Do I have the right to play the Blues?

[FrankHudson]

]I always wanted to play them badly.

And I do.

Thank you. Thank you.


And here's another wry take on this by one of the most underrated songwriters ever:

Ever Since I Stole the Blues


Seriously, lattes and germaphobes, respect those that created and helped shape the form and be grateful for them and their creation, and then do what you have to.

[Denny B]

"I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed."

B. B. King

[DukeX]

I've played Stairway to Heaven, even though I've never been there.

I've played Needle and the Damage Done, even though I've never even seen heroin.

And I like playing the Blues even though I'm not blue.

[blue]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

]I always wanted to play them badly. .

If you fully commit, badly can be powerful. Look at Son House when he made his comeback. Some songs played pretty good. But some? Not so much.

But his singing always sold the song no matter how out of time, or flubbed the playing may have been.

[raysachs]

If they didn’t want white folks to play the blues, they shouldn’t have made so freakin’ EASY to play!

Apologies to Toby Walker and and others who’ve spent a lifetime mastering the form - I know THAT isn’t isn’t any kind of easy. But you don’t need a lot of skill or knowledge to play em with feeling and have a blast doing it. I speak from personal experience, having started having a blast playing the blues within weeks of picking up a guitar. Somebody showed me three chords and the first position of the minor pentatonic scale and it didn’t take long to start having fun. That hasn’t changed much in 44 years. I know a lot more chords but I usually play em in groups of three or four, and I know the minor and major pentatonic scales all over the neck and in any scale, and I can fingerpick a little bit, but when I’m playing my best, I’m using about three chords and 4 or 5 notes and feeling it. When I try to get fancy with all of the extra knowledge I have now, I put on some early Peter Green or any BB King, slow waaaaay down, and get back down to what matters.

It’s given me a lifetime of pleasure and I’ve never gotten particularly good at it. But if it was much harder, I’d have never done it. I can prove that by the extensive classical and jazz repertoires that I don’t have.... If you had to suffer to play the blues, the music woulda died a looong time ago. But we can’t seem to kill it!

-Ray

[Kerbie]

Guys, let's try to keep this polite. We try here to allow everyone to pick the guitar they like and certainly whatever music they want to play. I think this thread can be discussed within our rules.

[Brent Hahn]

If you can, watch the Paul Butterfield doc on Amazon Prime. There's a middle-class white kid who was born to play the blues and just went ahead and did it. Try not to emulate the junkie/alcoholic part.

[Kerbie]

Second warning to please keep your comments within the rules.

[blue]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

If you can, watch the Paul Butterfield doc on Amazon Prime. There's a middle-class white kid who was born to play the blues and just went ahead and did it. Try not to emulate the junkie/alcoholic part.

The Butterfield Blues Band "best of" lives on my IPhone. Without them I never would have found Memphis Jimmy...

[Headless Folkie]

This thread brings to mind a song I wrote WAY BACK WHEN (like, way back when American Express used to have ads on TV). The premise is a singer who has absolutely nothing to sing the blues about (except for the fact that he has nothing to sing the blues about).

Yet another old song that I should redo someday, with proper recording equipment and a more diligent attempt to keep the voice in tune, but what the hell, the thread is on the forum right now, so...

[Mandobart]

Traditional classical music is played by devotees from all around the world, not just those from the European countries where it originated.

Same is true for Celtic/Irish trad, gypsy jazz, and folk songs.

The last Wintergrass festival featured "bluegrass around the world." We had bluegrass players from Japan, Italy, Iceland, Sweden, Czech republic, and more.

Lots of the best bluegrass players have never even been to Kentucky. I don't see it as co-opting or cultural interloping.

So it should be with the blues.

[martingitdave]

Like all forms of roots and cultural music, the art form will die and be forgotten if not for our continued celebration of it. While a middle class white guy who's never had trouble with the law might have trouble making us believe he wants to see the Midnight Special, it doesn't mean he can't make that song special and share the emotions and meaning. I think there is a need to understand the history of the music to pay homage to its roots while keeping its memory alive by continuing the tradition in our own unique ways. What better triumph could there be for one of the old blues singers to know generations of people from different races all value his music enough to learn it for themselves?

[pegleghowell]

There was a lot of musical cross-pollination in the pre and early blues and there is a lot now.I don`t see it as a purely black(or white)art form..it`s just art,I love it and I`m grateful for it.Play what you like,how you like and when you like.

[Su_H.]

It is my opinion that none of his students have asked him if, 'they had the right to play the blues.'

[Dave Hicks]

Authenticity is such a slippery business.

Consider Rhiannon Giddens. She is a Black woman in her 40's, born in North Carolina, and a music major with a focus on opera at Oberlin. She now lives in Ireland.

Her latest album includes pieces from the Appalachian tradition (customarily viewed as "white"), a piece by Monteverdi, an Irish tune, and a song in Italian dialect.

Should any of that be judged inauthentic? Who owns the music and gets to decide? (Were those, then... rhetorical questions?)

D.H.