I'm a Flamenco guitar player, how to start playing Blues?

Question

I'm an amateur Flamenco guitar player (and a little bit classical guitar) and I want to learn how to play some Blues.
What do I need to start playing Blues? what do I need to know?

I checked this question:
Resources for learning the Blues
But I'm wondering if I'm ready to play some Blues since I already play Flamenco guitar.
Any similarity between Flamenco guitar music and Blues guitar music?
For now I'm sticking with my guitar, I'm not going to buy Blues guitar.

Answer 1

You don't need to buy a new guitar - any acoustic, classical or flamenco guitar will be fine. If you are an experienced flamenco guitarist you will already have the ability to pick the strings and notes you want, so the difference is going to be mostly about the feel of the music.

Both flamenco and blues are very emotional styles, but where flamenco can be very upbeat, blues stems originally from melancholy and sadness - you'll really want to spend a lot of time listening to and playing along with some of the classics because although playing blues can be very simple technically, if you don't feel it you won't enjoy it, and your audience won't appreciate it.

Answer 2

Fingerstyle blues is very satisfying; it's about 80% of what I do.
I always recommend the same first step for the aspiring blues player...Listen to the blues.

Go to the masters. Go to YouTube and listen to the old Delta and Chicago and Texas bluesmen that were responsible for inventing the style. Robert Johnson, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Son House, etc. Videos and recordings of all these guys are all over YouTube and they will link you further to dozens more greats. Listen enough to get the feel and rhythms and timing down, and decide what style you want to explore. THEN go looking for instructional stuff. There's plenty.

Answer 3

There are no so many similarities between blues and flamenco. You should start on standart blues scheme (it is available even on Wiki - it's quite easy to learn - and after that just learn some songs of various groups, until you can't improvise youself.