the fat white boy blues

Bass Freak

New member
so i can play my 6 string now. and im getting pretty decent at it. and im rocking more on the bass. but the thing thats escaping me...more than anything else....are the blues


ive been in a downward spiral the last month or so, and i need to play the blues. and i cant.


someone lend a brother a hand



freak
 
What you need to do is fool around with another man's wife, and get shot trying to escape out the back window...spend all your money on wimmin' and wine.....go down to the crossroads, try to beg a ride, and make a deal with the Devil - the terms of which will relieve you of your soul, in exchange for....

... forget it, there's some really great instructional DVDs out there! :D

Jim
 
This has been around a bit, from the Blues Society website:

The Blues Rules: How to write the blues Courtesy of founding member Bruce Fernandes
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning."
2. "I got a good woman," is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line, like "I got a good
woman with the meanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it.Then find something that rhymes ...sort of:
Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher and she weigh 500 pound.
4. The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch: you stuck in a ditch, ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles.
Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even
in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old
enough to get the electric chair if you shot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City, but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just
depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you
skiing isn't the blues.Breaking your leg cuz a' alligator be chompin' on it is.
9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside and sit by the dumpster.
10. Good places for the Blues: a. highway b. jailhouse c. empty bed d. bottom of a whiskey glass
Bad places for the Blues: a. ashrams b. gallery openings c. Ivy League institutions d. golf courses
11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be a' old black man, and you slept in it.
12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: a. you're older than dirt b. you're blind c. you shot a man in Memphis d.
you can't be satisfied. No, if: a. you have all your teeth b. you were once blind but now can see c. the man in Memphis lived.
d. you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly
white people also got a legup on the blues.
14. If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the Blues.Other acceptable Blues beverages are: a. wine b. whiskey
or bourbon c. muddy water d. black coffee. The following are NOT Blues beverages: a. mixed drinks b. kosher wine c.
Snapple d. sparkling water e. double, decaf, lowfat latte
15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another
Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues
death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction.
16. Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling
17. Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie
18. People with names like Sequoia/Rainbow can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
19. Make yer own Blues name (starter kit): a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above)
plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) For example, Blind
Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc.
20. I don't care how tragic your life is: you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues. You best destroy it with fire, a spilled
bottle of Mad Dog, or get out a shotgun. Maybe your big woman just done sat on it. I don't care.
 
hahahahahah that made my day.


well, alright, so i gotta do that to play the blues....but what about the music side of it?



oh sure, i can just bang away and wail about how my 500 pound woman gnawed my leg off whilest i drank a whiskey wearing the suit i slept in. but would the music fit? i need the musicccc



so dvds? any books? i listen to a lot of blues, but i cant nail the sound. or the riffs, or even the basic stuff.




freak.
 
Standard 12 bar riff:

Woke up this morning
Tried to get outta bed
Had to fall over
Cuz I only had one leg

Aww you know
I got them gnawed off leg Blues
Who knew too much whiskey
Could lead to too many shoes?

Just listen to just about any song from Ridin' With the King, play along with the standard 12 bard chord progression (just the chords). Just keep doing it, over and over - eventually you'll be able to feel out your own embelishments, as well as trying to copy what King and Clapton do. Don't try any bends until you're comfortable with the notes you're playing. Takes time, since playing the blues well isn't really well learned from DVD's. Personally, I don't count copying SRV as being able to play the blues well. Too many showoffs down at Guitar Center can do that and fail to impress me.
 
freak, assuming you're asking about the chord progression, the standard is 12 bars of I - IV - V something like this:

I / I / I / I /
IV / IV / I / I /
V / IV / I / V

In the key of E, which is a good key to play the blues in, it would go:

E / E / E / E /
A / A / E / E /
B / A / E / B

You can also play it with 7ths for a good bluesy souund

E7 / E7 / E7 / E7
A7 / A7 / E7 / E7
B7 / A7 / E7 / B7

hope this was what you're looking for.

Dave
 
Yeah, what he said. Learn these chords:

E
E7
A7
B7

Then learn what 4/4 time is, and arrange those chords in random order in 12 measures (12 bars) in 4/4 time. Then fool around with the order of the chords so that it's not so random, and it sounds like you might be able to sing "Before you 'cuse me, take a look at yourself" while you play.

Seriously, it does sound like you need to learn the 12 bar blues riff. Would anyone wager a guess as to what percentage of blues guitar uses the 12-bar riff? 75%? 80%?
 
i know what 4/4 is. i didnt spend 9 years in band/private lessons for nothing ;)



i can play that 12 bar blues thing. i learned it a long time ago, and just kinda played around with it on bass, i never thought of putting it over to the 6 string :)



thanks for the info on the chord progression. i had to turn most of my music for jazz band in *i play a mean tenor sax* and we had a 'blues scales' sheet. i sure could use that right now :(


im going to learn those chords....i do have ridin' with the king. along with some muddy waters and bb king disks. im going to have to try to play along.




thanks a lot, i think i can try to pull this off now :D




freak
 
The bass player is the band's compass, especially for blues. Nobody can get lost when you do it right unless they're realy stoopid. You know where all the changes are and you broadcast the next change by walking up (or down) to it. You walk to and from the chord roots.

When you screw up, so does everyone else. When you sound good so does everyone else, only everyone else gets credit for it.

I play 4 and 5 string bass and have played a lot of blues in local bands and jams. I love walkin up to a low E. I can't imagine what I'd do with a high C string though.
 
i was in my high schools jazz band for four years, man im going to miss that more than anything. i played a 4 string p-bass. i played tenor sax for three years and bass for one. for those first three years something was always missing. then my senior year i started on the bass. and the missing parts werent missing. there was a bass line for the band to fall back on. it sounded great.


ahhh.....good times.


freak
 
Find an instructional DVD or Videotape by Robben Ford.

Learn everything on it (especially the rhythm guitar parts!)

You'll be the bluesiest guy in town (unless you live in LA, where Robben lives)

;)
 
chances are that if you've been playing jazz for the last few years, you might find yourself over complicating things scalewise. after growing up on zeppelin and clapton, the blues were easy, but then after studying three years of humber jazz, they washed all my licks away. i remember the first words out of there mouths were, "Stop bending" ......

i suggest dumbing it down to a basic blues scale and bend the crap out of everything. Listen to some Stevie Ray Vaughn, that'll fix ya. unless you want old school blues, then go find a 90 year old man and ask him to borrow a nickel, then you'll hear the blues.

lates.
 
Play the pentatonic scale. Whereever you find the minor third, play that then sharp it by a half step to the major third, instead of going the usual whole step, both on the way up the scale and the way back down. Do not move from the major third to the minor third.
Example
I hope you know what a pentatonic scale is anyway

In the key of A, the minor third of the pentatonic scale is C. Usually, when playing up the scale when you reach the C, you move up two notes or a whole step to the D, instead, move up one note, or half step if you will, to the C#, which is the major third, on the way down the scale when you come to the D note, play the C instead, then the C#, before you continue on to the A, and the rest of the scale. Try running through 2 octives of a pentatonic scale in A and whenever you reach a C in the scale try this. Leave out the D note altogether.

Also, when playing the petatonic in A, on the b and high e strings the notes would be, going up, E,G,A,C. Now instead play E,F#,A,B and streach the B note, try that with the above . You can substitute these notes anywere in the scale.

You can follow the chords with most of this if you want, i.e. when in the key of A, the I chord being A, you play the above in A. When you switch to the IV chord or the D chord, try playing the above in the key of D, when you switch to the V chord, that being E, play the above in the key of E

Just a rough out line to help maybe?

If you mix the petatonic scale up with the above you might find the essence of what you are looking for?

This does not work with blues in minor keys.

Hope this helps ;) :eek:
 
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My advice, as much as I hate relying on scales, would be to get comfortable with the pentatonic scale.

I don't believe in learning other's music to pick up licks, so whenever my blues is feeling terrible, I slide up and down the pentatonic scale, all over the neck, and make sure that physically I can do whatever patterns I want to do.

Then free improv really is free improv. Actually improv....Hendrix style :cool:
 
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