Begining blues

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by ante37

Thx for tips guys and for showing me some fine artists.
Its hard for beginner to decide how to start and i guess listening a lot of blues is maybe best first step. I will try to read reviews for some of those products an untill i decide i guess listening and humming is way to go

HI ante37...

I have been known to invite musicians who play something I want to learn over to my house for coffee to help me understand what they are doing. I'm up front about it and even offer to pay them.

I also video what they are doing using my iPhone, so I have a way to recall the things they show me.

So far nobody has actually made me pay anything, and I've recorded some really good stuff to learn from, and made friends with some great players.

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by Nut

So may I ask a question? How far along should a beginner be before starting to try to play Blues?

If you can play your basic open chords then you're ready.

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by JonPR

It helped that my first band (joined after I'd been playing for just 10 months) was a jug band, so we were searching out Memphis Jug Band and Gus Cannon originals right from the start. And that isn't hard stuff to learn!

Great place to start out. I agree! I’m glad you mentioned those particular groups if one were to learn by ear. Guitarists Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Band and Ashley Thompson of Cannon’s Jug Stompers would be good folks to learn from by ear, as their playing - boom chuck, 4/4 and 12 and 8 bar blues was fairly simple and straightforward. However, how many beginning acoustic blues guitarists could name them as well as say Robert Johnson? My assumption, I could be wrong, is that the OP probably wouldn’t use them as a starting point but rather ones that they are more familiar with.

Originally Posted by JonPR

Along with those jug band recordings, Charley Patton's playing is most pretty simple.

I have to respectfully disagree with you there Jon. Patton’s playing was anything but simple. For instance, one needn’t go beyond listening to ‘Bird Nest Bound’ as an example of Patton’s complex rhythms, ’34 Blues’ or ‘Down The Dirt Road Blues’ to hear his use of unorthodox chords and intricate single line riffs or ‘Rolling and Tumbling Blues’ which demonstrates his unconventional use of 13 1/2 bars to realize that his music is anything but simple!

Originally Posted by JonPR

I only stress learning by ear because the plethora of material out there seems to persuade a lot of people that one doesn't need to do that. That stuff seems to provide easy shortcuts. But of course, if one is working from a DVD or youtube, then one is using one's ears as much as one's eyes anyway! So I'd put the learning resources in this order of importance:
1. Original recordings by blues greats (any era you like, but no later than the mid-60s, IMO)
2. DVDs or youtube videos. Variable quality, of course, but a lot of good stuff out there.
3. Gigs! live performances by blues artists. Again, variable quality, naturally (depending on what you can afford, or how far you can travel). But the live atmosphere, and watching someone improvise on the spot, is inspirational. And local open mics count too.
4. Songbooks. (Transcriptions of original artists, or even just lyrics and chords can be good.)
5. Tutor books. Definitely last, because of the lack of audio information. But useful to see stuff written out, in logical order, and generally much easier to use as reference sources than videos.

ALL of that stuff should be used freely. Hopefully one will realise - just from listening - that the older recordings (1920s-60s) are the bible - that's where it all comes from, and what everyone (from Clapton, SRV on down) look back to with reverence.

Absolutely, positively, 100% right on!

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

Great place to start out. I agree! I’m glad you mentioned those particular groups if one were to learn by ear. Guitarists Will Shade of the Memphis Jug Band and Ashley Thompson of Cannon’s Jug Stompers would be good folks to learn from by ear, as their playing - boom chuck, 4/4 and 12 and 8 bar blues was fairly simple and straightforward. However, how many beginning acoustic blues guitarists could name them as well as say Robert Johnson? My assumption, I could be wrong, is that the OP probably wouldn’t use them as a starting point but rather ones that they are more familiar with.

You're probably right.
Problem with Robert Johnson is not only was he very good, but he was a highly idiosyncratic player. Very intense and introspective. No one else sounded much like him (with the possible exception of Son House, who taught him a few things). I don't know if one can really learn much from Robert Johnson, other than how to play like Robert Johnson!
But then I suppose you can say the same for a lot of those early players, is that they all had quite individual styles - at least the most popular ones did (I mean popular now, not then). Pre-WWII blues certainly rarely sounded as generic and homogenous as most modern blues does.

But mere mention of Son House persuades me to post this again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdgrQoZHnNY
(guitar: open G tuning, DGDGBD.)

and dammit Skip James too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytVww5r4Nk0
(guitar: standard tuning down a whole step (DGCFAD), E shapes for key of D.)

and Missippi John Hurt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gytJemzNTM
(guitar: standard tuning UP a half-step: G shapes for key of Ab (just put capo on 1 . Notice how economical he is with his chord shapes, basically just moving the G shape up and down!)

We're so lucky to actually have film of three of the earliest blues guitarists, albeit towards the end of their careers (and lives).

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

I have to respectfully disagree with you there Jon. Patton’s playing was anything but simple.

Again, I'm sure you're right. I was remembering one or two tracks very selectively. My bad!

[Nut]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

If you can play your basic open chords then you're ready.

I gues I better get learning them then.
Change my screen name to Muddy Nut

[DukeBerryman]

If you're just starting to explore, put your guitar in open G or open D and explore the sounds you find there, esp with a slide. Can't do nothing wrong in open tunings.

[jeanray1113]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

HI ante37...

I have been known to invite musicians who play something I want to learn over to my house for coffee to help me understand what they are doing. I'm up front about it and even offer to pay them.

I also video what they are doing using my iPhone, so I have a way to recall the things they show me.

So far nobody has actually made me pay anything, and I've recorded some really good stuff to learn from, and made friends with some great players.

Wow, Larry, it is great to hear that you still do this! It gives me some hope! I guess I think someone like you who has played professionally and taught all this time would be beyond this!

[EoE]

This is how I learn a style ...I am a Texan 55 years old so I grew up playing the blues, country swing and jazz. I learned from the streets, Austin to new Orleans .. I still often jam with street musicians( I think busking is the foundation of what music really is in so many ways ) .. To learn afro/Cuban I went to Miami where there is a large Cuban community. I went to Jamaica to jam on reggae...there are lessons and all that is great but to really understand a idiom throwing your self in the culture is awesome. especially when it comes to folk type music. you just can not replace that kind of education with any teacher or college.. I still think its a great idea to go to college for music do not get me wrong.

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

HI ante37...

I have been known to invite musicians who play something I want to learn over to my house for coffee to help me understand what they are doing. I'm up front about it and even offer to pay them.

I also video what they are doing using my iPhone, so I have a way to recall the things they show me.

So far nobody has actually made me pay anything, and I've recorded some really good stuff to learn from, and made friends with some great players.

That's a pretty good and unique idea Larry!

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by EoE

This is how I learn a style ...I am a Texan 55 years old so I grew up playing the blues, country swing and jazz. I learned from the streets, Austin to new Orleans .. I still often jam with street musicians( I think busking is the foundation of what music really is in so many ways ) .. To learn afro/Cuban I went to Miami where there is a large Cuban community. I went to Jamaica to jam on reggae...there are lessons and all that is great but to really understand a idiom throwing your self in the culture is awesome. especially when it comes to folk type music. you just can not replace that kind of education with any teacher or college.. I still think its a great idea to go to college for music do not get me wrong.

Absolutely correct there. I think that's wonderful EoE!! You certainly must have a treasure trove of stories about your travels.

I did the same thing by traveling all through Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia to study with a number of old time players. Here's some stuff about that along with a picture of me and Eugene Powell who hailed from Greenville MS.

http://www.littletobywalker.com/lear...-masters1.html