Is blues easy? in Pre War Blues Forum

0 Points

Add Reply New Topic New Poll

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Is blues easy?

Author

Comment

Graham Henderson

#41

[-]

Posts: 1447

Dec 21 05 5:27 PM

it only gets hard if you make it that way I am sure.
Blues is a people's music.
Turn it into a major production, it simply stops being blues.
Just play the stuff and enjoy.
Graham

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

Reply Quote

tanta07

#42

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

Dec 21 05 6:05 PM

QUOTE (aaron moreland @ Dec 21 2005, 05:18 PM)

sadly, i have found that most everyone thinks they are a good blues player.

Ain't that the truth. I suspect many rock players hit middle-age, and realize that they look a little silly with the ponytail and leather pants at their age, so they decided, "hey, blues is easy - I'll just switch genres and keep gigging!" This would help explain all of the terrible pseudo-blues bar bands out there.

The Buzz Brothers Band

Reply Quote

bluescliff

#43

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 2336

Dec 21 05 11:12 PM

QUOTE (tanta07 @ Dec 21 2005, 06:05 PM)

QUOTE (aaron moreland @ Dec 21 2005, 05:18 PM)

sadly, i have found that most everyone thinks they are a good blues player.

Ain't that the truth. I suspect many rock players hit middle-age, and realize that they look a little silly with the ponytail and leather pants at their age, so they decided, "hey, blues is easy - I'll just switch genres and keep gigging!" This would help explain all of the terrible pseudo-blues bar bands out there.

There's a great quote from Charles Shaar Murray on my office wall -- trouble is, I'm home right now so I might not get it word perfect. However, the gist is that blues guys tend to get better as they get older whereas rock guys tend to go off -- it's one of the ways you can tell them apart.

Cliff (getting older, looking forward to improving my playing ;-)

Loughborough, UK

Reply Quote

Johnny Roy

#44

[-]

Posts: 3138

Dec 22 05 7:50 PM

I think blues can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. It amazes me that I have had some students that can rock through Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption" without missing a note - but cannot play simple rhythm guitar back up on a 12-bar blues!

Alot of it often boils down to how much you care about what you are playing as to how deeply you delve into the style. There are many subtle aspects to playing it "right" that simply go over the heads of those who come from a rock,classical, jazz fusion, or some other background and just jump into playing blues. If they would just take some time and really listen to Jimmy Reed we would have a whole generation of better blues players!

Johnny Roy

"I may look like a wrench, but I'm no tool"... Ike Turner

~~ Lexington, Kentucky ~~

Johnny Roy & The RubTones:
www.johnnyroy.com

MySpace RubTones !!

RubTones On Soundclick!

Call Johnny Roy !! at CD Baby!

MusicMaker Relief:
http://www.musicmaker.org/

Hey!! Like my avatar?? Then you need to buy yourself a "Harp Cure" T-Shirt RIGHT NOW!! you fool !! Elephants Gerald

Reply Quote

tanta07

#45

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

Dec 22 05 8:03 PM

QUOTE (Johnny Roy @ Dec 22 2005, 07:50 PM)

Alot of it often boils down to how much you care about what you are playing as to how deeply you delve into the style. There are many subtle aspects to playing it "right" that simply go over the heads of those who come from a rock,classical, jazz fusion, or some other background and just jump into playing blues. If they would just take some time and really listen to Jimmy Reed we would have a whole generation of better blues players!

Johnny Roy

Amen!

The drummer in my band is a trained jazz drummer, and is technically a brilliant drummer. But he had the hardest time in the world trying to figure out how to play behind the beat. I burned him CD's of the blues masters and he studied pretty hard, and he's getting it now, but it was amazing to me that a guy with so much knowledge and skill hit a speed bump when he tried to play a so-called "easy" form of music. It really is all about the feel. If you're playing a 12 bar behind the beat, that's blues. If you're playing a 12 bar on top of the beat, that's rock 'n' roll.

The Buzz Brothers Band

Reply Quote

7844473

#46

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 30580

Dec 22 05 8:30 PM

All this is true.
Now, I want to add that we have some pretty good YOUNG blues players around the world today.
In France, Charles Pasi, Antoine Holler (less than 25), Julien Brunetaud (23 or 24, but he was awesome at 18 when I first heard him), Antony Stelmaczack (24 I think) and many others, not only are skilled instrumentists, but when they play the blues, they play THE BLUES. They don't mimic them. They mean it.
Canadian Jimmy Bowskill was great at 12, he's still good at what ? 13 ? 14 ?
Johnny Moeller from Texas is awesome too, Sean Costello is among the great players of today, Nick Curran is a real treat, and there are so many of them out there.
Of course all these young ones can only get better.
But some older ones who still haven't got it by now probably never will.
So, I used to think it does take some living, some paying their dues, to be able to play the blues. Somehow I still think so, but I realize that it doesn't necessarily take decades.
Most of all, I think the most relevant element that will give one the blues is when they are touched by it.
I mean a kid is exposed to blues music, it moves him, it presses the right buttons, and this kid is gonna take up some instrument just to be able to express what he has felt that first time and still feels since then everytime he hears the blues.
The fact that it may have taken time for some of us (and that includes me) doesn't necessarily means it's gotta be as long to someone else.
Besides, I never want to find myself guilty of the schizophrenic attitude of complaining that the kids have no interest for the blues on one hand and telling them they can't play it whatsoever before they reach at least 40 on the other hand.
My 2 pennies, anyway

Rene
Paris, France.

Reply Quote

Les Forgue

#47

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6205

Dec 22 05 9:22 PM

I'll go back to Johhny Roy's excellent statement and say the best way to learn (=absorb) the blues is to listen to the blues, just like the best way to learn spelling and grammar is not to study rules but rather to spend hundreds of hours reading books. It can take years. Maybe for some like those Rene cites, it takes far less time. But me, I learned to sing and play blues by listening, listening for decades, from a young child under 10 years of age I was listening, not at first for the purpose of learning to sing or play blues, but just because I liked blues and merely wanted to hear it. Then when as a teenager I began in earnest to try playing and singing blues my own self, I was trying to transfer waht was already in my heart and soul into my voice and guitar playing. I never heard of behind the beat or flatted third or fifth or 12 bar or any of those terms but the phenomena they describe had been etched into me, I had the sounds in me from all that listening without knowing what the various characteristics of blues were called but yet I was able to sing and play them.
Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Slim Harpo, SWB2, Little Walter, Otis Spann, Without their knowledge or consent they were my tutors in a sense. When I first started listening to them I didn't know it but I was learning to sing and play the blues. My singing and playing may be of marginal or minimal quality and skill, but one thing I know, it is BLUES as it can be, and I owe it all to the years of unhurried, non-analytical listening.

Les from Chicago

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

Reply Quote

Graham Henderson

#48

[-]

Posts: 1447

Dec 22 05 9:37 PM

I have heard of behind the beat etc. Never really knew what it meant, and nodded my head wisely when stuff like that came up in conversation.
Too much expounding and thinking for me to worry about when I drag an instument out, or start scatting about.
I guess it is what I am doing though, as it sounds like I want it to, and folks cal it blues a lot of the time.
That the guitar is in tune, and I am in a key I can reach all notes I feel like are called for, is about all I really worry about most times.
It then is just fun all the way.
Graham

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

Reply Quote

tanta07

#49

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 9133

Dec 22 05 9:38 PM

QUOTE (Les Forgue @ Dec 22 2005, 09:22 PM)

My singing and playing may be of marginal or minimal quality and skill, but one thing I know, it is BLUES as it can be, and I owe it all to the years of unhurried, non-analytical listening.

Excellent, excellent point. Les.

It seems that you must be fully aborbed in the genre in order to really "get it." It's not really that I one day decided to play the blues and then started listening to it; it was the other way around - I've been listening and listening and listening, and I've found it's been kind of naturally coming out of my playing.

Before I start getting tagged as an "elitist," I think the same goes for most genres. I would suspect in order to be a great jazz player, you must also be a huge fan and listener of the music, as well.

The Buzz Brothers Band

Reply Quote

The Blindman

#50

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 7079

Dec 23 05 11:05 AM

I'd agree with Les and tanta regarding "becoming absorbed!,
saturated if you like in the music.
That's how its been with me.
Since I was born(in a dancehall) I've been immersed in the Blues,
my Father was a full-time drummer and heavily into Blues and Swing
which he played daily on the old radiogram.
So I grew up listening to a load of Blues and never got fully away from
Blues even in my Rock years.
Listen a lot and feel a lot that's my take on this.

Blindman

Aberdeen - Scotland

user posted image

Not even Forumer is Gonna Put Me Down!

Reply Quote

barrelhouse

#51

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6072

Dec 23 05 11:32 AM

QUOTE (tanta07 @ Dec 22 2005, 08:03 PM)

QUOTE (Johnny Roy @ Dec 22 2005, 07:50 PM)

Alot of it often boils down to how much you care about what you are playing as to how deeply you delve into the style. There are many subtle aspects to playing it "right" that simply go over the heads of those who come from a rock,classical, jazz fusion, or some other background and just jump into playing blues. If they would just take some time and really listen to Jimmy Reed we would have a whole generation of better blues players!

Johnny Roy

Amen!

The drummer in my band is a trained jazz drummer, and is technically a brilliant drummer. But he had the hardest time in the world trying to figure out how to play behind the beat. I burned him CD's of the blues masters and he studied pretty hard, and he's getting it now, but it was amazing to me that a guy with so much knowledge and skill hit a speed bump when he tried to play a so-called "easy" form of music. It really is all about the feel. If you're playing a 12 bar behind the beat, that's blues. If you're playing a 12 bar on top of the beat, that's rock 'n' roll.

Tanta, Blindman and I do that all the time, and neither of us can tell you how it happens! It just comes in when it feels right.

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

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

Reply Quote

7844473

#52

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 30580

Dec 23 05 11:49 AM

Just like Fred Below's first rehearsal with the Aces !
He was a jazz drummer and just couldn't get it !
Did his homework and then he got it, and he got it good !

Rene
Paris, France.

Reply Quote

Les Forgue

#53

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6205

Dec 23 05 5:18 PM

QUOTE (renemalin @ Dec 23 2005, 05:49 AM)

Just like Fred Below's first rehearsal with the Aces !
He was a jazz drummer and just couldn't get it !
Did his homework and then he got it, and he got it good !

oops did you give away a blues trivia answer? I am going to take it and run over there right now! maybe it is not too late.

Les from Chicago

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

Reply Quote

7844473

#54

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 30580

Dec 24 05 3:47 AM

Did I ?
Well I didn't mean to

Rene
Paris, France.

Reply Quote

Eric

#55

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 326

Dec 30 05 9:57 PM

For a guitar player, it's easy to get started, which is at least an encouragement. If you can play four or five chords and can keep the beat......you're under way. After that it's just a lifetime of respectful study- mostly with the ears, as has been stated.

Visit any guitar shop on a saturday, to see how many technically adept guitar players there are. Lots of them think the blues is easy but very few who take the genre lightly are blues musicians. Humility is essential. A generous spirit will atone for many flaws in the sound- and when you're genuinely feeling it, the audience knows, whether they're paying you or partying alongside you.

Someone left a Tenor banjo with me the other week. Within half an hour I had it tuned for bottleneck. Sounded horrible......not me, surely? And my wife complains that i sing everything in a bluesy style- up to and including carols and nursery rhymes.

If it's inside you, it will find a way out.

Reply Quote

Les Forgue

#56

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 6205

Dec 30 05 10:37 PM

QUOTE (Eric @ Dec 30 2005, 03:57 PM)

For a guitar player, it's easy to get started, which is at least an encouragement. If you can play four or five chords and can keep the beat......you're under way. After that it's just a lifetime of respectful study- mostly with the ears, as has been stated.

Visit any guitar shop on a saturday, to see how many technically adept guitar players there are. Lots of them think the blues is easy but very few who take the genre lightly are blues musicians. Humility is essential. A generous spirit will atone for many flaws in the sound- and when you're genuinely feeling it, the audience knows, whether they're paying you or partying alongside you.

Someone left a Tenor banjo with me the other week. Within half an hour I had it tuned for bottleneck. Sounded horrible......not me, surely? And my wife complains that i sing everything in a bluesy style- up to and including carols and nursery rhymes.

If it's inside you, it will find a way out.

You sound blues wise and just plain old wise.

About the banjo, though, I doubt it has enough "sustain" for typical slide work, but maybe ok for "quick" sliding to and from positions where you are picking. I have a 5 string banjo and the 5th string is a problem for me, I have to mute it when in the "5", there is no common note shared by all the 1-4-5, so I am considering castrating the banjo (removing the 5th string) and making it a tenor.

Playing/singing the blues is analogous to urinating, if you don't need to do it, but do it anyway, the result will be quite unspectacular. Like you say, if it's in you it will come out, and I might add if it is not in someone then what of any worth is going to be coming out?

Les from Chicago

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

Reply Quote

CornElvis

#57

[-]

Posts: 290

Dec 30 05 10:47 PM

QUOTE

Playing/singing the blues is analogous to urinating, if you don't need to do it, but do it anyway, the result will be quite unspectacular. Like you say, if it's in you it will come out, and I might add if it is not in someone then what of any worth is going to be coming out?

If it wasn't for bad luck, we wouldn't have no luck at all......

Just joking

Well, within short notice, I tell them where I�ve been.
What they are missing and what they�ve never seen.
Try to sell myself no matter how to.
Even try tell them black men stole my blues.
But somehow, nobody ever heard of me.

Jackie D. Blues & Rock Band
MySpace
CornElvis.Com

Reply Quote

Hawkeye

#58

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 7329

Dec 31 05 12:14 AM

One of my mentors and longtime good friend, the late Oakland blues legend Haskell "Cool Papa" Sadler used to say ..

"Everything is easy ... if you know how."

Hawkeye
--------------------
Click here to view the attachment

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

Reply Quote

Keramptahviolin

#59

[-]

Posts: 6

Dec 31 05 12:41 PM

i DON'T MEAN TO BLOW MY OWN TRUMPET..BUT AT THE SAME TIME, I RPRBABLY DO.. AND SHould do, becuase it's good for my developing growth and life experince.. to praise myself, celebrate my own talents.. [sorry for the capitals..accident].

but, really, i do have the blues in me, I can sing it amazing,and the violin is just like the alternative to singing, which takes more courage to do in a jamming session right?!

anyway. the guys i played with said i was as good as sugar lee harris. And what really surprised me was that when i played.. i could tell it was brilliant. and considering that was my first time trying it on violin, i've got alot of potential.

When i played it, i was thinking... 'This is the wrong instrument for this' as if... somehow, i'd be able to play another instrument...and i thought of the trumpet..and i also thought how i knew how to play the blues, likes its literally some infromation floating around in my conciousness..that shows me how.

And when i played blues..my whole style changed.. the bow was doing wired things with rythm.. my fingers found new notes, it just all went crazy.. and it really really worked.

wish me luck fellow men... peace, and a happy new year..!!!

Reply Quote

Muddylives

#60

[-]

Deepest Blue

Posts: 5139

Dec 31 05 1:31 PM

I'll be the first - good luck! If you really feel the blues, keep playing 'em! They won't do you no harm.

As I have stated before in blues discussions here, I think of the blues, first and foremost, as a musical language. Learning the blues can be compared to learning a spoken language. If you grow up surrounded by it, you pick it up automatically. Sure, you still need to study, to learn the grammar, so to speak. But spoken fluency is a given. On the other hand, if you come to the blues later in life, you have to go through the usual difficulties of gaining real fluency in a foreign language. It is not easy. There is no substitute to listening, to really immersing yourself in the idiom. Records can help a lot. But the live experience. i.e. communication in real time, is important too.

Muddy

Reply Quote

<< Previous Topic Next Topic >>

Add Reply

Yuku free message boards

Is blues easy?