# I gots da blues, bitches!!!



## Nik (Feb 3, 2006)

...or at least, I tried.

I went to a Michael Angelo guitar clinic, and there he said he believed that every guitarist, no matter what style they play, should learn the blues, because blues is at the very essence of playing guitar. Then he launched into an unbelievable blues song.

Anyway, I've been putting it off, and I worked on it a bit around Christmas time. My bassist lent me a wah-wah pedal (hells yeah  )so I decided to put it through its paces and recorded this short piece.

First of all it's sloppy (hey, isn't that what the blues is all about  . Leave precision to prog-dorks), and there's one or two massive screw-ups (my finger slipped when I launched into the really fast part, some pinch harmonics didn't come out too wel...) but I like it because it feels very natural and organic.

Anyway, I'm open to any an all constructive criticism. Keep in mind playing the blues is something I'm totally new to, so don't flame too hard. Any tips? Suggestions on how to improve my playing?

Here's a da file:

[media]http://home.comcast.net/~petsev/Slowblues_in_Dm.mp3[/media]

For those interested, this was recorded with my RG1527 (7-string blues), with a Crybaby 535Q wah and my line 6 Spider II.


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## Ken (Feb 3, 2006)

Hmm. Suggestions. Well, I won't flame too hard since you asked, but you play the same blues I do:

The "I didn't get to watch my favorite show on TV" blues.

You know, the blues without anything to be really blue about? That's what you're missing. Dig deeper into your heart (figuratively, of course). Find something that makes you really, REALLY sad. Then, think about it for a good 15 minutes and really let it come back to the surface, THEN try it.

No, the "Drew just ran out of beer and goes to Chris' house for something harder" blues doesn't really count.  Wait, there's something wrong with the verbage there...


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## Shawn (Feb 3, 2006)

I agree that it would be more blues if you were digging a little deeper, however it does have a little bit of the Billy Gibbons/Satch/Vernon Reid style to it and it is bluesy. -Cool. 

Billy Gibbons in "Fool For Your Stockings" Is bluesy as hell I always thought. I always try to base my blues style playing on him as well as Eric Clapton and John Mayall & The Blues Breakers. 

SRV, in my opinion was the best blues guitarist around.......


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## garcia3441 (Feb 4, 2006)

Listen to Eric Sardinas


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## Nik (Feb 4, 2006)

Cool, thanks for your replies-it means a lot to me to get some feedback.

I'll do my best to get depressed-spend 30 minutes contemplating all the factors that make my life suck, maybe watch "Life is Beautiful", read a book on astrophysics, listen to Remedy Lane again, and then try to record, though I must say: while I was making the recording, and the volume was waaaay up, it sounded considerably more emotional than it does listening to the recording now.

But I'm getting tired of playing over that backing track. Any of you guys have a better BT for depressing blues?

Shawn-I agree, SRV is da bomb. His rendition of "Little Wing" is one of my all time favorite songs.


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## LordOVchaoS (Feb 4, 2006)

Excellent playing! That's probably the best tone I've ever heard come out of a Spider that wasn't metal! Good job man! Since you have a Spider, the digging in harder won't do too much for you. If you had a tube amp I'd say lower the gain and let your picking do the rest. Tubes have this magic ability with the blues...
Set the gain to where it doesn't distort when you're playing lightly but breaks up more and more the harder you pick. It adds so much to the feel of the riff. You make your guitar talk by diggin in harder duting the more emotional moments of the riff.

I give you an A


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 4, 2006)

I don't really buy into the 'guitarists must play blues' philosophy. Like Ken said, it often ends up sounding a bit shallow, as guitarists usually get stuck with blues because they're not accomplished enough to play other styles rather than because they sincerely love it as a musical form. This is the crucial difference between the SRVs and Eric Sardinases of this world, and the fourteen year olds playing pentatonic licks in guitar stores.
When I started playing guitar seriously, I made a concious effort to pursue sounds other than the blues, for three reasons; a) I never really felt like 'me' when I went to a blues jam, b) That was what all the other guitarists at my school tended to do, and I wanted to be different, and c) Other styles of music resonated with me far more.
Although I've started to incorporate little bits of it into my playing, having grown interested in players like Robben Ford, I don't think it'll ever be a major part of my style.
Great playing though Nik...reminded me a bit of Jason Becker and Marty Friedman's blues trade-off on the 'Perpetual Burn' album.


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## garcia3441 (Feb 4, 2006)

The mp3 finally finished downloading (fuckin' dialup). I give it an 8 out of 10.


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## telecaster90 (Feb 4, 2006)

Not bad, not bad.


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## nitelightboy (Feb 4, 2006)

Ken Burtch said:


> No, the "Drew just ran out of beer and goes to Chris' house for something harder" blues doesn't really count.  Wait, there's something wrong with the verbage there...




That great!!!!

Critique....not bad, you've got some skill. But like Ken said, Blues is really about heart, not technique. You have to dredge up something that really brings you down and find your influence there. Overall though, nice job


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## Drew (Feb 4, 2006)

Ken Burtch said:


> No, the "Drew just ran out of beer and goes to Chris' house for something harder" blues doesn't really count.  Wait, there's something wrong with the verbage there...





Nik, you're playing here is great, but I wouldn't call this a blues solo - this is a shred solo over blues changes. 

I'm about to run out for a bit, but I'll be back in an hour or two, and I'll launch into a detailed crash course in the blues when I get back, and record some stuff for you. 

Anyone who says you have to be depressed to play the blues is just making excuses for themselves, incidentally. It's about emotion - where that emotion is coming from is entirely your own perogative.


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## Chris D (Feb 4, 2006)

Drew said:


> Nik, you're playing here is great, but I wouldn't call this a blues solo - this is a shred solo over blues changes.


+1

Just relax more, man!
Turn your gain way down (just like LordyDude said, you want it to break up when you dig in... think of your guitar like a voice, you don't want to yell all the time, whisper & sob a little too ), play less, leave some breathing space in your phrasing is my humble advice.

You have some nice licks in there, but they'll sound like they mean more if you kinda build up to 'em rather than shredding all the way through.

You easily have enough technique to play very well, you just need to chill out more, have some gaps in there... The gaps is where you do the blues sighing, brow-furrowing, tearful-eye-wiping, whiskey-sipping etc...


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## Nik (Feb 4, 2006)

Thanks guys! I feel honored to get positive feedback out of more seasoned musicians than myself (I've been playing guitar for only about a year-and-a-half now...)

distressed_romeo-I see what you're saying, and while I agree pentatonic runs have become a bit boring since everyone does them, I do believe that guitarists should try to absorb as many styles as possible-blues included. I try to do this myself, and as I said, I'm totally new to the blues. In fact, I'm very fond of eastern modes and there's nothing like some shredding in the harmonic minor over a uber-heavy chord progression.

Another thing I'd like to do is work with the chord progression to refine my solos, but I don't quite have the ears yet to say, "Hmm, that's a Gmadd11 chord, so I'll play a G, then play this B while allowing the G to ring so as to harmonize the G..." just by listening to the backing track.

LordOVchaoS-thanks man, appreciate it. Sadly, I don't quite have the dough for a tube amp yet, and I have quite a bit of gear to get before I get to buying a new amp, though I am pleased with the lead tone I get out of the Spider. That solo was direct-recorded to the computer using hte line-out of the amp. For some weird reason, I get a much warmer, creamier, smoother lead sound when I direct-record into the computer and when I play through the Celestion speaker, everything sounds much harsher.

Drew-while it is true that I like shredding at heart and I couldn't restrain myself (and ironically, it's during the shred sections that I made my screw-ups), I still felt it sounded rather bluesy. Sure, it's more uptempo blues than most traditional-Mississippie-blues songs, but I felt it was bluesy all the same  Oh well, I'm always looking for ways to improve my playing and I'm looking forward to hearing some detailed suggestions  

Beelzebloke-The whiskey sipping wouldn't work, I can't play drunk-I've tried it, it don't work 


We should do a sevenstring.org jam, would anyone be up for that?


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## Drew (Feb 4, 2006)

Nik said:


> Drew-while it is true that I like shredding at heart and I couldn't restrain myself (and ironically, it's during the shred sections that I made my screw-ups), I still felt it sounded rather bluesy. Sure, it's more uptempo blues than most traditional-Mississippie-blues songs, but I felt it was bluesy all the same  Oh well, I'm always looking for ways to improve my playing and I'm looking forward to hearing some detailed suggestions



...which is exactly why you posted here looking for suggestions. 

Just got back from the post office, so I'm going to cook a quick breakfast then throw down a backing and get to work for you.


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## Metal Ken (Feb 4, 2006)

distressed_romeo said:


> I don't really buy into the 'guitarists must play blues' philosophy. Like Ken said, it often ends up sounding a bit shallow, as guitarists usually get stuck with blues because they're not accomplished enough to play other styles rather than because they sincerely love it as a musical form. This is the crucial difference between the SRVs and Eric Sardinases of this world, and the fourteen year olds playing pentatonic licks in guitar stores.
> When I started playing guitar seriously, I made a concious effort to pursue sounds other than the blues, for three reasons; a) I never really felt like 'me' when I went to a blues jam, b) That was what all the other guitarists at my school tended to do, and I wanted to be different, and c) Other styles of music resonated with me far more.
> Although I've started to incorporate little bits of it into my playing, having grown interested in players like Robben Ford, I don't think it'll ever be a major part of my style.
> Great playing though Nik...reminded me a bit of Jason Becker and Marty Friedman's blues trade-off on the 'Perpetual Burn' album.



+1. I gotta agree with everything here.


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## LordOVchaoS (Feb 4, 2006)

Nik said:


> LordOVchaoS-thanks man, appreciate it. Sadly, I don't quite have the dough for a tube amp yet, and I have quite a bit of gear to get before I get to buying a new amp, though I am pleased with the lead tone I get out of the Spider. That solo was direct-recorded to the computer using hte line-out of the amp. For some weird reason, I get a much warmer, creamier, smoother lead sound when I direct-record into the computer and when I play through the Celestion speaker, everything sounds much harsher.



Two suggestions, replace the stock Spider Celestion with a Vintage 30  That's what I played through when I had a Spider and it was a night and day difference!

Second, instead of using the distortion from the Spider you should invest in an Overdrive pedal such as the Digitech Bad Monkey and run it through the Spider on a blues channel with little or no distortion. I know how it is to not be able to afford tubes! I haven't been a tube amp owner for very long but being poor in the past made me learn a lot of tricks to make ss and modeling sound better. The Bad Monkey responds very similar to a tube amp while the Spider doesn't really react to how hard you pick and such. Bad Monkeys usually run $30-$40 and IMO sound better than most OD pedals over $100.


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 4, 2006)

Nik said:


> distressed_romeo-I see what you're saying, and while I agree pentatonic runs have become a bit boring since everyone does them, I do believe that guitarists should try to absorb as many styles as possible-blues included. I try to do this myself, and as I said, I'm totally new to the blues. In fact, I'm very fond of eastern modes and there's nothing like some shredding in the harmonic minor over a uber-heavy chord progression.
> 
> Another thing I'd like to do is work with the chord progression to refine my solos, but I don't quite have the ears yet to say, "Hmm, that's a Gmadd11 chord, so I'll play a G, then play this B while allowing the G to ring so as to harmonize the G..." just by listening to the backing track.
> 
> We should do a sevenstring.org jam, would anyone be up for that?



It's not pentatonic runs that I have a problem with; I love the five-note scale as much as the next guy! It's just the way most people tend to approach blues playing that turns me off. When you get a guy with a genuine feel for it, it sounds absolutely incredible, it's just for every one of those there are a thousand who'll just bumble along with the same cliched licks, complete with out-of-tune vibrato, and justify their lack of progress by calling it 'soulful' or 'rootsy'. 
I mentioned Robben Ford, and other guys like Scott Henderson and Eric Johnson, just because when they take a blues solo they really bring something new to it, even though it's clear they've all done their homework and researched the history of the blues. Think of the first G3 album; when they all play 'Red House' at the end, Satriani and Johnson sound great, just because they've both got genuine blues roots, whereas Vai, although he's technically flawless, as always, sounds pretty lost, just because that's not where his voice is.
Don't get me wrong, I've got a pretty decent collection of blues CDs, from the early Robert Johnson recordings, to Eric Sardinas' stuff. I just don't think it would be doing myself, or the genre, any favours to become another SRV wannabe just for the sake of 'keeping it real'.

Very cool that you're getting into playing over changes! To me, this is what separates the good soloists from the really great ones! It's really cool to hear what fusion guys like Ford, Henderson, Larry Carlton, Mike Stern and Carl Verheyen (if you haven't heard this guy, check him out!) can do over a straight blues progression; it's not only slick and sophisticated, it's also really soulful and beautiful.


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## Nik (Feb 4, 2006)

distressed_romeo - Any tips for learning to work with chord progressions? Do I just have to work on my ears more? (as I said, I've only been playing for 1 1/2 year, so I don't quite have amazing ears). Also, what ways are there to work with chord progressions in the solos besides simply hitting, for example, a G on the guitar when the underlying chord progression turns to a G chord ?

I agree with everything you said-Eric Johnson is truly amazing, and Vai does sound pretty bad during the improv parts in the G3 (especially on the last G3 with Petrucci. In fact, I absolutely loved Petrucci's navigation of the Pentatonic and choices for modes).

LordOVchaoS-Thanks for the tips, but I doubt I'll be changing speaker or amp anytime soon. I've gots to get a bunch of stuff first (like, for example, an accoustic 7-string), but I've been thinking about getting a PodXT live. It's got loads more amp models and options than the Spider and I figure that I'd have little trouble finding some model that sounds good through the spider. Further along the line, I might get a tube-driven pre-amp: that's what the guy at the local store suggested, driving line 6 signal through pre-amp to add tube-fullness to the sound.


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 4, 2006)

Your best bet's probably to start playing stuff like 1-5s and 2-5-1s using eighth note arpeggios (no triplets, chromatics or passing tones!) until you get it to the point where you can play a sequence of arpeggios and hear the chords. The important thing is not to jump in head first and try to tackle 'Giant Steps' before your ears can accomodate it. If you build it up a little bit at a time you should progress pretty quickly. Actually, I studied jazz guitar with a really good teacher during my last two years at school, so if you're willing to pay for lessons, that'll be a great discipline to learn. I'm definitely not a jazz player, but the stuff I learnt during those two years made a world of difference for me.
Once you get comfortable playing with just chord tones you can start getting a little bit 'out there' by adding chromatics to lines (Brett Garsed has a great way of pulling this off without sounding too academic and sterile), and creating some interesting substitutions, such as superimposing different triads over chords to imply extended harmony; by this I mean playing an E major arpeggio over an A maj7 chord to imply an Amaj9, or playing a minor pentatonic up a minor third over a dom7 to get an altered sound. You can do similar things with pentatonics, which guys like Eric Johnson and Frank Gambale are really great at. After that there's even more esoteric stuff to study, such as tetrachords and bebop scales (I've got a column on this that I'm sending to Chops From Hell once I get off my ass and record the audio!)!
To begin with you should really know the neck inside out; every scale, mode and arpeggio in every key (and be able to identify them by ear!). It's also really important to know as many chord voicings as possible, as it'll make targeting the notes easier if you play through the changes before hand.
This really is a lifelong pursuit, and I still consider myself a total novice at it! Actually, I'd recommend a book called 'Jazz-Rock Solos for Guitar'...it's published by REH and goes over most of the stuff I mentioned above, but in totally rocker-friendly dialogue, and has some great backing tracks to play over.
Good luck man!


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## Drew (Feb 4, 2006)

Ok, so instead of recording some blues stuff for you, i jammed with my roommate and a friend of his for three hours, and now my fingers are shot. No recording tonight. :/

Some thoughts on playing blues well, though:

1.) first, like anything, if you want to play blues, you need to listen to blues. As a genre it's pretty damned expansive, but heres a few tracks to check out in some respective styles - "Personal Manager," Albert King (Texas); "Born Under a Bad Sign," Jimi Hendrix (um... sorta funked-up Chicago... This track's an instrumental cover of an Albert King song and is, for me, the pinnacle of modern electric blues), "Spoonful," Howlin' Wolf (Chicago - his guitarist, Hubert Sumlin, makes you wonder why everyone took Clapton so seriously on this one), and "Texas Flood," SRV. Five tracks, and five _brilliant_ blues solos, in completely different manners. 

2.) Forget "blues is about the pentatonic scale." Sure, it's true to a certian extent... but it's WAY more about chord tones than it is about pentatonics - they just provide the bridge, generally. In particular, blues guitar is really about blurring the line between major and minor. This would make a lot more sense if I was providing you an audio example, too, but on that "Bad Sign" cover, in Jimi's first couple choruses, he stays pretty rooted in the minor scale until he hits the turnaround, when he suddenly introduces the major 3rd of the key he's in (Bb). Against the V chord, F, that comes out to be a M6, suggesting an F6 chord. He's really doing two things here - well, three I guess. First off, coming off the Bb, it's very obvious that he's hitting what;s the M3 of the scale. This is part of what makes it sound so cool. Second, he's suggesting a 6th chord against the bass. This is a very cool sounding, "traditional" bluesy chord, and it sounds badass in the context. Third, and perhaps most importantly, as the bass player (Billy Cox) hits the V7 chord of the bass progression, already a tense note, Jimi goes outside (the bass riff itself is firmly rooted in the minor scale) and adds even more tension to the song. This creates a HUGE amount of tension that is released when the bass returns to the I7 and Jimi drops back into minor. And tension-and-release is, in a word (three, rather), what's at the core of blues guitar. 

You get where I'm going here - in your post a while back, you say your ear isn't good enough to know if there's a 13th chord in the background or not. Frankly, that doesn't matter - most blues guitar is played in small combos, and god knows your bass player won't be playing many 13th chords... What matters is knowing "Ok, this is a G note... I can resolve to an A to suggest a G9 chord." This allows you to add "outside" tones to the pentatonic scale that still sound appropriate, but add a TON of color to your playing.

3.) blues licks are useful to a degree. Learn the staples, at least (a hint - you can pick up basically everything you need to know if you sit down and transctibe that Albert King solo). However, don't learn them as "licks," per se - learn them as fragmentary melodic runs that you can string together and improvise around. Never play them the same wya twice. You'll thank me. 

(in particular, there's this one point in that solo where he bends this one note like 15 times in a row, but does it slightly different each time, and manages to taker most of a chorus with that one note, and it's so fucking perfect it kills me)

4.) The difference between a good blues guitarist and a bad one, IMO, is largely in the fretting hand. This is something that SRV makes abundantly obvious - you hear him play and it's clear he's brutalizing his guitar, he's got the picking hand of a jackhammer. He never just picks a note - he rakes across half the fretboard, thows his shoulder behind it, and the note just explodes (remember, the guy strung with 12's and 13's - he did it for a reason). Then, suddenly, he'll choke up and let the notes ease out of the guitar - the sheer dynamic range of his playing is staggering. A lot of guys go throgh the motions, but to really sound authentic, you NEED to learn how to control your dynamics and make your instrument scream in protest. 

5.) Also, as a guy who's seen more than his share of shitty blues guitarists in is day... The really inspiring ones are the ones who take chances. There's nothing more boring than a guy on stage with a stratocaster playing very intelligent but safe blues licks where you know he's stringing together a bunch of licks he could play in his sleep. There's no excitement. The really good guys are the ones just throwing themselves out there and gunning for it - sure, on occasion they hit a bad note, but even a "wrong" note can sound acceptable if you play it with enough "conviction" (see previous point about dynamics - you throw your entire shoulder into a note that's a half-step off and add a vicious vibrato, and it's going to sound badass one way or the other).

I'm out of practice, but once my fingers no longer feel like they're bleeding I'll throw down a chorus or two for you tomorrow. Some brushingup would be good for me, actually - I'm kinda getting the itch to put a blues trio together lately. 


EDIT - also worth pointing out - when soloing over blues changes, at any given moent you should know where the nearest 1, 3, 5, and 7 is of the chord you're playing over, at the BARE minimum. And, while you can get away by resolving to the 1 all the time over blues changes, you'll sound way more badass if you hit the other chord tones more often than not.


EDIT#2 - by the way, you destroy me at two years dude.


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## Leon (Feb 4, 2006)

^^ fingers are shot, eh? they seem to be working just fine 

 @ all that ^^


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 4, 2006)

All great points.


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## Ken (Feb 4, 2006)

Drew said:


> Anyone who says you have to be depressed to play the blues is just making excuses for themselves, incidentally. It's about emotion - where that emotion is coming from is entirely your own perogative.



 

I have to disagree here. To me, the blues is about the expression of pain and suffering through music. To say that the blues is only about emotion, the nature of which is subject to the author's prerogative, is too much of a generalization for me. ALL music is about emotion. In my mind, there are specific genres for specific emotions. 

Death Metal doesn't conjure up feelings of days gone by, and Damn Good by DLR doesn't make me want to do bad things to the people who piss me off.  And Jazz? That's sexual tension for the ears.


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## Shawn (Feb 4, 2006)

Nik said:


> Shawn-I agree, SRV is da bomb. His rendition of "Little Wing" is one of my all time favorite songs.


 I love that song.


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## Nik (Feb 5, 2006)

distressed_romeo, Drew:

Thanks a lot for all your help! My musical knowledge isn't quite at a point where I understand all that technical jargon you threw at me fully (don't worry, I understood a chunk of it, I get the general picture), and I'm definitely gonna bookmark this thread and prowl over your replies till I understand it better. As for knowing where the 1, 3, 5 and 7 of the chord is, would I have to play around with hitting each interval over the appropriate chord to see the sort of effect it achieves? Or is there some kind of written-down, established theory about this that I should know?

As for scales, I know my major/minor/harmonic minor/pentatonic scales, and I have JUST started venturing into modes territorry (I understand them perfectly, though I still haven't learned to incorporate them into my technique, although I often end up emphasizing or ending a faster run on some note that may not be root note or anything like that, so I suppose I am playing weird modes because of my inexperience  But that's another thing I have to work on...) And I have developed a fascination for chromatics and notes outside of the given tonality, because you can really add some flavor and interesting tinge to your solos when you leave the given key. In the solo I posted, there's quite a bit of chromatics.

And when it comes to taking chances, I always do that-playing fast stuff like that always presents a much larger possibility for a major screw up than just playing slow licks I know I won't mess up, but that isn't fun 

Am I the only one who finds blues to not be a really sad music though? I mean, when I'm feeling down, sure it's fun to play, but I feel that I can pour much, MUCH more emotion into a minor solo over a good sad-sounding chord-progression, by just navigating the normal, appropriate minor scale without resorting to the blues...


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## Drew (Feb 5, 2006)

I've heard some pretty upbeat blues solos, I've heard some pretty sad blues solos, but generally the ones I've liked the most are the ones that are really ugly and really angry. Ken, you and I are gonna have to disagree on this one. 



Nik said:


> As for knowing where the 1, 3, 5 and 7 of the chord is, would I have to play around with hitting each interval over the appropriate chord to see the sort of effect it achieves? Or is there some kind of written-down, established theory about this that I should know?



Well... yes and no. Essentially, you can resolve to any of those notes against the appropriate chord and it'll sound good. So, in that sense, no, there's the theory to it right there. However, where it pays to experiment is that they'll all sound good in different _ways_, and as you get the feel for how each sounds against the chord, it'll help you choose where to resolve for the sort of sound you're looking for - i.e, a b7, while still right, soundsWAY tenser than a M3. 

Also, with the backing you're playing against here, you're not really hoping to be able to play 1-3-5-b7 arpeggios in a traditional blues vein and have it really work, as this is more of a jazzy, fusiony blues than a straight up chicago or texas blues. It's definitely not the sort of thing Howlin' Wolf would have ever cut, buyt more Jeff Beck, to put it into perspective... It's a bit bluesy, but it's more of a jazz/blues and as such a pure blues approach isn't necessarily going to work too well...


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 5, 2006)

Just keep exploring man! The whole joy of improvising is playing stuff you've never tried before!


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## Nik (Feb 5, 2006)

Cool, I'll mess around with that, thanks a lot!

BTW, any tips for better learning/incorporating modes into your technique?


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 5, 2006)

Record some static chord vamps, and explore how each note of the mode sounds over it. Always important to try the modes over a proper harmonic backdrop to help you internalise the sound of each of them.


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## Nik (Feb 5, 2006)

Thanks!

I don't know how to do vamps, but I've got powertab and Reason, so that should be enough to make some loops.


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 5, 2006)

Y'know, just simple one-chord riffs!


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## telecaster90 (Feb 7, 2006)

Nik said:


> Cool, I'll mess around with that, thanks a lot!
> 
> BTW, any tips for better learning/incorporating modes into your technique?



Since most major chords in blues are b7, logic would say to give mixolydian a try. Of course, you could just use the root and go modally from there over certian chords, but take it slow.


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## Nik (Feb 7, 2006)

telecaster90 said:


> Since most major chords in blues are b7, logic would say to give mixolydian a try. Of course, you could just use the root and go modally from there over certian chords, but take it slow.



Cool, thanks!

Any charts that show what modes go over what chords?


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## telecaster90 (Feb 7, 2006)

Not that I know of, but I can put one together real quick

I-Major 7-Ionian
ii-Minor 7-Dorian
iii-Minor 7-Phrygian
IV-Major 7-Lydian
V-Dominant 7-Mixolydian
vi-Minor 7-Aeolian
vii-Diminished 7-Locrian

That help out at all?


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## Drew (Feb 7, 2006)

telecaster90 said:


> Not that I know of, but I can put one together real quick
> 
> I-Major 7-Ionian
> ii-Minor 7-Dorian
> ...



To expand slightly:

I: Major
ii: m6
iii: b9
IV: #4
V: 7
vi: m
vii: mb5

where m = mimor chord and b/# referrs to the interval. 

Essentially, compare a mode to its nearest major-or-minor equivalent, and note the differences. Then, use it over chords that highlight those differences (or, to suggest chords that highlight those differences). I.e - the dorian mode differs from the natural minor by it's raised 6th degree. So, D dorian over a D bassline will suggest Dm6, or D Dorian will sound more "inside" over a Dm6 than D natural minor would. 

Of course, you can also use modes to play across a series of changes that could be derrived from the mode, much like you use amajor or minor scale over the series of chords derrived from it - for instance, over a Am-D vamp, A dorian is a much better fit than A minor, in that the Dorian mode contains the M6, which relative to the scale's 4th degree is a major, and not minor, third. 

Confused yet?


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 7, 2006)

Doesn't Frank Gambale have a couple of books dedicated to explaining this?


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## Nik (Feb 8, 2006)

Hey, just wanted to say thanks, those charts are EXACTLY what I needed.

Oh man, this is gonna be fun.


Thanks!


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## Drew (Feb 9, 2006)

Just keep in mind that's jazz theory more than blues theory.


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 9, 2006)

Drew said:


> Just keep in mind that's jazz theory more than blues theory.



Easy to say that, but the two do tend to intermingle; Martin Taylor says he thinks of jazz as just being 'blues with more chords'.


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## Drew (Feb 9, 2006)

That's because he plays jazz.  

And admittedly this could be because I'm a blues guy at heart, but my experience is that there's a WORLD of difference between a jazz guy playing blues and a blues guy playing blues - the former will play more complex, intellectual lines, while the later will play rawer, rootsier stuff. 

Early jazz and early blues - sure. Robert Johnson alledgedly even covered jazz standards of the day back on the Missisippi delta back in the day before *ahem* getting poisoned by a no-good woman.* However, as jazz got more complex, the two genres seperated further and further, and I have yet to hear a guy try to take a jazz theory based blues solo without sounding like a pedantic ass. 

There's plenty of overlap, and the importance of arpeggio-based soloing approaches CANNOT be understated for both genres, but I wouldn't recommend playing mixolydian lines as such against a Chicago blues groove. If you want to include both the major 3rd and minor 7th, then do so, but consider them outside tones to the scale you're in rather than an excuse to play mixolydian. Just because it works on paper doesn't make it sound "right," you know?

-ss.org's resident blues snob. 



*which is the only authentic way to die, as a blues musician.


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## Nik (Feb 9, 2006)

Drew said:


> Just keep in mind that's jazz theory more than blues theory.



Jazz? Hell, I'm just thinking about adding some spice to my prog-metal/rock solos


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## Drew (Feb 9, 2006)

Nik said:


> Jazz? Hell, I'm just thinking about adding some spice to my prog-metal/rock solos




...which is a genre that borrows heavily from jazz and classical harmony.  That said, carry on.


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## Harry (Jan 28, 2009)

Drew said:


> Ok, so instead of recording some blues stuff for you, i jammed with my roommate and a friend of his for three hours, and now my fingers are shot. No recording tonight. :/
> 
> Some thoughts on playing blues well, though:
> 
> ...



Sorry if it's weird to bump a thread from so long ago, but good lord, this post contains some amazing information that I think members that have registered after this post was made should see
Definitely giving a + rep for this post Drew, since I actually learn a fair bit from this


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## Mvotre (Jan 28, 2009)

maybe Drew can put some backing tracks, and we should all play small timed solos over it.. then every player should post some info about what he used... could be cool to give some ideas to people


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## Trespass (Feb 1, 2009)

May I slight dissent with what's stated here? Please?

Why not study non-modern blues? As in, smooth 50s voiced blues rather than crunch based blues. I personally can't stand SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, and the majority of the deterrents thereof. (and I've been neg repped about it before)

So why not try diversifying beyond what modern guitarists get into? I personally feel T-Bone Walker, Ronnie Earl, and Duke Robillard are incredible. Albert Collins is a great storyteller kind of bluesman, much like B.B. King. 

Whatever, I don't want to come into this negative, but my personal experience has been speaking about SRV as anything other than a deity is akin to calling Jesus merely a human among Christians. 

I only post this to throw some other approaches out there, rather than what was mentioned.


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## Drew (Aug 12, 2009)

Bump part 2 - I happened to be looking at my profile and saw I'd been thanked for this post, so I wanted to see why.  

Thanks Harry! Honestly, if you wanted to start anywhere, for me it all comes down to personal taste, but Jimi is my favorite "modern" blues player and plays a very distinct style of blues that's been largely passed over for Texas blues a la SRV, and that "Born Under a Bad Sign" rendition of his is spectacular - I really think you could sit down with a recording of that and a guitar and learn everything you need to play blues in a single performance. Go through it, not really thinking about licks as much as, well, _why_ he plays notes, as opposed to what notes he plays. So many players ask the second question when looking at a blues solo, when in reality it's the first that matters and the actual sequence of notes is pretty incidental.

Makes you wonder why I don't play more blues these days, come to think of it... God knows I love the stuff.  I've actually sort of been fighting the urge to start frequenting blues jams and maybe put a blues band together.


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## telecaster90 (Aug 12, 2009)

I've recently been exploring with adding 6's and 9's to my playing so thanks for bumping this, it was good to read over again 



Drew said:


> Makes you wonder why I don't play more blues these days, come to think of it... God knows I love the stuff.  I've actually sort of been fighting the urge to start frequenting blues jams and maybe put a blues band together.



Who knows, maybe you'll even release an album if you put a blues band together!  wub


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