Re: Get me going on the blues (playing the groove)

["Sariel 'The Yellow Dart' Lehyani" <sloopyjoe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow. I am so glad someone decided to address this issue. I don't have a 
whole incredible lot to say in response to it, but I have to thank Bob 
Maglinte for commenting on it. The one thing I wanted to stress was that 
playing behind the beat primarily creates tension which, in my opinion, is 
one of the things that makes the blues what it is. Constant use of tension 
to keep a listener's ears perked is key. The other thing I wanted to bring 
up was swing tunes. Making your music swing is an amazingly difficult skill 
to learn proficiently. A guitarist friend of mine (It's Rusty Bogart, so 
you know you can respect his advice) told me simply that the secret to 
swinging is to accent the one in the first bar and then the two in the 
second bar and repeat. So it goes ONE two three four, one TWO three four, 
ONE two three four, one TWO three four. If you listen to William Clarke, 
Little Walter, or Kim Wilson, you'll find you can hear them doing that when 
they want a tune to swing.

That's all I've got to say. Hopefully this helps someone. And once again, 
cheers to Bob for writing out that beautiful tutorial on groove. Maybe 
he'll have something to say about swinging?

Love,

~Me


>
> 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