Is blues easy? in Pre War Blues Forum

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Is blues easy?

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Keramptahviolin

Is blues easy?

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Posts: 6

Dec 8 05 8:53 PM

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hi there... i think i'm a natrual blues player..becuase it comes so easily.

I'm wondering of course.. if blues is simply an easy style to understand and play?

are there any schools of thought on this?

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tanta07

#1

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

Dec 8 05 8:59 PM

QUOTE (Keramptahviolin @ Dec 8 2005, 08:53 PM)

hi there... i think i'm a natrual blues player..becuase it comes so easily.

I'm wondering of course.. if blues is simply an easy style to understand and play?

are there any schools of thought on this?

There are some who find blues very easy to learn and play, but sometimes those people don't play the blues very well. In those instances, there's a certain "X" factor that's missing, whether it be emotion, soul, whatever.

I guess the short answer is that it's easy enough to play the notes on the page, but some people play blues for years and years without capturing the heart and soul of the music.

Out of curiosity - I take it you're playing blues on violin. What tunes were you playing? Was it pre-war stuff along the lines of the Mississippi Shieks, or what?

The Buzz Brothers Band

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TheClubman

#2

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3636

Dec 8 05 9:09 PM

QUOTE (tanta07 @ Dec 8 2005, 04:59 PM)

Out of curiosity - I take it you're playing blues on violin. What tunes were you playing? Was it pre-war stuff along the lines of the Mississippi Shieks, or what?

DAMN -you are too funny!!!

Now, maybe that was not meat to be funny and I never heard of Blues violin and if I am wrong I am sorry... I did see a youger lady play Blues flute at a jam at a festival this summer though.

In any case, I think playing blues is a feel-thing... you gotta feel it! And, like tanta07 mentioned, even if you are feeling the music - that doesn't mean you're playing well...

Templeton, MA (in the stix)

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tanta07

#3

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

Dec 8 05 9:18 PM

QUOTE (TheClubman @ Dec 8 2005, 09:09 PM)

DAMN -you are too funny!!!

Now, maybe that was not meat to be funny and I never heard of Blues violin and if I am wrong I am sorry... I did see a youger lady play Blues flute at a jam at a festival this summer though.

Yes, there are indeed blues recordings with violin, although all of the ones I heard were pre-war. I have no idea if there's a contemporary blues violinist.

I guess a couple of examples off of the top of my head would be violin backing on a couple of Charley Patton songs, and Muddy Waters played with a blues violinst named Son Sims (if I remember his name correctly) very early on.

That's Sims on the left, and a very young Muddy Waters on the right.

user posted image

The Buzz Brothers Band

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jeffkonkel

#4

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 4300

Dec 8 05 9:34 PM

if you want further convincing, pick up this excellent CD:
--------------------
Click here to view the attachment

Jeff Konkel
President and Founder,
Broke & Hungry Records
Myspace Site: Broke & Hungry Records
2007 Living Blues Award - Producer of the Year

"As record labels go, Broke & Hungry Records must be the discovery of 2007."
- Blues Revue Magazine

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richard ray

#5

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Posts: 1365

Dec 8 05 10:26 PM

There were lots of fiddle players in the '20's and '30's. Howard Armstrong was a great blues player.

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rickb

#6

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Posts: 11

Dec 8 05 10:50 PM

Gatemouth Brown played the fiddle and Papa John Creech, if you can call what he played blues.

Rickb

"...the large print giveth and the small print taketh away." --Tom Waits

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Les Forgue

#7

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6205

Dec 9 05 12:03 AM

There is at least one contemporary blues violinist but I forget her name, her name, you can't tell she's a woman by her name, I remember that much, but she is a woman and she is said to play blues violin very well, I never heard her.

There was post-war blues fiddling on the west side of Chciago, but not for long, Morris Pejoe (Maurice Pejas) he came up to Rossevelt Road blues clubs from Mississiippi or somewhere in the 1950s expecting to play his fiddle right there along with Shakey Jake, Magic Sam, G L crockett and all, but of course the fiddle was not accepted by the bands or by the audiences, I guess it was too country even for those country folks on the Westside of Chicago. So poor old Morris switched to guitar.

Now what about Cajun and zydeco bands, some of them have fiddlers, and some of them play real blues now and then, don't they?

Is it easy to play the blues, Sure it is, just like it is easy to paint a picture, but just because you paint a picture doesn't mean you will get $45,000 for it on eBay.

Les from Chicago

"Nobody sits on a rolling stone".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMRWhmqJwHc

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barrelhouse

#8

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6072

Dec 9 05 12:23 AM

Don't know about blues, but my wife says I'M easy!

Don't you think too bad about me when I'm gone.--Allardyce/ Kocemba.

Peterhead, N.E. Scotland, between the Ugie and Ythan Deltas.

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Hawkeye

#9

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 7329

Dec 9 05 2:47 AM

I'm not going to list the biographical information for each of these great blues fiddlers ... you can 'google' their names if you want more information ... each was famous ... in their own way:

Claude "Fiddler" Williams, b. 2/22/08, Muskogee, OK - d. 4/25/04, Kansas City, KS

Lewis Charles "L.C. Good Rockin�" Robinson, b. 5/15/15, Brenham, TX - d. 9/26/76, Berkeley, CA

Don "Sugarcane" Harris, 6/18/38, Pasadena, CA - d. 11/30/99, Los Angeles, CA

Cheers,

Hawkeye

Hawkeye Herman
1998 Blues Foundation "Keeping the Blues Alive" award recipient
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"If it's good for the blues, it's good for everyone." - H.H.
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Graham Henderson

#10

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Posts: 1447

Dec 9 05 4:13 AM

Ohhhhhhhhhh.
Blues.
Is to easy to do.
Ya know , I can just sit here.
And play, some for you.
And you know what?
You can do it too.

All you need is a feeling.
it don't matter what kind.
Any bit of life.
You're dealing with in your mind.
Just go Woe woe woe and let it go.
Its the cure forevery ill you'll find.

To be continued.
Psssst.
Everybody was born to blues I choose to believe.
Graham

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=7032

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Hawkeye

#11

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 7329

Dec 9 05 4:54 AM

The shortest poem I know ... told to me by John Lee Hoooker in 1970:

"The Blues"

Adam
Had 'em

(which, upon hearing, I immediatedly added the following, which made John Lee nod in agreement and laugh ...)

And I believe
so did Eve!

Hawkeye

Hawkeye Herman
1998 Blues Foundation "Keeping the Blues Alive" award recipient
Iowa Blues Hall of Fame inductee
Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre
"If it's good for the blues, it's good for everyone." - H.H.
www.HawkeyeHerman.com
Hawkeye MP3 downloads
www.CDBaby.com/Hawkeye
Iowa Blues Hall of Fame
Blues Foundation's "Keeping The Blues Alive" Award
Barrymore Award for Excellence in Theatre
Hawkeye at YouTube.com
Hawkeye at FaceBook.com
Hawkeye original articles/blues history
Hawkeye�s free online guitar lessons
Hawkeye teaches guitar at JamPlay.com
Hawkeye at MySpace.com
Hawkeye at Live Blues World
Hawkeye at ReverbNation.com
Hawkeye at BandVillage.com
Hawkeye audio tracks at Soundclick.com

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Swordfish

#12

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Posts: 53

Dec 9 05 5:12 AM

QUOTE

if blues is simply an easy style to understand and play?

I've played blues for many years, but it's never gotten easy, and I think that's why I keep doing it...

I never get tired of those old recordings because I still hear things I never heard before.

Of course at this point,
some of that may be wear and tear on the hippocampi.

Wartime Blues

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Graham Henderson

#13

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Posts: 1447

Dec 9 05 7:23 AM

Told You it was easy. I just demoed the thing I started here.
Gotta go to band setup nos o will upload to soundclick later.
Graham

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=7032

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MaskedMarvel

#14

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 6919

Dec 9 05 7:30 AM

Easy to do some Blues , but when it gets to proffessionals it is very difficult. Thats the beauty of Blues IMO. Think of Fermat Last Theorem, a very simple question, average hi school guy can understand the question, and think it's simple, but the prrof is one of the most complex in history, hundreds of years the greatest mathematicians failed throughout dozens of decades and only handful of people really understand the proof from the start to the end.

All the above written is in my opinion unless it is someone else's opinion, or a fact.

Location: Zur Moshe, Israel

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Muddylives

#15

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 5139

Dec 9 05 7:52 AM

It's extremely easy to play a blues, but damn difficult to play the blues.

Muddy

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Graham Henderson

#16

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Posts: 1447

Dec 9 05 9:12 AM

And the rest of us only have their word for it that they have indeed got it right too.
Thing with blues, or any music is, if the person doing it and or listening to it gets pleasure or somtung like that out of it, it is working.
Professional or not.
Graham

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=7032

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JellyRoll Baker

#17

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 2745

Dec 9 05 11:54 AM

QUOTE (Hawkeye @ Dec 9 2005, 04:54 AM)

The shortest poem I know ... told to me by John Lee Hoooker in 1970:

"The Blues"

Adam
Had 'em

Beautiful!

That's going on my guitar case.

The Juke Joint on PBS 106.7FM
Thursdays, 1-3pm (Melbourne time)
Looking for airplay in Australia? Send your CDs to:
Attn: Matt, The Juke Joint
PBS 106.7FM
PO BOX 2917
Fitzroy MDC, 3065
AUSTRALIA

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TheClubman

#18

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 3636

Dec 9 05 12:26 PM

Well, this is one of the many things I love about the BBF... I have just become a little more educated! I had never heard of Blues Violin before and now I know it's been yet another instrument used to play the Blues.

In fact, I rekon you could use ANY instrument at all for it!

I have joke with some of my friends (because I play harmonica) that I play the Blues Harp and as much as I lovve it, it is very difficult lugging around that giant stringed instrument we call the harp! I actually had someone believing this at one time!

Keramptahviolin - Please accept my apology if my ignorant comment offended you in any way!

...and also, welcome to the BBF!

Thanks to the rest of you for the education!

Templeton, MA (in the stix)

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JellyRoll Baker

#19

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Deepest Blue

Posts: 2745

Dec 9 05 12:34 PM

Interestingly, the musical place that the violin used to fill in the early blues was the one that was later filled by the harp. For a great example, listen to the two versions of Big Joe Williams performing Baby Please Don't Go. The first has fiddle while on the second the fiddle is replaced by harp and they both work and both play similar types of lines and fills,

A harp player could probably learn a lot through listening to blues violin.

The Juke Joint on PBS 106.7FM
Thursdays, 1-3pm (Melbourne time)
Looking for airplay in Australia? Send your CDs to:
Attn: Matt, The Juke Joint
PBS 106.7FM
PO BOX 2917
Fitzroy MDC, 3065
AUSTRALIA