blues

[jimihendrix]

many people say blues is easy to play. what do you think?

[stingx]

Originally posted by jimihendrix
many people say blues is easy to play. what do you think?

Listen to Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughan then ask that question again.

[jimihendrix]

okay downloading it right now.
so exciting. cant hardly wait

[guitardeam0n]

Originally posted by jimihendrix
many people say blues is easy to play. what do you think?

No genre of music is easy. It depends who makes the music....

[Cosey]

Learning the basics of any genre is easy, but becoming proficient at it and ultimately mastering it is difficult.

[wild_axeman]

easy or difficult are irrelevent terms when applied to music

if it sounds good it is good/THE END.

[Cosey]

Originally posted by wild_axeman
easy or difficult are irrelevent terms when applied to music

if it sounds good it is good/THE END.

How is saying a 3 chord punk song is easy and saying that a Charlie Parker sax solo is difficult irrelevent :confused:

I agree the listener ultimately decides what is good, but music does have varying degrees of difficulty, this you cant deny. People develop as musicians by doing more "difficult" things.

[Caddie Gone Mad]

Or try listening to Rude Mood by SRV. Holy shizzazle, the begining is the same type of thing he does in Pride and Joy, but 30 times faster.

[wild_axeman]

How is saying a 3 chord punk song is easy and saying that a Charlie Parker sax solo is difficult irrelevent
You missed the point.Alot of people start to slag good music because "it's easy to play" and so therefore "it's not good".
These are the very same ***holes who say stupid things like "shred has no feeling".The bottom line is if it sounds good it's good.ZZ TOP's La Grange is ridiculously simple but it's still a great song with a really nasty solo that's memorable and impressive.Just because somethng's simple doesn't make it bad and just because something's complex doesn't make it good.What makes it good is if it sounds good.
The blues may be easy (generally) but just listen to it? Black Sabbath is basic but just listen to it!!! Good bands just care about how the music sounds and will then have some technical songs and some not so technical songs.Some bands are simplistic all the time but still are good because they are good "songwriter" types.I think what people should be critical of is how stuff actually sounds.And I'm telling you this as a big fan of technical music like shredding and instrumentals and fusion.What if Billy Gibbons never wrote La Grange because when he came up with it decided "nah it's too basic and easy to play and corny"....But he didn't because he used his ears and decided that it gave the mood he wanted and that he could play a really dynamic solo over it.The rest is history.All hail the pinch harmonic king.


I agree the listener ultimately decides what is good, but music does have varying degrees of difficulty, this you cant deny. People develop as musicians by doing more "difficult" things.
Of course!

[Merletto]

Originally posted by Caddie Gone Mad
Or try listening to Rude Mood by SRV. Holy shizzazle, the begining is the same type of thing he does in Pride and Joy, but 30 times faster.

Actually, only twice as fast (125-ish bpm vs. 240-ish bpm). And that technique isn't too difficult once you get the hang of it. (I'm not not saying I can play Rude Mood to speed, but I can play Pride and Joy to speed.)

And taking SRV as an example of the blues is far from accurate. SRV took the blues to a whole nother level. Basic blues, classic blues like John Lee Hooker or Robert Johnson or Muddy Waters aren't really that difficult to play.

[EndOn9]

Originally posted by wild_axeman
You missed the point.Alot of people start to slag good music because "it's easy to play" and so therefore "it's not good".

Well acctually, since no-one in this thread made any sort of statement that the difficulty of a piece of music has any bearing on how good it sounds I don't think that point was here to be missed untill you just brought it up (probably just being pointlessly argumentative).

So there :p


As to Blues being easy to play. I'd say that it is one of the easier styles to pick up as alot of the basics are very... basic. Plus Blues tends to have a nice slow relaxed pace.

So... sure. I'd say Blues was one of the easiest styles. :)

[jimihendrix]

okay, ive listened to "Lenny". its agood song, and not at all easy to play. By the way this song has a lot in common with A Hendrix' song called little Wing, especially with the instrumental version.

But to get back to the subject, most blues songs arent hard to play, because of their "sloth". But for most players its still hard to give a blues song a feeling. Excellent blues players can do this because their better developped techniques.

[steveycrow]

Blues is easy to learn, but difficult to play WELL. I can play Lenny, Rude Mood, etc but when I listen to the recordings, even early recordings of people like Robert Johnson and J L Hooker (which sound kind of sloppy at times and are basic) I find it really difficuilt to get the same feeling and rhythm into my music. (although I love Lenny so much that I played it so many times I can now play it pretty well, IMO)

Blues is difficult to play just in a different way to say, shredding. Most people can play Blues but not many can play it well. IMO. :)

[wild_axeman]

Real blues players make every note sound BIG.

[beautiful_dae]

Originally posted by wild_axeman
ZZ TOP's La Grange is ridiculously simple but it's still a great song with a really nasty solo that's memorable and impressive.Just because somethng's simple doesn't make it bad and just because something's complex doesn't make it good.What makes it good is if it sounds good.


Yeah! La Grange rocks... but why do ZZ top got such enormous beard?

[wild_axeman]

Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill have the long beards while
the drummer Frank "Beard" is the only one without a beard.

It seems to be a long running joke!

[beautiful_dae]

I notice most of the time, billy gibbon and the bassist use identical guitar. And they also synchronise their movements. I like their video, lots of women!

[jimihendrix]

Originally posted by beautiful_dae
Yeah! La Grange rocks...
By the way. ZZ Top stole that La Grange Melodie that goes sth like this,

------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
---2-2-2-2----------2-2-2-2---------------------------------------
-2-2-2-2-2-------2--2-2-2-2--------------------------------------
-0----------3-5--0----------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
its from canned heat, on the road again. dont matter, they probably stole it to.

[homebrewer_99]

You're right. Just because it's easy doesn'y mean it's not good. And what's easy for one person may be difficult for another.:D :D

[homebrewer_99]

A long time ago I remember hearding that Gillette offered those guys $1,000,000.00 (1 million dollars) each if they shaved their beards (using Gillette products, natch) in a commercial. They declined.

[JEMUniverse]

I agree with what most of these guys are saying. The blues isn't about difficulty level or flashiness or showing off, it's about feeling the music... As B.B. King once said (Something along these lines, at least), "You can get as much emotion from a single note as from 20". It all depends on how you play the music.

[wild_axeman]

As B.B. King once said (Something along these lines, at least), "You can get as much emotion from a single note as from 20". It all depends on how you play the music.
And yet B.B. does play the occassional fast run.

[jimihendrix]

Originally posted by JEMUniverse
I agree with what most of these guys are saying. The blues isn't about difficulty level or flashiness or showing off, it's about feeling the music... As B.B. King once said (Something along these lines, at least), "You can get as much emotion from a single note as from 20". It all depends on how you play the music.
just like hendrix did, he also had a "blues background"

[ecthelion]

The real hard part about the blues is playing several different things (melody, basslines, harmony) at once, in perfect rhythm, with good taste. Slide is also really hard if you want a hack at that.

Listen to some delta blues, as it is as far as we can go back, and learn from that stuff. A good one is Robert Johnson, as he is extremely popular, and his records should be easy to find. He is, however, not the best of the delta bluesmen. Some other good ones are Charlie (Charley?) Patton and Son House. There's a cool compilation CD out with a lot of those early players called Back to the Crossroads: Roots of Robert Johnson.

Get this book called Beginning Fingerstyle Blues. It's great, and it will teach you all you need.

There are a lot of slide tutorials on the net, if you want to try slide guitar. It's a lot of fun to play around with.

[jimihendrix]

Originally posted by ecthelion
He is, however, not the best of the delta bluesmen. Some other good ones are Charlie (Charley?) Patton and Son House.

its CHARLIE patton

[beautiful_dae]

Originally posted by jimihendrix
its CHARLIE patton

You seem to be the smart one around here.

[jimihendrix]

Originally posted by beautiful_dae
You seem to be the smart one around here.
glad you are payin attention;)

[fuzzynumbskull]

blues requires awesome rhythum.

-amy

[Bluesin My Mind]

Originally posted by fuzzynumbskull
blues requires awesome rhythum.
...But not spelling...

[jimihendrix]

Originally posted by Bluesin My Mind
...But not spelling...
You seem to be the smart one around here.

[Bluesin My Mind]

Originally posted by jimihendrix
You seem to be the smart one around here.
Grammmaticallly Speeking

[homebrewer_99]

Originally posted by Bluesin My Mind
Grammmaticallly Speeking

As far as the spelling goes, I feel pretty certain you meant "Grammatically speaking"?

[fuzzynumbskull]

i was tired!!

-amy

[Bluesin My Mind]

Originally posted by homebrewer_99
As far as the spelling goes, I feel pretty certain you meant "Grammatically speaking"?
Joking...

[fuzzynumbskull]

the blues ain't about no good spelling or grammar. its about feeeeeeeling.

-amy

[Caddie Gone Mad]

Originally posted by fuzzynumbskull
the blues ain't about no good spelling or grammar. its about feeeeeeeling.

-amy

I'm feelin' ya'.

In that good, musical spirtual kinda' sense. Bleh, stupid sexual barriers.

[55'gibby]

haaaaruuumph...

It's not a question of technical difficulty. I have NEVER heard anyone in a crowd say anything like "did you hear how that guy went from a mxolydian to a minor pentonic without going into a passing section?". It boils down to what you feel and the way you can express yourself. I feel the blues and do a pretty good job of playing it (IMHO). I don't feel shred and I don't play it very well (IMHO). If you can do a great job of expressing yourself thru the style you play then it becomes much easier to play.

The biggest thing is connecting with the audiance and enjoying what you do.

Please remember there are more than one or two types of blues and most modern music (jazz included) is based on the blues.

[Caddie Gone Mad]

True, blues and jazz can intermingle. Both use different variations of 7th chords and pentatonic scales a lot...

[Mettra]

Originally posted by 55'gibby
It's not a question of technical difficulty. I have NEVER heard anyone in a crowd say anything like "did you hear how that guy went from a mxolydian to a minor pentonic without going into a passing section?". [1]

It boils down to what you feel and the way you can express yourself. I feel the blues and do a pretty good job of playing it (IMHO). I don't feel shred and I don't play it very well (IMHO). [2]

Please remember there are more than one or two types of blues and most modern music (jazz included) is based on the blues. [3]

[1] Actually, you have a point, but you kinda killed it too. People do recognize when you switch modes, they just don't know it. It's the whole reason we change things up like that. The human ear reacts to certain things, whether it can calculate/comprehend them or not.

[2] I'd rather play something that sounds interesting than play something not as interesting with feeling, personally.

[3] Jazz is actually just 'modified' classical music. SOME jazz DOES use the blues as a background, though. And blues may be at the foundations of rock, but I wouldn't say most modern music is based off of it. Maybe most modern guitar music.

[fuzzynumbskull]

blues was backwater moonshine based, wasn't it? and jazz was from big cultural areas, like Harlem and Detroit...

i hate my history class, but at least we learned about jazz and the 20's, but we didn't learn about any blues musicans.

-amy

[jotapeh]

Originally posted by Mettra

[2] I'd rather play something that sounds interesting than play something not as interesting with feeling, personally.

I'd argue that feeling strongly adds to the interest value of any piece.

If there is no feeling connected with it, the best you can do is simply make it seem 'cool'. Don't get me wrong - shredding fast/peculiar runs can sound awesome, but doesn't usually provoke people to connect with your music.

[wild_axeman]

Shredding is for people who 'feel' faster. ;)

[55'gibby]

Jazz is actually just 'modified' classical music.

well not to start a debate... but, jazz came out of the deep south and the spread to the north and west. in the beginning jazz (originally jass) was first done by "marching bands" (just after WW1 and during WW1) and was based on a I,IV,V progression (blues progression). it wasn't till years later that jazz would become more technical and classical like.

"I'd rather play something that sounds interesting than play something not as interesting with feeling, personally"

although it's not imperative that you "feel" what you play, it does make a difference on how well you play it. it can sound quite mechanical if played without feeling.

"The human ear reacts to certain things, whether it can calculate/comprehend them or not"

I'm not saying "don't change things up" and you are quite right about how people hear music. I just don't like to all hung up on it. By feel it is very good to throw some different thing to the folks listening... it does keep them on their toes. the reason anyone spends time learning scales and modes is to give yourself a creative edge and the ability to go new places musically

[AtkaJoe]

It's their... "thing".

On-topic: Google it up and read up on blues. Learn about its background and then download (or buy) some blues tunes. Just ask around for some good titles.

[toast]

If anyone has a chance to, buy a Walter Trout CD. I went to some cheap-costing-general-admission-ticket concert, only about 200 people there. I got to stand right next to him. Holy cow, he's a great bluesist. Never listened to SRV so, not sure how he stacks up.

[fuzzynumbskull]

Originally posted by 55'gibby
Jazz is actually just 'modified' classical music.

well not to start a debate... but, jazz came out of the deep south and the spread to the north and west. in the beginning jazz (originally jass) was first done by "marching bands" (just after WW1 and during WW1) and was based on a I,IV,V progression (blues progression). it wasn't till years later that jazz would become more technical and classical like.


jazz was the poster music of the roaring twenties or 1920's. it was the first soley american music, unless you count ragtime and i hate ragtime with a passion, therefore it doesn't count. after the 50's it was "technical and classical like" which it pretty much is today. benny goodman, kids. louie armstrong.

jazz got real big in harlem. that's why they had sayings like "the harlem train" ect. jazz clubs in harlem were HUGE.

plus they sold alcohol during the prohibition, so there was more than one reason as to why jazz was popular.

-amy

[Caddie Gone Mad]

Oh, now I get that thing with Jazz and liquor in the movie "Chicago"...

[Mettra]

Originally posted by fuzzynumbskull
jazz was the poster music of the roaring twenties or 1920's. it was the first soley american music, unless you count ragtime and i hate ragtime with a passion, therefore it doesn't count. after the 50's it was "technical and classical like"...

I was actually referring the modern jazz and not the traditional jazz of the 20's era. Sorry for the misunderstanding, 55'Gibby.

One of the very reasons that jazz has evolved into what it is now is that it was introduced so heavily into marching band repertoire. It's just great marching music. Introduce anything into a marching and it will eventually meld with classical elements (because those band members also are heavily 'schooled' in classical music).

[Shahab]

Well, the late 60's blues were kind of simple in structure . such as the use of 12 bar blues was a simple rhythm compared to many rhythms used in pop and rock. But check out eric clapton's solo of Old love in his unplugged album. Really havent heard a better or a harder solo before!

Check it out

[fuzzynumbskull]

i love the solos all over the two Blues cds. check em out. One's a studio cd, another is a live cd. they're awesome.

the CD with him and BB King is amazing. other than the vocals are cheesy. but the guitar rocks. you should check out the Allman Brothers Band, also.

-amy

[SoulGuitarist]

I personally LOVE THE BLUES! But it's kinda 2 sided.

Blues technically is not very hard (except for EC or SRV) BUT. it's one of those things you can't really describe, but technically it's not hard to master but to get it to sound like professional blues, you have to just feel the song, it's not something you can master with just technique, it takes a lot of the feel for the type of music, to let your self go and just express your self with the guitar, it's almost a more a spiritual thing than a technical thing, watch SRV and you'll se what I'm talking about.

[disasterpiece]

Originally posted by fuzzynumbskull
you should check out the Allman Brothers Band, also.




The guitarist in that band is the same dude in "Government Mule," right? I'm most likely mistaken, but that dude rules.


Playing the blues is not technically hard, but it is difficult to get the feeling. For myself, anyways. I mean, These guys just grab the neck and bend the strings all to hell, and it doesn't look like it makes sense but musically it's perfect. I love it. I especially enjoy listening to those old acoustic blues tunes where it's just the guitar and a voice. I don't know of any artists, but man I recommend it if you enjoy that type of stuff.

\m/

[55'gibby]

hey disasterpiece... two words:

Robert Johnson

two more:
Son House

ok how about three more
Rev. Gary Davis

two more... ok ok I'll stop

[disasterpiece]

:D :D :D :D :D :D

[Sleepy Aligator]

You mean Warren Haynes from Government Mule?? He also plays with The Dead (the remaining memebers of the Grateful Dead minus Jerry Garica of course, but with a few other new guys) He's got to be one of the best around at the moment along with say Steve Kimock. I prefer the old Allman Brothers, before Duane Allman died. You'll have to go along way to find a better album than Eat A Peach.

[fuzzynumbskull]

hey disasterpiece... two words:

Robert Johnson

two more:
Son House

ok how about three more
Rev. Gary Davis

two more... ok ok I'll stop

i always get Gary Davis confused with our former governor, Gray Davis. i used to call him Great Duffus because he was such a terrible governor.

the Allman brothers were the bomb before Duane Allman died. who was the other band member that died in an accident near where Duane Allman died?

-amy

-amy

[Sleepy Aligator]

I think that was Berry Oakley there bass player. He also died in motorcyle accident a couple of years after Duane I think. Does the bomb mean they're good!? Never heard that saying before! :)

Another couple of good old bluesmen to listen to are Delta Bluesman Skip James and Mississippi John Hurt. Also although he's not blues more very early country and folk but Jimmie Rodgers was excellent too and a huge influence on Bob Dylan.

[fuzzynumbskull]

yeah, it was the bassist who died. thanks, dude.

-amy

[FloydianDog632]

Well, I'm a blues man mahself, so I wanna give an answer to this. To a shredder, shredding is easy. It's what runs through their veins. They may find constructing a soulful blues solo difficult, whereas I would not. It's what runs through my veins.

[BobGeorge]

Jazz is more cultural then classical and more African than European.

It's unfair and some what biased to say that Jazz is mostly classical.