absolutely perfect”.
After hearing Freddie King’s I Love The Woman, he began to mimic King’s style as well. This was single string style of electric blues guitar.
The biggest influence on Eric Clapton was Muddy Waters. When Eric Clapton found the music of Muddy Waters, it was during a time when the music was really getting to him. Mentioning how he was especially trying to grasp and make something out of Waters guitar playing. To incorporate into his own. He was especially interested in the technique that Muddy Waters possessed and his ability to create different effects. Clapton went all in trying to learn the effects Muddy Waters was able to create. In regards to Clapton’s learnings, he described it as “I made this as a sort of milestone for me, for my learning capabilities”.
Of course other guitarists like Buddy Guy and even Jimi Hendrix later on in the 60’s had a large impact on Clapton. Although, the above mentioned Bluesman had the biggest influence on Clapton, especially in the early days of his guitar playing.
How Many Hours a Day Did Eric Clapton Practice?
Eric Clapton practiced upwards of 8 hours a day during his youth. Clapton practiced obscene amounts of time to get to the level he is at. When he wasn’t practicing, he was listening and studying blues records that he liked and believed could improve his playing.
How Did Eric Clapton Get the Nickname Slowhand?
Eric Clapton got the nickname slowhand because he was slow at changing broken strings, causing the crowd to “slow hand clap” him while he changed the string. Clapton would use very thin gauged strings causing them to break often. When he broke a string, the music wound down while he changed his string.
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