Hot answers tagged blues
39
There are a ton of easy and great-sounding substitutions, and you can use them in the turnaround or anywhere else you want. Here are a few of the most common:
ii-V sub: Substitute ii for IV, so that you have a ii-V turnaround. For example, if you're playing in the key of C, the V chord is G7 and the ii chord is Dm7. So instead of C-F-G7, play C-Dm7-G7. ...
10
You confusion is coming from mixing "common practice" harmony theory with pop music.
Both of the songs you linked are in the key of D. We know this because the D chord and melody notes clearly have tonic function, meaning they are used as a harmonic "home base", and the other chords played are designed to create a tension that resolves to D.
If this was a ...
9
Here are quite a few standard substitutions take from page 36 of the free PDF you can download here:
http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/download/FQBK-handbook.pdf
9
You asked "or is this fundamentally just a marketing success?" I think the answer to these sorts of questions always has to take into account the historical background.
The Hammond organ came on the market in 1935. It became distinctive because it came first. It was popular and sold in large numbers. It was the first commercially successful electronic ...
7
Are you asking how to learn blues guitar or how to explain to people that you want to learn blues guitar? Your question seems to be asking the latter, but your title suggests the former.
When most people lump guitar playing into classical and rock; or classical, rock, and folk; they are not really making a distinction between the musical styles as much as ...
7
This question comes across as a shopping recommendation, but since we don't do those on Music.se I'm going to stop short of recommending specific books.
Blues is a broad genre of music -- for example the Chicago Blues of Howlin' Wolf is quite different from the Delta Blues of Leadbelly or the Texas Blues of Stevie Ray Vaughan. We don't know which of those ...
7
Listening to some Ali Farka Toure in order to have something fresh in my head to comment.
First, I'd say that the 12-bar progression we're all familiar with is absent, replaced with repeating measures that are more a part of funk, although the blues history videos seem to tie to John Lee Hooker. You don't get the familiar shuffle, either, and I'm actually ...
7
The Hammond organ is what is called an analog additive synthesizer (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Additive_synthesis) and it works by adding together sine waves that are multiples of the base frequency. A sine wave alone sounds like a whistle or a dull flute, but the more you add up the more interesting the sound can get.
The Hammond organ features ...
6
Since the comments ask for a more complete answer from me, I'm going to give it a shot.
Most people I know call this technique double stops.
In the case of Soul Man, the double stops are mostly based on a 6th interval, starting with a (sorta) outline of an E7:
|-----4----2-2----7---9---11---12-|
|---------------------------------|
...
6
The number one thing you should worry about is developing your ear.
That's probably 70% - 80% of a professional musician.
So...
Transcribe songs you like (and some you don't) and practice them, especially the parts that give you a hard time.
Use a metronome for songs that are too fast. Play them slow and gradually increase speed.
5
No. The F and G are heard as the subdominant and dominant of the home key. When listening you have the sense of being away from the C chord and wanting to return to it. A modulation sets up a new home key. It can be temporary (like a vacation home) or permanent (like moving to a new home, for instance the modulation just before the last chorus of "Grandma ...
5
A chromatic scale is a scale starting at the root note where every note on the scale is a semi-tone apart. On a piano if you were to start at one note and hit every key up to the octave, you'd have a chromatic scale.
Example:
C Chromatic:
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
D Chromatic
D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D
E Chromatic
E F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E
...
5
A bass player can easily be the timekeeper for a jazz combo without drums.
I'm a bit confused by your question, specifically--
Is it fairly easy to replace substantial portions with improvised walking-bass style lines and still retain the percussive properties of the bass sound?
The properties of the timbre are going to be up to your bassist, but on ...
5
There's a very good YouTube based instructor named Justin Sandercoe. He has a huge collection of lessons and resources available including many that are focused on the blues. All of his material is free, though there is some available for purchase.
5
The order might vary, but usually it is arranged so you get the ones that you will use the most first, but it doesn't really matter. You can google pages and pages that have fingerings for these.
One benefit we have with a stringed instrument is that there are patterns and shapes that each scale makes. The shape you learn for one major scale is the same for ...
5
The Hammond B3 is by far the Blues organist's instrument of choice. Why? Hammond organ is the first electronic organ that uses "mechanical tonewheels that rotate in front of electromagnetic pickups." Yes, all the additive synthesis stuff is important but more importantly is how it is implemented by mechanical means, and uses 'drawbars' to mix and blend the ...
5
The term "Rhythm and Blues" or "R&B" was coined by Jerry Wexler (who went on to be a famous record company executive and producer) when he was working as a journalist at Billboard Magazine, circa 1952. (Wikipedia link). Billboard published a weekly chart displaying their estimates of the relative position of retail sales of single recordings which were ...
5
Your best option here is to listen to, and learn to play, a large number of blues songs - not just the ones you know have a deep emotional impact, but as wide a range as possible to get the feel for blues inside you.
The whole point about emotionally charged blues music is that it to be convincing, you have to feel the music. There are a range of people on ...
4
You don't need to buy a new guitar - any acoustic, classical or flamenco guitar will be fine. If you are an experienced flamenco guitarist you will already have the ability to pick the strings and notes you want, so the difference is going to be mostly about the feel of the music.
Both flamenco and blues are very emotional styles, but where flamenco can be ...
4
Fingerstyle blues is very satisfying; it's about 80% of what I do.
I always recommend the same first step for the aspiring blues player...Listen to the blues.
Go to the masters. Go to YouTube and listen to the old Delta and Chicago and Texas bluesmen that were responsible for inventing the style.
Robert Johnson, Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy ...
4
If you want to learn blues guitar the first thing a teacher is going to ask you is what experience do you have on the guitar so far? Maybe you've never picked up a guitar, then they might ask you if you have any musical training: piano? voice? other?
Then they might want you to show them some of the more interesting things you can play, just some samples so ...
4
The three chords you have identified are known as the Tonic (I), Subdominant (IV), and Dominant chords of the traditional major scale. By in large for over 300 years the IV and V chords have been used extensively in western music to reinforce the tonality of the tonic.
This is accomplished by the resolution of tension created by dissonance. The V to I ...
4
My top three, though very general, are important in order to maximize your efforts. Afterall, you're not committing all this time and effort not to improve as a musician, right?
Develop proper playing technique and dilligently avoiding bad or sloppy habits
When learning a new piece of music, thoroughly work through challenging sections, first slowly for ...
3
He's just picking there in a country style; Dont know if there is a specific name for the technique:
As Follows (Assuming this is the bit you mean):
$4.15 $4.17h $2.20 $4.17 $2.18 $4.17 $2.16 $4.17 $3.19 $4.17 $3.17 $4.17 $3.15 $4.17 $3.14 $4.15 $4.17
Note this doesn't go up and down the neck but is essentially the same thing; the root G ...
3
The short answer is, no, blues doesn't require a thumb pick. The blues is a broad class of music, played on all kinds of instruments, in all kinds of ways.
The longer answer is, that it depends what sound you want. If you want the sound you get from a thumb pick, then a thumb pick is probably the best way of getting it!
I suggest you don't attempt ...
3
I think the technique you are looking for is a double stop (although, I don't really hear it on the Beck piece, it's on the others). A double stop, generally, is playing two notes together at the same time. However, double stops are used a lot in blues with a rather distinctive sound. The double stop tends to be V - I or I - III, although when using them ...
3
I've found the Blues courses at Truefire to be fantastic. www.truefire.com
No affiliation with them - just a happy customer. You can get courses which delve right into Blues theory, or just get a '50 Blues licks' set to learn some great licks.
I have a preference for lessons by Jeff McErlain and Robbie Calvo from there, but that is just me. You may find ...
3
Beyond that detailed answer, look up a few songs on Youtube if you don't have 'em already. "Boogie Chillun" by John Lee Hooker, "Death Letter Blues" by Son House, Blind Boy Fuller's "Rag Mama Rag", "Dust My Broom" by Elmore James, "Stormy Monday Blues" by T-Bone Walker but perhaps the Allman Brothers Band. It's all blues by some of the fundamental blues ...
3
There are no so many similarities between blues and flamenco.
You should start on standart blues scheme (it is available even on Wiki - it's quite easy to learn - and after that just learn some songs of various groups, until you can't improvise youself.
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