yea any advice about THAT would be appreciated!
,..i usually rely on the drummer to do a fill into the resolution (or turnaround?)
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Blues Rules (not a joke thread...)
- Thread starter ArtechnikA
- Start date
,..i usually rely on the drummer to do a fill into the resolution (or turnaround?)
You're talking about guitar solos?
Actually, bass solos, when they exist, follow the same guidelines.
(Yes, I've been known to take a bass solo now and then.)
As a blues bass player, our job is to provide a consistent pulse.
So comes the solo, time is your playground. If you do nothing more than syncopate your standard line, you can get through it for 12 bars.
Past that, (and Victor Wooten emphasises this point) Know The Melody! If you can quote the melody, people will get it.
Add a bit of spice like extended walks (and there is little magic to a chromatic walk...) and pentatonics.
Learn how to jump up an octave so you're suddenly playing in an unexpected register.
As discussed earlier in the thread, start when you want, but to that "time is your playground" theme, maybe don't start right on the one, and definitely (IMO) don't start back in the turnaround as has been suggested for guitar guys. If you do not hit the '1' - people will notice. They will start paying attention, because they think they're about to witness a train wreck... Now that you have their attention, come in on the '3' and keep going, emphasising that 'I meant to do that.' A typical bass solo is rarely longer that once or twice around the form, unless you are Victor Wooten or Jimmy Haslip, in which case you're not reading this anyway... I always make the last turnaround of the solo 'special' to let bandmates know it's their turn again.
actually im trying to learn blues guitar,...i just think the 12 bar thing is a cliche
or at least i cant do anything original with it . i just flat the 7th and walk on bass
you make some really good points though
i also like going from the maj to the min in the same bar
or at least i cant do anything original with it . i just flat the 7th and walk on bass
you make some really good points though
i also like going from the maj to the min in the same bar
Or any famous blues guitarist for that matter!
john lee hooker didnt play any 12 bar shuffles
thats the irony of this thread
boom boom boom is a boogie woogie riff
thats the irony of this thread
boom boom boom is a boogie woogie riff
It was my reply in post #2, as an immediate reaction to the idea of a vocalist dismissing a guitarist from an audition because s/he couldn't cope with them starting or ending their solo at the 'wrong' time.
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The example of JLH brings up a good point IMO.
"Blues" as a form is fairly understood as the standard 12 bar I-IV-V.
"Blues" as a genre, almost anything goes and JLH, like many of the earlier country blues singers, could be very free form even when playing I-IV-V changes where they would just change chords whenever it felt right to them - and that could change within the same song. I've known a couple people who played in JLH's bands and it was very 'heads up' following him. Similarly, not all songs in the genre stick to those changes either, lot's of substitutions, alternative changes, verse lengths, etc, or even just one chord or alternating chord vamps. All can still be the blues...
"Blues" as a form is fairly understood as the standard 12 bar I-IV-V.
"Blues" as a genre, almost anything goes and JLH, like many of the earlier country blues singers, could be very free form even when playing I-IV-V changes where they would just change chords whenever it felt right to them - and that could change within the same song. I've known a couple people who played in JLH's bands and it was very 'heads up' following him. Similarly, not all songs in the genre stick to those changes either, lot's of substitutions, alternative changes, verse lengths, etc, or even just one chord or alternating chord vamps. All can still be the blues...
Played a gig at a jazz club where a combo from a music academy had played the night before and one of the players had left their charts. Mostly familiar jazz standards like "Summertime", etc but had to laugh when I saw a chart for "Blues in G" - to be clear, no sophisticated jazz reharmonizations, etc - just G7 x 4, C7 x 2, G7 x 2, D7, C7, G7 x 2.
thats really cooljlh played alot of 1 b3 1 4
what people play now is based on "Chicago style" i think
In a jamming context, if somebody ended with the root note on the first beat of the last bar, that would be a pretty clear invitation for the next person to start their solo with a pickup note. If the soloist kept on playing eighth notes though the last bar,, it would be safe to assume he wants to take another chorus. Sure, that's a thing, but I don't know that it is always as simple as that. If everybody started and ended their solos that formulaically, it would be predictable to the audience and start to sound pretty sterile and unexciting by the third or fourth song. Sounds like one of those "rules" that needs to be observed no more than 80% of the time.
