Discovering the Blues (music)

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,049
But, I don’t feel that way when I hear SRV do Hendrix, and he did several, like Voodoo Child (which has been posted), Little Wing and 3rd stone. First of all, he could do it, which says a lot. But, they sound like real tributes – he isn’t overdoing anything. He isn’t trying to be note-for-note, instead he is adding his soul to them, without overdoing anything.
This is the thing most modern day, so called blues players do that is wrong in my opinion. Blues is better when the player knows what to leave out, but today's players try to cram in as many notes as they can. Blues started out as a way of releasing the hurt in the players soul, that those hearing the music understood, to many today are just in for the money that can be made.

A good example of where it goes wrong, done by the recording industry is the Chris Thomas King album I posted earlier, Red Mud. That one was an independent recording, then he got signed by a label. His work since then went steadily down hill with very few exceptions. He had to change for "mass marketing".
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
836
To get back to the Blues topic, take a listen to him (about 1:11 in), alone, just playing blues on an acoustic guitar, just jamming away....

Not sure that makes a lot of sense, but I wanted to get that out.
Quote from "Jude Talbot" this youtube on the song SRV does, I wanted to know if he was using any Triads or modified thereof

SRV does an interesting job of mixing together some common blues progressions. That is the advantage of playing solo. You can change things at will. I thought I would sketch out the chords to each verse. Each bar has one chord except the last of each verse which has two chords (E for 2 beats and B7 for 2 beats). Bars are separated by brackets. Some chords are implied by his playing. I may not be 100% correct. I did this without a guitar in my hands. The entire song is in the key of E (though I didn't check to see if his guitar is tuned to concert pitch). SRV starts with a 4 bar intro then plays an 8 bar blue progression for verse 1 that is really just the last 8 bars of a standard 12 bar. Verse 2 is a modified 12 bar progression that starts on the 4 chord (A in the key of E). This is actually pretty common. Listen to a song like Rollin' & Tumbling to hear something similar. Verse 3 is a 16 bar progression that is common not just to blues but also country and Appalachian folk music. Verse 4 is the common 12 bar blues. Verses 5&7 are a repeat of verse 2. Verse 6 is a repeat of verse 4. Verse 8 fades out in this video but you can repeat any of these progressions until you get bored.

Times are approximate 4 bar intro [E [A[E[B7] verse1
[A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7] Verse2
[A [A [E [E [A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7] Verse3
2:00 [A [A [E [E [A [A [B7 [B7 [E [E [A [A [E [B7 [E [E B7] Verse4
2:34 [E [E [E [E [A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7] Verse5
2:57 [A [A [E [E [A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7] Verse6
3:21 [E [E [E [E [A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7] Verse7
3:46 [A [A [E [E [A [A [E [E [B7 [A [E [E B7]
Traids and 7th's Quote from "Openmusictheory.com"

http://openmusictheory.com/triads.html
Each triad quality has its own distinct sound, and to an extent that sound is preserved even when the chord is inverted (when the pitch classes are arranged so that a pitch class other than the root is in the lowest voice). As you practice identifying and writing triads, be sure to play the triads, both to check your analysis/writing and to develop the ability to identify chord qualities quickly by ear.

Seventh chords
A four-note chord whose pitch classes can be arranged as thirds is called a seventh chord.

Like with a triad, the pitch classes belonging to a seventh chord occupy adjacent positions (a four-pitch-class clump) on the circle of thirds. The four members of a seventh chord are the root, third, fifth, and seventh.
If anyone understands music theory help me out.

kv

Edit: I did some Googling and found many instances of the uses of Triads.
 
Last edited:
More torch passing?

1925 Bessie Smith

~1967 Janice Joplin

2017??


BTW: I was lucky to see Janis Joplin sing in my youth. She was as sloppy and with as "untrained" a voice as can be imagined. To this day, however, I'm not sure I have heard of any vocalist who put more into her singing.
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
836
BTW: I was lucky to see Janis Joplin sing in my youth. She was as sloppy and with as "untrained" a voice as can be imagined. To this day, however, I'm not sure I have heard of any vocalist who put more into her singing.
Thats why people fail:oops: Trying to do a copy of her songs without altering them first to fit their own stylings. Because they don't realize how much energy goes into it. "Mean Women" is a good example, you really sense she feels exactly that, while she's singing.

kv
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,049
A good blues player I've seen quite a few times. Sounds in person just like on the albums.

Another one that's good in person, does the old stuff country type blues. On many different instruments.
 

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,049
Another that is surprising. David Johansen who was in the New York Dolls. But did a few albums as a blues band called the "Harry Smiths".

 
Last edited:

Sinus23

Joined Sep 7, 2013
250
That's a very nice collection of tunes you've uploaded, Sinus. Why are the most recent ones from 2013? Have you been idle the past four years?
Sorry for the late reply but I've been busy with work and being full-time at school.

The thing is more why I was active at that time period.

The short answer is I got unemployed 3 months after the banks crashed here in Iceland and was more and less unemployed through 2009-2013 with just few months here and there(plus I went back to school in 2011). It is true that looking for a job is a full time job in itself however living in a small country with over 10% of the workforce unemployed that only holds true for a bit over 2 months.

Which meant that I had time and energy to kill(extremely low on funds though...) I started to make music on computers in '94 but being unemployed was the first time that I really had time to focus on making music(before that time I had made plenty of songs at various stages of completions but never near anything I would call finished) .

Because even though you're using a computer to make music it still is really time-consuming and ideas are fleeting in the way that you can't always come days or even hours later and get into the "flow" that you originally set up with. So after I got a full time job and now getting back to finish school (plus a death in the family:() I've been really inactive.

It's one of those things that are really hard to explain in few words...

That's nice. Almost has a Pink Floydie sound to it. I was waiting for you to sing "Shine on you crazy diamond"...

Thanks Joey. I've listen to my fair share of Pink Floyd so it wouldn't surprise me if their influence somehow manage to sneak in.;)

I listened to it and I liked it! Let me ask you something...do you hear that in your head before it comes out, or just start on something and go with it until you are ok with what you have...or something completely different?
It is a mixture of muscle memory and on the fly "planning"(oh and where your fingers are on the neck does play some role as well;)). The song itself only took about an hour took make and assemble but I soloed around the back-up track for about another hour before I recorded the solo so I had found a few "licks" that fitted well. Other than that It was if I'm quoting Jimmy Page correctly when he was asked about his solos. "Just take a deep breath and GO!" :cool:

Oh and that song was recorded with an "old" plastic speaker that I used as a microphone, a free program to assemble on a 500MHz machine with 256Mb RAM in 2009( I fried my motherboard so I had to revert to my old computer having no money and all;))

So it may sound really raw but it holds a special time and a place in my mind.:cool:
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
30,695
" And she shall have music wherever she goes"

As someone who cannot be without music, working, in the shop, at home, in the car etc, I just got one of the Bose Mini 11 portable (Bluetooth) speakers, just fantastic sound for such a small size , I cannot recommend it enough. :cool:
Max.
 

killivolt

Joined Jan 10, 2010
836
I had a chance to see this band a few years back, I don't think they're still working together.


The story as I understand it goes the singers are in a subway singing when white Band members encountered them and they fused this into music that in my honest opinion is best lived live, the band played at a local bar in Salt Lake City. My wife dragged me kicking and screaming, but I'm glad she did, best concert I've ever attended.

kv

Edit: The a Capella at the end was spectacular live.
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

joeyd999

Joined Jun 6, 2011
6,337
Beautiful Blues Singers on TV in 1931???
And, yes.
The reason for my astonishment at the mention of Beautiful Blues Singers in the ad is that, in 1931, Chicago Blues was in its prenatal infancy. Would the target of a *very expensive* novel technology in the middle of the Great Depression even know what Blues was?

And were they referring to Beautiful Blues? or Beautiful Singers? The Blues singers of the early 1930's were mostly solo itinerant black men on acoustic guitars (Electric Blues didn't exist till the late 1930's).

This is a real mystery to me. I'd like to understand better what they were referring to when they mention "Beautiful Blues Singers".
 
The reason for my astonishment at the mention of Beautiful Blues Singers in the ad is that, in 1931, Chicago Blues was in its prenatal infancy. Would the target of a *very expensive* novel technology in the middle of the Great Depression even know what Blues was?
------
Don't know who or what they were targeting, but I think that there were plenty of "Beautiful Blues Singers" around at the time - and likely many singing at all the top clubs.

 
She has a very good voice I think.

"Doggone, got more money, than Henry Ford or John D. ever had
I bit a dog last Monday, and forty doggone dogs went mad"

It's amazing to see the culture differences between then and now - here she is singing the tune in a Betty Boop cartoon (in case there was any doubt as to what the song is about).

 
Top