Re: [Harp-L] Discussion topic: Why do you want to play blues?

["Dan Berger" <dberger1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

My two cents;

Why does anyone strive to be creative? That's the big picture and I assume 
for most of us it
wasn't a conscious decision to pick the blues because we could improvise 
within its
structure but because it hit a personal place in each of us. It struck the 
right chord and many
members of the list have shared those moments with us.

For me it was 1968.  I played Canned Heat for a guy I just met and commented 
on
how much I loved Alan Wilson-  he told me to check out Little Walter 
Jacobs...........

I think that as players  when we learn songs, riffs and styles we copy those 
that hit us in that
spot.  When you say to youreslf  "that's a cool lick. I gotta learn that" , 
you're not doing anything
that the masters didn't do throughout the years.

The Blues are an oral (aural) tradition passed down through the years and we 
are all telling the tale with
the vocabulary we've learned by listening to others tell the story,  but 
it's that story that made me
choose the blues.

Dan