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How do you start a blues band?
- Thread starter aaronious
- Start date
Find a drummer that can play a shuffle and most importantly - KEEP TIME. You and the drummer have to lock in time like you are one instrument. This is true for any genre of music. A blues shuffle is a really cool groove if the drummer knows his stuff. Good luck!
You can start it two ways,
First option:
1,2,3,4 then it starts
Second option which I like better
4,3,2,1 and then you start
The second option is a tad harder...;-)
First option:
1,2,3,4 then it starts
Second option which I like better
4,3,2,1 and then you start
The second option is a tad harder...;-)
Right now we're doing me and my woman by Shuggie Otis. Oh pretty woman by Albert King, How Many more years by Freddie King. And Long Train running by the Doobie Brothers, I know it's not exactly blues but it was suggested and I like the bass line so we ran with it.
I play in a blues band (just starting up actually) with one guitar player, a singer, and a drummer. I'd add a second guitar player only if he/she could sing and was happy to mostly play rhythm. The one thing that kills blues bands is endless soloing (unless its Stevie Ray and BB, in heaven).
Just my opinion -
Just my opinion -
I am continuously amazed at the number of musicians I run across who don't know how to play a 12 bar blues. I started playing in the era of Van Halen and pointy headstocks but I guess I must've listened to a lot of George Thorogood because my band of hair-metal-covering 17 year olds would often break into a blues jam during rehearsal just for the hell of it.
Ya, all the guys who say that anybody can play 12 bar blues, clearly hasn't met everybody. I've met some really talented cats that can't do it. If you didn't grow up listening to it, I can understand not being able to play it. But once you are introduced to it, you should definitely be able to learn it quickly.
I guess listening to all that Zeppelin and stuff just made it seem natural to us in the 80s.
Some guys I know who are a bit younger than me grew up listening to 90s rock, Nirvana, NIN, etc. and they seem to be "blues deficient".
I googled blues jams in pokie. Eijs.org runs a monthly jam in Ammon. Not that you need any more guitarists, but going/playing in jams is good education and networking
Edit: oh wait you said Twin not American. That might be a little tougher. May be worth the drive to Boise.
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I get why many guitarists like the blues. It's a simple canvas on which to solo endlessly using one scale and a handful of stolen licks. But why would a bass player be drawn to it?... For me, the best thing about the blues is the occasional clever lyrics and how its primitive energy is an ingredient that spices up other forms of music.
Be at the crossroads at midnight, make deal with the guy driving that black Caddy low rider. Done.
Or go to blues jams until somebody makes you an offer.
First deal is a winner, second deal is a lifetime of $50 gigs.
Or go to blues jams until somebody makes you an offer.
First deal is a winner, second deal is a lifetime of $50 gigs.
Not a blues fan in the least, but IME some of the best blues songs I've ever heard/played come nowhere near a I/IV/V.
You're listening to the wrong kind of blues then. There's plenty of amazing blues bassists with chops for days. Benny Turner with Freddy King, Jerry Jemmot with B.B. Jaco loved the blues. Johnny B. Gayden with Albert Collins. Go to Chicago and step into any blues bar there and you'll most likely see an amazing blues bassist, playing solos that would make any guitarist jealous any night of the week.
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True.
My all time favorite, SRV's Riviera Paradise, is a good example. And, going back to the OP, a great song for a blues band with keyboards.
bigfatbass
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- Jun 30, 2003
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Any simple form of any style is easy to play, or at least easy to grab mentally, but it can also be seriously athletic. Saying blues is "mind-numbingly easy to play" sounds like it is coming from a person who has only been around weaker players, or not too many real blues acts, or at the least, has never been challenged by challenging material. Some nights I work twice as hard as a I did playing Living Color and Fishbone all through college. (ZooTrip played so much 'Bone, the frat boys called us Fishclone, lol) Let's see you walk a 7-8 minute 210 click swing without missing a single quarter, double tagging all the appropriate accents (remember, your click is over 200 already), and all while inventing your lines on the fly and using different turns/scales/runs the whole time. Or how about holding down a real double shuffle boogie at the same click for the same length of time? Even speed metal breathes once in a while, lol. Not saying you can't do it, or can't learn to do it, but saying the blues is all easy is pure unadulterated ignorance.
I say this from the experience of making my living at it for over 18 years. Sure, playing butt-simple medium tempo blues tunes at a lame jam is no mental display, but putting ALL of those notes in exactly the right spot to make a shuffle swing, and really locking in on that kick, takes focus and skill. Really. Yeah anybody can plow through a box shuffle, and not sound like a fool, but I defy anyone who doesn't do it regularly to do it at a truly high level.
I would suggest that instead of just trying to learn a bunch of random tunes, you put together a youtube list of a bunch of solid rudimentary blues tunes and REALLY try to play along with them properly. Listen to them together a few times through first and try to notice any interplay between parts, and who plays in which pockets and things like that. Learning how the grooves are built is half the battle. Also, going for Me and My Woman right out of the gate is a seriously big piece of pie to chomp on. That tune has big dynamics and shifts in rhythm feel that are essential to doing it justice, as well as a strong vocalist. Not saying dont' do it, but that is kinda like getting your first skate board, and then immediately draining the pool for your first ride.
Good blues is also full of subtleties, like, how many of you saying how simple the blues is can tell me what is different about the opening chorus of Tore Down, if you are playing the song true to original form?
I say this from the experience of making my living at it for over 18 years. Sure, playing butt-simple medium tempo blues tunes at a lame jam is no mental display, but putting ALL of those notes in exactly the right spot to make a shuffle swing, and really locking in on that kick, takes focus and skill. Really. Yeah anybody can plow through a box shuffle, and not sound like a fool, but I defy anyone who doesn't do it regularly to do it at a truly high level.
I would suggest that instead of just trying to learn a bunch of random tunes, you put together a youtube list of a bunch of solid rudimentary blues tunes and REALLY try to play along with them properly. Listen to them together a few times through first and try to notice any interplay between parts, and who plays in which pockets and things like that. Learning how the grooves are built is half the battle. Also, going for Me and My Woman right out of the gate is a seriously big piece of pie to chomp on. That tune has big dynamics and shifts in rhythm feel that are essential to doing it justice, as well as a strong vocalist. Not saying dont' do it, but that is kinda like getting your first skate board, and then immediately draining the pool for your first ride.
Good blues is also full of subtleties, like, how many of you saying how simple the blues is can tell me what is different about the opening chorus of Tore Down, if you are playing the song true to original form?
