Re: Get me going on the blues - 25yrs



Hi,
Aside from all of the recordings being mentioned, the thing that has NOT
been touched on during this entire thread is how t play the feel, in terms
of how the groove is played. Now learning how all these players phrased is
important, but how they're playing in relation to how the GROOVE is played
CANNOT be overlooked. Why? Let's use country harp great Charlie McCoy as an
example. In his CD, "Harpin' The Blues," techincally he plays blues in terms
of notes, but the feel still says loud and clear that it's country music.

What does this mean? When you're playing any genre of African American or
African American influenced music, two things you ABSOLUTELY need to learn
in order to get the proper feel are the following:
 1. The need to learn how to play BEHIND the beat (NOT to be confused with
dragging the beat, which is something entirely different);
 2. The need to learn to phrase primarily off the 2 and the 4 (no, I do NOT
mean the II chord and the IV chord). Most white and Latino musics tend to be
primarily phrased off the 1 and the 3 or the 1 and the 4.

The above two things are true of most African American musics since Louis
Armstrong's day right up to today with Hip-Hop, with some exceptions such as
Reggae (which is played MUCH farther behind the beat than blues and mainly
phrased off the 3), or some of the stuff played by Prince or Michael Jackson
(which was clearly aimed at the white pop charts).

Playing behind the beat gives the illusion of being slower than what the
actual tempo is, and playing ahead of the beat gives exactly the opposite
and there are  many different delinations of each. When you play using a
metronome, it ALWAYS clicks dead straight on top of the beat, and like drum
machines, they cannot be programmed to click behind or ahead of the beat.
Playing blues on top or ahead of the beat gives it a very rushed, sloppy
sound that is better suited to rock, country, or rockabilly. A drummer I
worked with once told me that to learn how to play behind the beaqt, he set
the metronome to click n 2 and 4, because if you let it click on all 4
beats, you will automatically follow and never really hear how behind the
beat really sounds, so with the metronome clicking on 2 and 4, he could
easily hear what it sounds like, and noticed  that playing behind the beat
allowed greater use of space, and doing things like playing double time
worked so much more smoothly. Now to get back to the Charlie McCoy thing,
Charlie's playing (along with the band) dead straight on top or ahead of the
beat.

Playing off 2 and 4 allows you to use far fewer notes to get the job done,
and works more smoothly with the way the groove is played. Also blues and
African American music as a general rule is true in regards to vocals in
addition. so what's happening is that you work off the back beat. When you
do play off the one, after mainly being off the 2,the 1 has more impact (as
long as you don't remain married to it or the impact will QUICKLY be lost).
Most players that are into the speed and playing lots of notes thing 9 times
out 10 usually are gonna be playing off the 1 and on top or more often ahead
of the beat, and a classic example of this is John Popper (NOTE: this is an
observation, NOT a diss). Playing shorter phrase off  2 and 4 not only
leaves more space for the band, but it allows the music to breathe.

What I'm telling you comes from REAL gigging experience with the REAL thing
with people like Jimmy Rogers, Louisiana Red, Sunnyland Slim and Luther
"Guitar Junior" Johnson, and when the groove ain't right, NOTHING is right.
If you listen with "bigger ears," and not lkike the average music fan
listens to their music, you'll find what I'm telling you is the truth. This
message may use a lot of bandwidth, but this is really as important as
listening to all of the players that have been mentioned.

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA





This archive was generated by a fusion of Pipermail 0.09 (Mailman edition) and MHonArc 2.6.8.