How To Play Blues Guitar Like The Legendary Blues Men And Learn Authentic Acoustic Blues Guitar Techniques ...
Thoughts About The Blues For the majority of people, to play acoustic guitar in the authentic way is a bit more than just copying the musical style. The blues kindles an ongoing fascination with a time in American history that still speaks to us today - the lives of the first blues singers and musicians give us an inside look at the tribulations of life for colored people in those times. You don't have to listen very hard to hear the beat of the classic blues in most modern jazz, rock and pop music. Blues music is the root of 60s rock, which in turn came from Chicago electric blues, which was heavily influenced by Big Bill Broonzy's music, which in turn .... well, you get the picture. While it's true that there were definite flavors of guitar blues, it all came basically from one beginning, and possibly from one actual region - the Mississippi Delta. The first African slaves labored tortuous hours in the fields picking cotton and dragging huge sacks behind them. Work gangs were very common in the South, where colored people could be jail|jailed} for almost nothing, and then forced to labor on the roads or on the bosses farms. It was a great spiritual relief to sing or chant a rhythm to measure the work flow and give feeling of community|some comfort}. In this way the so called 'field hollers' came into being}. Field hollers had a limited range musically and the words were very repetitive, which became an enduring characteristic of all songs in the blues style. The first slaves were stolen from Africa, a continent with a rich tradition of story telling and elementary music accompanied by strong rhythms, often accompanied by drums and instruments with a single string created from gourds or the skins of animals stretched out across a frame. It's probable that the first basic guitar had just one or two strings, with a sound box fabricated from a big cigar box. Without a doubt, only really simple music could be the result of these beginnings, but the vocal nuances were at the same time subtle and powerful. The Blues Guitar Arrives ... At the turn of the 20th century, an innovative method of selling gave a new impetus for blues music and was vital for creating the rich variation we now associate with it. The Sears company put in place a system for buying products by mail, and distributed catalogs all over the USA. This had never happened before - affordable factory made instruments were available for all. Amongst the many products on offer, you could purchase a Harmony acoustic guitar for one dollar. The blues was on the verge of a breakthrough! As one might imagine, a factory made acoustic guitar obviously wasn't the highest quality instrument, and it was probably difficult to keep in tune - in the southern humid weather, it was almost impossible. This is one of the reasons why bottleneck was one of the first ways of playing blues guitar. It was much easier to make a basic tune as the guitar was tuned to an open arrangement such as open D, G or C - you didn't even have to to know any blues guitar chords! In open G, for instance, it was a lot easier to keep the guitar tuned than when in standard or 'Spanish' style tuning. Even when the guitar was slightly off tune, you could vary the position of the bottleneck throughout the playing, so it didn't have that much of an impact - especially for a talented player. Almost all of the early blues musicians were adept at this style, such as Son House (who taught Robert Johnson), Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Of course, Son House favored bottleneck guitar throughout his playing, whilst the others diversified into other finger picking styles. House mostly played a National steel guitar-steel guitar called a National, which was all metal construction housing a patented 'cone' amplifier system. The natural acoustic amplifier effect was a definite boon when performing for parties, or in noisy places, for instance. These kind of events generally meant heavy drinking and more often than not, fights about money or women. Diversity In Blues Music As guitar became more available and the power of the music spread, inevitably musicians began to experiment with ways of playing and definite styles emerged, sometimes being defined by a particular region. Although the drum beat was an important characteristic of native music in Africa, playing a drum was banned in the Southern States, because the wealthy classes didn't allow anything that might lift the spirits of their workers and possibly give them the desire to complain or resist. Maybe this is the reason why a particular percussive style of finger picking developed which is now known as 'monotonic bass". In this style, the picking thumb strikes one or several bass strings, marking the beat while one or more fingers are used to create a melody to accompany the singing. The big advantage of this fingerpicking technique is that one doesn't need to be that careful about fretting some bass strings at all. As long as the strings were damped down by the palm of the hand used for picking, all is well. The audience just hears a rhythmic 'thunk, thunk, thunk' which acts to move the music along. Some guitarists such as Broonzy and Mance Lipscombe, used this style entirely, while others could play in that style if they chose, and if the music would be better for it. The Influence Of Ragtime Piano In the early {1900s, a very young brothel piano player called Scott Joplin devised a style of playing for dancing that was complicated and really appealing. The bass pattern in particular was rhythmically different and he called it 'syncopation', and he called his music Ragtime. The prevalent cadence of the bass pattern was 'bum-chick, bum-chick', which means that the bass alternates between a lower and a higher note in regular time. Once upon a time, a guitarist realized that this 'bum-chick' rhythm could be made if the thum alternates between two bass strings of the guitar, and countless possibilities became available to these new blues musicians. The music created by this new wave of blues guitarists was more complicated and had a very different flavor to Delta Blues. Ragtime dancing became popular and many ragtime style songs were composed, often with lyrics not much less than pornographic! Some popular blues men played only ragtime music, such as Blind Blake, who created a style even more complex, where the picking thumb 'rolled' across the bass strings, creating two beats in place of one. Blind Blake recorded some 126 songs in his career, and his formidable speed and precise accuracy were never equaled. Maybe his only equal were Gary Davis and Willie Walker. We don't know much about Walker, as he just cut two sides, which were quite impressive. Reverend Davis, by contrast, lived until he was in his sixties and became part of the thriving folk blues movement, playing for thousands of new fans in countries all over the world. While Davis would only play gospel songs in the later part of his career - (he was a practicing minister) - he could play any blues style at all. His own songs were very rich musically, showing proficiency in all keys and styles. Gary Davis also taught other famous blues men such as Blind Boy Fuller, who was much more popular commercially when they were both young - this was strange, as he was no where near as good a guitarist as the Reverend. Nonetheless, his work was solid and very popular - his records sold in theoir thousands. Broonzy and Chicago Big Bill's technique was pure monotonic thumb bass, but his finger technique was very inventive and complex sounding. Amazingly, like Gary Davis and a good many master blues guitarists, he just used one finger to pick the strings. His musical range was incredibly varied, and included straight blues, ragtime songs, breakdowns, melodic ballads and even tin pan alley standards in vogue at the time, such as Glory of Love. One of Broonzy's best known songs, 'Hey Hey' was made popular again when Clapton featured the classic song on his album Unplugged in the eighties. Big Bill went to Chicago from the Southern states and quickly gained a reputation as a 'swinging' blues man. He was very popular and joined big bands and trios all around Chicago-land. It might be said that Big Bill was the link between old style acoustic blues and modern electric Chicago blues - he was incredibly influential. Even though his career waned when the new electric blues music took America by storm, he once more discovered an audience overseas as a true American folk blues performer. Like many, many brilliant old blues artists, he died without a penny but of course left us a massive heritage of blues guitar music to enjoy. Some Minor Blues Artists and The Carolina Blues Scene The legend of Robert Johnson is of course really well known, and he is often thought to be the greatest blues guitar player. Nonetheless, there are many lesser known guitar players who were much more creative and successful in their time than Johnson was. For instance, a group of Carolina guitarists (Reverend Gary Davis also originated Carolina) included the legendary Blind Boy Fuller, Floyd Council and Pink Anderson had a massive impact on guitarists who came into contact with them. Anderson and Council didn't know each other, but the group Pink Floyd borrowed their names for their act. Anderson began his musical career performing with a traveling medicine show, playing banjo and ragtime guitar with some show added for good measure. Sometimes he was accompanied by Simmie Dooly, another guitarist of note. Floyd Council's style of guitar playing was a lot like Bind Boy Fuller's, and in fact he played the part of second guitar for some of Fuller's recordings. Floyd's style was unusual, because it often featured ragtime guitar style chords, but the bass pattern was not always strictly alternating, but quite varied. Variations were also a strong characteristic of the guitar work of Gary Davis - the thumb might leave the pattern at a time of his pleasing and perhaps play a little melody of it's own. The effect is really appealing and hard to copy. Copyright (c) YoutuneRecords.com
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