Playing Acoustic Blues Guitarguitar, acoustic guitar, blues guitar

Cleaning House 

By Ricky Sharples

Well, it is around the hundred year mark since the world first started noticing blues guitar players. Of course they were all acoustic guitar pickers then because they had very few places to plug their electric guitars in, but they made the best of what they had. Just as a basic first impression, I would say that blues guitar players kind of favor acoustic guitar every bit as much as electric guitar. A glaring example is the success Eric Clapton had with his Unplugged album, but there are plenty of other electric blues players who are on record playing acoustic guitar. Even Jimi Hendrix appeared on TV playing some acoustic blues songs.

Acoustic blues guitar was brought to the world by the likes of by Robert Johnson, Bill Broonzy, and Rev. Gary Davis. Fingerpicking acoustic blues uses your thumb to play the bass notes while the first and second fingers play the melody. Bear in mind that the thumb is responsible for keeping time, so it will take some time getting your fingers to work independently but it will be worth it. Rev. Gary Davis was an acoustic blues player who used his thumb to strum the chords and only his index finger to play the melody.

Lightnin' Hopkins was another acoustic blues player whose style was out of step with fashion when he was trying to make his way as a guitar player in his youth. Hopkins grew up listening to music played by bands but he learnt to play the guitar in isolation from other musicians. So he developed a guitar style that imitated a band playing lead, rhythm and bass. He even provided his own percussion by slapping the body of the guitar.

The secret to playing lots of acoustic blues songs is in learning a basic chord sequence. A one, four, five progression - for example C, F and G or G, C and D usually make an acoustic blues guitar chord sequence. Listening to the music of Mississippi John Hurt is a good way to get started on acoustic blues. His early career as a blues performer was hampered by his guitar and vocals being too subtle and expressive than was fashionable at the time.

You can do a web search for lessons on how to play acoustic blues guitar like the great bluesmen of the past, but as a general introduction to playing acoustic fingerstyle guitar, you cannot go wrong with the guitar technique known as "Travis Picking". The basis of this style is to use the thumb, first, second and third fingers of the right hand to pick the strings in a predetermined sequence while the left hand plays chords. This is the basic idea of the style, but once you can perform this kind of picking with ease, you will find that you will begin to develop your own musical ideas that allow you to depart from rigidly playing standard chords and the same right hand picking patterns. "Travis Picking" was made popular by Country guitarist Merle Travis and popularized further by Chet Atkins.

So we have covered the names and techniques of great acoustic blues guitar players and found a basic way of playing the guitar that will set you on the road to being a blues guitarist.

Do you want to learn to play the guitar? Learn How To Play A Guitar For Free is a constantly updated blog which contains all the resources you need for: learning to play solo guitar, how to learn guitar chords, how to learn to read and play easy acoustic guitar tabs, finding a free online guitar tuner, looking for free guitar lessons online, and how to learn guitar scales.

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Where Did Rock And Roll Music Come From?

 

 

 Snowboy presents New Vintage 

By Rick Hart

Muddy Waters said it first. "Blues had a baby and they called it Rock and Roll."

Sure, everyone pretty much agrees that rock and roll music actually came from black rhythm and blues of the late 1940's. Of course which songs were the first actual rock and roll songs are hotly debated. But there's no mistaking the sound of the 1947 version of "Good Rockin Tonight" by Wynonie Harris as clearly an early version of rock and roll. At least that's what it sounds like to me.

But the acknowledged song that most agree was the first rock n' roll song was Rocket 88. The original version of the twelve-bar blues song was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who took the song to number one on the R&B charts.

It was actually recorded at Sun Studios by Sam Phillips in 1951 using a studio band that was led by Ike Turner. Yes that Ike Turner, Tina Turner's husband. Of course Sam Phillips was best known for recording Elvis Presley in the beginning of his career.

But before Elvis, Sam Phillips recorded many of the early electric blues musicians including Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Bobby Blue Bland, James Cotten, and many others. It was really a mecca for that early electric blues, at least the Memphis flavor of it.

Sam was even known to say that Howlin' Wolf was his greatest discovery. And Elvis Presley was actually his second greatest discovery. And it's easy to imagine that the early white rock and rollers who came into Sam's studio were heavily influenced by their contact with the black blues musicians at Sun Studios. It all cooked together into a musical stew that came out as rock and roll.

But the point is, these early rhythm and blues songs were really part of a larger core of music that certainly is based on black gospel and religious spiritual music of the 30's and 40's. That music was full of emotion and pain.

Of course it was. The typical life of a black person then was full of pain, and religion was a major outlet for expressing that pain.

And of course gospel music expresses that pain and certainly blues music was directly related to that gospel tradition. Although the typical preacher would look badly on this secular version of gospel music. In fact, blues was called "devil's music" by most religious blacks of the day. Early blues musician's had to sneak out to play the blues and avoided playing it in front of parents.

Still it was clear that the average black person of the 40's and 50's connected with this new music. After all, religion was only one outlet for that pain. There was also dancing, drinking and sex, with music being the backdrop to all of it. No wonder the messages in blues music reflected this darker side of life at the time. How else would people tell the stories of failed relationships, drinking, and the pain of abuse by "the man" and other people who helped make their lives a living hell.

And the expression of that pain is the core of what makes blues music and especially early blues guitar so compelling. The guitar, as a lead instrument, has an emotional range that cannot be duplicated by a piano. Perhaps a saxophone is the closest other instrument that has the emotional range of the guitar. And both are still a distant second to emotional range of the human voice. You can say that the guitar and the saxophone are merely trying to duplicate what the human voice can do.

But the electric guitar at the time was a brand new instrument. It was putting out new sounds that had never been heard before. Combined with new amplification that could get louder and more distorted than ever before, it was clear the electric blues guitar would lead to a whole new type of music. Or more accurately types of music. Without this new technology there would be no electric blues and there would be no rock and roll.

And that means there would be no reason to write this article.

Rick Honeyboy Hart is a long-time blues guitar player and online marketer. He likes learning about the history of the blues and teaches blues guitar and thinks about the days when he fronted his blues band Honeyboy. 

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The Early History Of Live From Nowhere In Particular

 

Live From Nowhere In Particular

  By Jeff Horn

Blues music history can be traced all the way back to the nineteenth century. By far, the earliest genre of traditional blues music, comes directly from a musical technique termed the "country blues", dating back to around the 1920's. Obtaining the facts surrounding the oldest origins of blues music is something a good number of historians have focused a lot of energy and money trying to uncover (some going as far as visiting locations within west Africa in order to discover whether or not this unique music genre was created because of an influence from conventional African music). While there does actually appear to be some parallels, blues music carries a distinct and unique sound which began with the African American community inside the southern part of the U.S.

The very meaning of "blues" inside the dictionary implies "1. depression 2. melancholy kind of jazz". Musicians are accustomed to associating the blues with the typical and famous 12 bar blues. This particular type of chord progression utilizes three chords which may be played inside any key. Together with the profound vocals which most often goes along with the chords, blues music expresses and also invokes a different feeling of emotions generally in most of its listeners and supporters.

A number of well-known, early blues musicians who helped form the blues music we all know today. Some of these artists were Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Huddie Ledbetter, Willie Brown, Son House and Tommy Johnson. Many of these blues artists were born within the Mississippi delta, with the exception of a few like Blind Lemon Jefferson (who was from Texas) and Huddie Ledbetter (who was from Louisiana).

The two beginning methods associated with blues music were:

1. classic blues (composed of mainly female performers) 

2. the country blues (composed of generally guy performers).

Every type of blues offered distinct variations in form and tone. Classic blues singers had a relatively stringent adherence on the 12 bar blues as the country blues performers strayed just a little out of the conventional 12 bar blues form. Furthermore, classic blues singers desired to get a band to compliment with them while a country blues performer would usually want to include only his guitar as well as voice to produce music.

Blues music actually started to take off during the early times of the 1920's, once one particular organization took their music revenue to a whole different degree. A lady singer named Mamie Smith, part of the classic blues form, served to start the blues by selling more than 1 million copies of her music within just twelve months.

 Figuring that each of the records were less than $ 1 (low-priced by today standard nevertheless in those days it absolutely was quite a lot for this type of music) that could have added up to a whole lot of money for a new to the scene industry.

Blues music is a special aspect of our history that is uniquely American. Not many styles of music fire up deep emotion and move us the way that the blues does.

Around the world, the best jazz and blues fests are transpiring annually. For anyone who is thinking about tracking down more schedules or more knowledge about universal jazz and blues festivals, there are a lot of different resources out there to assist in your festival planning.

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St. James Infirmary :Blue song

Let Them Talk (Special Edition)

I knew Hugh Laurie was a multi-talented performer, but this CD is outstanding. The emotions he captures in both his singing and piano playing are so real. You can tell that this is not a "stunt" or "novelty" recording. He feels this music in his soul, and he shines! The other musicians he collaborates with are fantastic as well. I love this disc.

He can't sing all that well, but i can't stop listening to this CD he brings back memories of the originals.

they didn't have good voices either, they were able to sell their stories. this is why i recommend this album.

I look forward to more blues from hugh, and will be playing this album again and again  as you probably realize, by now i'm a blues lover from way back.

Hugh Lawrie as a soul and blues singer ? - he's a dam good singer and musician but definately not a Soul and Blues singer he's voice is too ENGLISH - he doesn't have that soul souding voice to carry the choice of songs off sucessfully - the accompianing musician's on the other hand are superb David Piltch on the bass -great, Greg Litsz and Kevin Brett etc etc there all good, but sorry not Hugh Laurie singing the blues. If you want to listen to English men singing the blues go listen to Chris Rea, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Stevie Winwood, and for me the best English blues singer of all - Chris Farlowe, just to name a few but not Hugh Laurie sorry.

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