How to play the Blues - well

kelpbeds

MagicPigDetective said:

kelpbeds said:

There is a massive amount of material on my Youtube channel that is totally dedicated to Blues that will really help you. I've taught this material to a huge amount of students also and it has been very well received.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBTSHf5NqVQDz0LzW2PC1Lw

Thanks for that, yes you've got good lessons there, I'll be working through them. 

Great recommendations @jpfamps ;;;;

Thanks @Lewy, sound advice again. I suppose 'well' can mean different things, I think for me I meant to become more familiar with the three chords, what works over them, what works on the changes. I've been playing for years but not going to claim I'm particularly good but striving to improve. Using the major thirds and sevenths and major scale was not something I was comfortable with, and just stuck to minor. I agree, to play very well, I would need to totally immerse myself in it, perhaps it's like learning a language, you can get by with a few phrases, but to be truly fluent you have to immerse yourself. 

I tend not to be able to stick with one genre/style, I have phases of playing maybe metal/doom, then cleaner/ambient styles, but then I keep going back to the blues, and feel this need to be able to play it better or competently. Perhaps I need to just dedicate a few months to it completely and see where it takes me. 

 

Great stuff, glad it's helping!

tanihhiavlt

I've been going to some blues jam nights recently - there seems to be a gap in the market for rhythm guitarists.

Having a repertoire that has some skill in timing, some licks so tasty you need to play them more than once, a song structure you need to keep on top of and a groove to fall in with the rest of the band and be a part in the whole sound. 

That's my aim, I just think I'll be risking more if I drop a bar or fluff a note of a repeated riff - so learning faster as it matters more, supporting other musicians and making friends, improving my bandsmanship, stage presence, there seems to be more energy in that music to my ears AND if no one else wants to play rhythm - more practice time for me!

Also, is it me or has "60s Rhythm and Blues" warped into "Blues"? Big Brother and the Holding Company "Combination of the two" is blues and not a million miles in feel from King Curtiss's Memphis Soul Stew - but it seems people want to play Little Wing or Scuttle Buttin'  

Greatape

jpfamps said:

If you want to explore a genre fully, you need to listen to a lot of music.

This might upset a few people, but whilst the Beano album is seen a seminal blues album, in my opinion it's not very good, and I suggest getting away from this asap.

It's now a lot easier to find stuff then when I were lad.

I suggest checking out the following artists:

Freddie King

Otis Rush cobra recordings (includes original version of All Your Love backed by Ike Turner)

Johnny Guitar Watson 50's era

Ike Turner pre- Ike and Tina Turner review, he backed and produced a ton of artists.

Bobby Bland, 50's to early 60's

Earl King

Guitar Slim

Magic Sam

BB King from the 50's to early 60s (he playes very differently than he does from the late 60's).

Smiley Lewis

For more comtempory players checkout:

Anson Funderburg (one of my all time favourites)

Kid Ramos

Charlie Baty

Fabulous Thunderbirds first 4 albums

Mike Keller

Johnny Moeller

Nick Curran

Junior Watson

Kirk Fletcher

Dylan Bishop

Ronnie Earl (his playing on 3 Hours Past Midnight from Roomful of Blues Live At Lupos is a masterpiece).

Having a good repetoire of songs (which really shouldn't be that hard to acquire; it's not jazz!!) will help you expand you vocabulary, and also help you play with other musicians.

I couldn't agree more with this post. (I'd add Joe Louis Walker, Derek Trucks, Sonny Landreth, Mike Zito, and Little Feat (although not strictly a blues band)). 

Lots of talk about arpeggios. That's lots of thinking. It's worth simplifying the application by understanding a slightly more sophisticated concept. That is, how triads stack to make chords. Initially, understanding that the top three quarters of a Dom 7th chord is a diminished triad off the third. E.g.play an E dim triad instead of a full C7. Stick with three note voicings on strings 123 and 234. Gives you small, easily-remembered units of notes to play with (and your bassist will thank you). 

Later, you can walk into those chord tones chromatically or diatonically and start to understand how the other diatonic triads relate to the Dom 7th. ('All Blues' demonstrates, as do people like Robben Ford.)

However, that's all in danger of over-complicating it for now, so: just set up a C7 groove and side-slip into an E dim. 

(For a cool sound ending on a 9th, slide up from Gm to Am and back over C7)

Benm39

viz said:

RULES OF THE BLUES

1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this ...

Ah that's fantastic! Nearly just died a most spectacularly non-blues death of choking on inhaled toast crumbs.... 

Was about to make chicken stock but now have irresistible urge to find out what chitlins' are and get me some. 

Josh_Cosku

I believe it is more about the timing/phrasing rather than the notes that you play.

It is all min/maj pentatonics, mixolydian, dominant 7 arpeggios but knowing well the fretboard is not enough. I believe all of the greats have a solid time feel and creative phrasing.

Greatape

tanihhiavlt said:

I've been going to some blues jam nights recently - there seems to be a gap in the market for rhythm guitarists.

Having a repertoire that has some skill in timing, some licks so tasty you need to play them more than once, a song structure you need to keep on top of and a groove to fall in with the rest of the band and be a part in the whole sound. 

That's my aim, I just think I'll be risking more if I drop a bar or fluff a note of a repeated riff - so learning faster as it matters more, supporting other musicians and making friends, improving my bandsmanship, stage presence, there seems to be more energy in that music to my ears AND if no one else wants to play rhythm - more practice time for me!

Also, is it me or has "60s Rhythm and Blues" warped into "Blues"? Big Brother and the Holding Company "Combination of the two" is blues and not a million miles in feel from King Curtiss's Memphis Soul Stew - but it seems people want to play Little Wing or Scuttle Buttin'  

Can I join your band?  I'll happily take over on rhythm. 

EricTheWeary

I may have misremembered it by now but there was a wonderful Radio 4 interview with Maddy Prior (possibly the only folk singer to have a character in the X Men named after her). She was a blues nut who accidentally ended up in the British folk scene and later on did a bit of rock. She talked about immersing yourself in a new music and starting to understand it's rules and that you can appreciate almost anything in the end. I found it to be genuinely inspirational. 

When I started playing in a ska band I thought I knew about it but I didn't really, then listened to loads and eventually became quite obsessed with the minutia of it. That's a much narrower band of music than 'the blues.'  Indeed in some ways it is hard to know where to start with blues as there is such a rich culture and heritage and you could follow it through James Brown and 80s hip hop for example: believing that it ends up with Joe Bonamassa style twiddle fests is only one perspective. So, take an aspect of the blues - an artist or subgenre - and immerse in that, hear it in your head, see through the matrix as it were. Transferring that onto the fingerboard is another matter but if you don't know what you are aiming for then you won't ever get there.      

[patronising lecture over...   ] 

PAL

We all look for books,videos &TAB to improve but years and years ago we only had our ears ! 

Greatape

PAL said:

We all look for books,videos &TAB to improve but years and years ago we only had our ears ! 

Well, theory has always followed practise, so there's something in that. Good ears are very useful. Essential, even..

Tannin

This may have been mentioned already further up the thread, but this chap is outstanding.

(Sorry, the software won't let me post a link to a Youtube page because it keeps trying to turn it into an image of a video, which it isn't. It's a channel page. Grrr!) 

Search You-tube for "Fretboard Confidential"

 I really like his "just learn one thing at a time" philosophy.

 Another very good, down-to-earth one is here: (Sorry. Same annoying BBS software problem. You will have to search You-tube for "Tim Daley Blues Guitar". 


 Can't go wrong with either of those.

guitarjack66

Greatape said:

jpfamps said:

If you want to explore a genre fully, you need to listen to a lot of music.

This might upset a few people, but whilst the Beano album is seen a seminal blues album, in my opinion it's not very good, and I suggest getting away from this asap.

It's now a lot easier to find stuff then when I were lad.

I suggest checking out the following artists:

Freddie King

Otis Rush cobra recordings (includes original version of All Your Love backed by Ike Turner)

Johnny Guitar Watson 50's era

Ike Turner pre- Ike and Tina Turner review, he backed and produced a ton of artists.

Bobby Bland, 50's to early 60's

Earl King

Guitar Slim

Magic Sam

BB King from the 50's to early 60s (he playes very differently than he does from the late 60's).

Smiley Lewis

For more comtempory players checkout:

Anson Funderburg (one of my all time favourites)

Kid Ramos

Charlie Baty

Fabulous Thunderbirds first 4 albums

Mike Keller

Johnny Moeller

Nick Curran

Junior Watson

Kirk Fletcher

Dylan Bishop

Ronnie Earl (his playing on 3 Hours Past Midnight from Roomful of Blues Live At Lupos is a masterpiece).

Having a good repetoire of songs (which really shouldn't be that hard to acquire; it's not jazz!!) will help you expand you vocabulary, and also help you play with other musicians.

I couldn't agree more with this post. (I'd add Joe Louis Walker, Derek Trucks, Sonny Landreth, Mike Zito, and Little Feat (although not strictly a blues band)). 

Lots of talk about arpeggios. That's lots of thinking. It's worth simplifying the application by understanding a slightly more sophisticated concept. That is, how triads stack to make chords. Initially, understanding that the top three quarters of a Dom 7th chord is a diminished triad off the third. E.g.play an E dim triad instead of a full C7. Stick with three note voicings on strings 123 and 234. Gives you small, easily-remembered units of notes to play with (and your bassist will thank you). 

Later, you can walk into those chord tones chromatically or diatonically and start to understand how the other diatonic triads relate to the Dom 7th. ('All Blues' demonstrates, as do people like Robben Ford.)

However, that's all in danger of over-complicating it for now, so: just set up a C7 groove and side-slip into an E dim. 

(For a cool sound ending on a 9th, slide up from Gm to Am and back over C7)

Greatape said:

jpfamps said:

If you want to explore a genre fully, you need to listen to a lot of music.

This might upset a few people, but whilst the Beano album is seen a seminal blues album, in my opinion it's not very good, and I suggest getting away from this asap.

It's now a lot easier to find stuff then when I were lad.

I suggest checking out the following artists:

Freddie King

Otis Rush cobra recordings (includes original version of All Your Love backed by Ike Turner)

Johnny Guitar Watson 50's era

Ike Turner pre- Ike and Tina Turner review, he backed and produced a ton of artists.

Bobby Bland, 50's to early 60's

Earl King

Guitar Slim

Magic Sam

BB King from the 50's to early 60s (he playes very differently than he does from the late 60's).

Smiley Lewis

For more comtempory players checkout:

Anson Funderburg (one of my all time favourites)

Kid Ramos

Charlie Baty

Fabulous Thunderbirds first 4 albums

Mike Keller

Johnny Moeller

Nick Curran

Junior Watson

Kirk Fletcher

Dylan Bishop

Ronnie Earl (his playing on 3 Hours Past Midnight from Roomful of Blues Live At Lupos is a masterpiece).

Having a good repetoire of songs (which really shouldn't be that hard to acquire; it's not jazz!!) will help you expand you vocabulary, and also help you play with other musicians.

I couldn't agree more with this post. (I'd add Joe Louis Walker, Derek Trucks, Sonny Landreth, Mike Zito, and Little Feat (although not strictly a blues band)). 

Lots of talk about arpeggios. That's lots of thinking. It's worth simplifying the application by understanding a slightly more sophisticated concept. That is, how triads stack to make chords. Initially, understanding that the top three quarters of a Dom 7th chord is a diminished triad off the third. E.g.play an E dim triad instead of a full C7. Stick with three note voicings on strings 123 and 234. Gives you small, easily-remembered units of notes to play with (and your bassist will thank you). 

Later, you can walk into those chord tones chromatically or diatonically and start to understand how the other diatonic triads relate to the Dom 7th. ('All Blues' demonstrates, as do people like Robben Ford.)

However, that's all in danger of over-complicating it for now, so: just set up a C7 groove and side-slip into an E dim. 

(For a cool sound ending on a 9th, slide up from Gm to Am and back over C7)

Sorry to hijack the OPs post. You mentioned diminished chords and I dont play them myself but are dimished shapes moveable at all?

Tannin

All of the diminished shapes are moveable, Jack. (At least all the ones I know.)  What's more, they repeat every three frets. So if you play (e.g.) a B half-diminished, it is also a D, an F, a G#, and back to B again. Magic! 

guitarjack66

Tannin said:

All of the diminished shapes are moveable, Jack. (At least all the ones I know.)  What's more, they repeat every three frets. So if you play (e.g.) a B half-diminished, it is also a D, an F, a G#, and back to B again. Magic! 

Is this because those dim chords all contain same notes? X

viz

Yes, Guitarjack. 

Tannin said:

All of the diminished shapes are moveable, Jack. (At least all the ones I know.)  What's more, they repeat every three frets. So if you play (e.g.) a B half-diminished, it is also a D, an F, a G#, and back to B again. Magic! 

Strictly speaking, diminished rather than half-diminished, right, Tannin? Like u said at the beginning. 

Dominic

learn your tri-tones ( 2 notes) over the 1st ,4th and 5th chords.....use them with little quarter note curls

guitarjack66

guitarjack66 said:

Tannin said:

All of the diminished shapes are moveable, Jack. (At least all the ones I know.)  What's more, they repeat every three frets. So if you play (e.g.) a B half-diminished, it is also a D, an F, a G#, and back to B again. Magic! 

Is this because those dim chords all contain same notes? X

No idea where that X came from. I love you all,but not that much!

Neilybob

I do like these lessons with a free PDF download

https://www.premierguitar.com/lessons/blues/-2657200501

thing

viz said:

RULES OF THE BLUES

1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."

Excellent! I am so nicking that.