are there any players here that play only blues

[st.bede]

I am trying to move beyond the rock blues approach and get a little deeper with the blues but it has not been easy for me..

I would love any feedback...I have been told many great definition of what the blues are and how to approach the blues but I am looking more for how to go from a claptonesq (british blues) type of approach to more of a early 60s thing (like the kings)....

and then I would like to move back more to the jump stuff and then forward to the modern jazz blues type stuff

(anyway maybe I am crazy)

 

[rambler]

I made this transition naturally a while ago.. few things I did to get there..

started listening to it from the roots up - Robert Johnson, Son House, Robert Lockwood Jr, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Browny McGhee - IMO you have to understand blues at its most basic to get any good at it.. it's all about the groove and feel.

Move to the chicago guys, get a crash course in blues rhythm playing from all the cats backing Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Sonny Boy, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Reed.

Important Lead blues guys you should learn from: T Bone, Otis Rush, Freddie King, B.B., Albert King

There's too much to get into and its even harder to explain over the internet.. but IMO the best way to learn is to just listen and learn from the tracks..

its a hard road to do traditional blues justice tbh

 

[Mildperv]

If you can get -and keep- a groove moving, ala John Lee Hooker, you can do anything.

 

[st.bede]

thank you both, I think those thoughts will help...it is kind of like learning a new syntax..I have the words but I do not know how to put them together so it is off the listening school...

 

[Sin Nombre]

I have the opposite problem, trying to improve my blues rock playing from a blues base. I find the blues comes more naturally, not saying I'm good at it, but better than my blues rock playing.

You might take some of the blues players mentioned and jam along with them. You can try to get into the vibe they are doing without copying them note for note.

 

[Axis39]

I find to get the style I have to immerse myself. Just like Rambler says. I play almost exclusively Blues. Been playing that way for a long time. I make small forays into Rockabilly, but don't hang there long before I go back home to my Blues.

I listen to Blues almost exclusively as well. Mostly because I love Blues music. But, also because for me to be able to play it, I find I need to know it inside and out. I need to feel it deep in my bones.

It's the same with other types of music, it's really not exclusive to Blues.

I've been working on moving towards being able to play more Jump style stuff. I took some guitar lessons and worked on a lot of Jazzier stuff earlier this year, but even at my most jazzy... I still play Blues. LOL

I'll throw out some other names... Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Nighthawks, Jimmy Vaughan (after he left the 'Birds), Duke Robillard, Jimmy Thackery, Pinetop Perkins, Tab Benoit.... If you can't find something in there that lights a fire, you just aren't into Blues music.

But, there are a lot fo modern new faces in Blues I haven't even been able to check out... So many new albums coming out all the time. It's actually a really exciting time to be into Blues music!

Just like any language, total immersion is the best learning method.

 

[diceman]

Great post, Axis.

I've picked up on a few of my favorite blues artists from recommendations on this forum. Sean Costello, Michael Burks, and recently Seasick Steve are what I listen to on my home stereo most of the time. If mix it up with some of the well knowns as well - SRV, Clapton, Hendrix, Gov't Mule, etc. More than half of my playing is blues - and the vast majority of it is at least blues based.

 

[rambler]

An important thing is to get it in your head how you're thinking of scales - too many people think of blues as pentatonic

I don't really think about it while im playing, but sitting here typing - this is the best way to explain it

You can make any note work within any given key, it's all about how you approach it, obviously tougher notes like a b2 or b6 are harder to fit in, but its all doable. If you're thinking straight ahead blues like Freddie King, i like to think of it as a Mixolydian with certain stylistic traits, eg most of the time when you're on the I you'll approach the 3rd with a hammer on or a slight up bend from the m3 instead of say approach it down from the 4th or up from the 2nd.

That said, the best way to learn is to pick up on the how the greats played. This way you'll naturally pick up certain blues traits such as how to use slurs or double stops in a blues context, or how to rhythmically place your phrases to keep things interesting. How to bring solos up or down, when to use repeated phrases, when to use incomplete phrases that almost sound like mistakes that you repeat (Little Walter was great at this, incomplete phrases which he muffs 2-3 times and nails on the last - on purpose)

Listen to the solo on this track, and how he uses repeated phrases, different rhythms, repeated motifs, and sectioned phrases.. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-TBPujfWEo[/ame]

Hollywood Fats was a monster - a virtuoso of the blues - even the rhythm playing on that track is so tastful - he just knows how to play within any context - this comes from first emulating and building a back catalogue of licks that work over each chord (or ones that DON'T, and create tension) and then mixing it up and using that back catalogue mixed with your own style and own licks to do a new thing

Check this out - [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFU5LPotiU8[/ame] it's for Harp players but it applies to guitar playing just the same

Freddie King sometimes played this style were he would do non stop phrases and highlight certain notes over the chord changes (much like T Bone did) to keep it interesting, you can see this pretty easily on his Dance Away and Hide Away album

 

[rockstar232007]

I'll tell you what. From the life I've had (specifically my childhood/teenage years) you'd think that the blues would be ALL I would play! But, I like too many other kinds of music (Classic Rock, Heavy Metal (REAL Heavy Metal of the '70s-early '80s), Blues-Rock, etc) to be dead-set in one specific genre.

 

[Phil47uk]

To understand the music you must first try to understand the peoples.
Field holler and call and response etc. The phrasings of the chants and their content.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCg_XS2Yrs4[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKPvb4B4gtg[/ame]

Another typical example of call and response, which harks back to days on the cotten plantations.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lKuTOv0Lnw[/ame]

Keeping time breaking rocks. Notice the beat on the 1st beat of each bar..Take note of some of the harmonies being sung by the response chant. Some interesting notes which you can add to your licks and also listen to how the main chant subtly phrases slightly diffently at 1:18.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEHFDKXM2y0[/ame]

Get inspiration from the rhythms and especially the vocal lines.
Notice also the repetition in many of the old slave songs.A good tip for when soloing. Don't be scared of repeating phrases, altering them slightly with maybe the extra note here and there or with different attack and decay .
Many people make the big mistake of flying up and down pentatonic scales just because it looks and sounds flash. The blues isn't flash..It's not so much what you say, but like the vocal chants..It's how you say it.
It's very difficult to think like that because we all tend to put in screaming solos wailing around pentatonic scales up the board, but sometimes it's not that. It's a moan or a sigh, or even a whisper..And it's not easy to discipline yourself to do that.
Hell I'm as guilty as anyone.
I once gave a demo re blues and played over a sequence in front of an audience just using three notes. The permutations you can achieve with just three notes. The phrasing you can use with three notes. The dynamics and bends you can use with three notes.. All in all that in itself can make an awful lot of interesting stories and sounds in itself.

 

[John Vasco]

The roots aren't those mentioned in post #2. You need at least to go further back to the jug bands of the mid-to-late 1920s to see where those 1930s guys got their inspiration. And any calling out of electric blues players should NEVER omit Hubert Sumlin...

 

[John Vasco]

Many people make the big mistake of flying up and down pentatonic scales just because it looks and sounds flash. The blues isn't flash..It's not so much what you say, but like the vocal chants..It's how you say it.
It's a moan or a sigh, or even a whisper..And it's not easy to discipline yourself to do that.

I think this illustrates what Phil is saying. Just the introduction:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzUFsvtVOQ[/ame]​

 

[Quill]

How brave and wonderful of you to begin a thread such as this, st.bede. I'm doing similar work, for similar "reasons", if they can be called "reasons", as you are doing, and I think I'm coming at it with a generally similar sort of background ...

(Synchronicity? Synchronic/diachronic? Diatonic? Who knows? I could ask the same question of you, and were you to share with me the same thoughts that I have for you, I, as you, would be moved forward, I feel safe to guess, by about the same amount that you will be by me. But I'll offer my little bit that you already know yourself anyway.)

Phil's post and your question and my perspective put me in mind of the dream sequence from Robert Lepage's film, Possible Worlds:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGmoNmxy3lo[/ame]

- and a concrete response would go like this:

I'm working on the same question and problem, and have found that for me, starting with what I know, concentrating on playing on the changes, in a harmonically connected, on-the-chord-tones kind of way, is really helping me get better at playing all kinds of blues forms and feels. For the sake of clarity, I would put the opposite of that to be running through the changes, in a scale-line, more linear way of playing.

Listening to blues players with long careers that stretch back to big bands has helped me a lot. B.B.King is the perfect example; I like to listen and think about the way the solos fit into the harmonic richness of the big bands playing behind him, in recordings he made very early in his career. Seems to me there's a lot of information and harmonic understanding in those notes. Even when there's only three of them.

Hilarious ...

 

[Solidasrock]

I suppose posters could write whole books on advice on playiing the blues.

I play lot of blues both the acoustic and electric.

Try playing on an acoustic. I find it disciplines the ear better and gets you closer to the music. Whatever you learn you can transfer to the electric.

I play in all keys but tend to gravitate towards blues in the key of A on the electric...and more E on the acoustic.

 

[rambler]

The roots aren't those mentioned in post #2. You need at least to go further back to the jug bands of the mid-to-late 1920s to see where those 1930s guys got their inspiration. And any calling out of electric blues players should NEVER omit Hubert Sumlin...

You can take it back as far as you want bud, but for this guys purposes (electric blues of the 50's and 60's) id say the jug bands arent too important . Although obviously there's always something you can learn from any band..

Listing a whole lot of players isn't going to get him anywhere either, a simple point in the right direction will get him on the track to discovering the right guys anywho

 

[EasyAce]

I've been playing the blues a very long time---it's the music I love most, the music I feel the most, and the music I choose to play. I enjoy listening to other musics, both for my own pleasure and because there are elements in all of them that I can bring into my blues without losing the blues.

Any real blues you listen to can help you, can show you things you can integrate into your playing if you're looking to move away from the Brit-blues orientation. From the vintage Delta bluesmen to the earliest electric blues---which covers quite a spread from T-Bone Walker and Lonnie Johnson forward (and you'll find quite a bit of jazz that never forgot the blues, which reminds me: don't be afraid to listen to other instruments and bring some of their sensibilities into your guitar playing).

It comes down to the title of one of this man's albums: If You Love These Blues, Play 'Em As You Please . . .

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31EMHS65Nf0]Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, "Really"[/ame]

 

[st.bede]

to you all

any of you who want to listen to some of my playing and give some feedback please check out my thread :http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/cellar/107790-st-bedes-blues-learning-cruve.html

 

[Phil47uk]

Good topic.
I obviously like us all, hear certain people and get inspiration from them whatever era they come from, but I do think it's important to look deeper into the mindset of the peoples who developed whatever music one is listeneing to.

Take Ashkenazi Jewish Klezmer music for instance. To appreciate it fully, one should really try to understand the lifestyle of the people.
Why is it lively. Why does the clarinette often wail around a single note?
The Jews have always been persecuted wherever they have gone ( Like the blacks ), but instead of making their music into a lament like the African Americans, they made their music happy, reflecting good times, the clarinette wailing a sigh of sufffereing every now and again. The African Americans also tried making things a bit more cheerful when started off introducing gospel in their churches.
It really is a fascinating subject in itself and I think that everyone who really wants an insight into a peoples music should really sit down and take a good look at their culture and history.

Listen to how the music in this starts of as a wailing lament and picks up half way through at 1:45 goes into a frenzied ( Who gives a shit ) dance.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH5dvxvGTkk[/ame]

Don't forget, where do you think the great Clarinette players of the 1930's /40's came from. People like Benny Goodman etc. They all started out learning Klezmer clarinette from old Jewish teachers in places like the back streets of New York...Listen to their playing and you'll hear the influences.


I know they look a weird duo, but shit can this guy play clarinette.
Listen to how the clarinette which produced wailing in the last vid now emulates laughter and happy times, which were very important to a peoples who's lives were made a misery in the cold hard light of day.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWiNiLE_ck8[/ame]

 

[jwinger]

yep...got absorbed in peter green and never looked back!

 

[John Vasco]

You can take it back as far as you want bud, but for this guys purposes (electric blues of the 50's and 60's) id say the jug bands arent too important . Although obviously there's always something you can learn from any band..

Listing a whole lot of players isn't going to get him anywhere either, a simple point in the right direction will get him on the track to discovering the right guys anywho

I'm not challenging your post, but adding to it. Remember, this is what you said: "...started listening to it from the roots up - Robert Johnson, Son House, Robert Lockwood Jr, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Browny McGhee - IMO you have to understand blues at its most basic to get any good at it..." The roots were way before the likes of Robert Johnson et al. The jug bands were links in the chain somwhere between those you mention, as is the solitary guy W C Handy saw on a railway station which prompted his interest in that form of music. Most fascinating subject, but something can be learned from every strand of the music.