Blues?

[Guest subaudio]

Hi all, a bit embarasing this considering I've been playing for so long, but I've never really played blues or listened to it, weird as I'm predominantly a rock player but there you go, so my question(s) is/are, who is good to listen to, who has/had a bass player that can really make music, and what is the form on blues jams?

[Mykesbass]

I put a compilation together that got a brilliant review in Q - words to the effect "if you only buy one Blues compilation make sure it's this one". It's years out of print now but drop me a PM and I'll dig it out and send a copy over to you.

Mike

[zzaass]

This should do it for you. Teaches various blues forms using classic blues songs as examples.

[url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blues-Bass-Essential-Techniques-Leonard/dp/0634089358/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328968588&sr=1-3"]Blues Bass: Hal Leonard [/url]

[Thor]

I started playing along to SRV & Double Trouble - Tommy Shannon on bass duties IIRC - can sometimes get a bit disheartening when he starts walking all over the place but stick at it and it'll all fall into place. Also, I thought Gary Moore's Still Got The Blues album was good to play along with, nothing too tricky there!

[Guest subaudio]

Thanks folks, great advice, will deffinatley listen to all of them.

Could anyone shed any light on what a 16 bar blues is and what someone should do at a blues jam, do you ask to play a certyain song or just go with what the band are doing?

Cheers

[Happy Jack]

Blues jams tend to operate on the basis of "Let's do [i]Red House[/i]" or whatever, a quick check that everyone knows the song/changes, the vocalist or lead guitarist tells you which key you'll be playing it in - or not, of course - and away you go.

Ambitious/adventurous types sometimes say "Let's do a slow blues in G" or "Bo Diddley riff in A" and then try to make up lyrics as they go. It usually ends in tears.

IIRC you're a pro player so you should have no trouble at all keeping up with a typical blues jam.

[gjones]

[quote name='subaudio' timestamp='1328971012' post='1535448']
Thanks folks, great advice, will deffinatley listen to all of them.

Could anyone shed any light on what a 16 bar blues is and what someone should do at a blues jam, do you ask to play a certyain song or just go with what the band are doing?

Cheers
[/quote]

Listen to blues. Some are 12 bars long, some are 16 bars long. The standard is 12 bars but it's not a hard and fast rule.

[Alec 'Aleb' Mills]

http://www.youtube.com/embed/cqnfXq6o_Fo

Vintage Trouble I like. Nice based in the blues.

Edited February 11, 2012 by Alec 'Aleb' Mills

[KennysFord]

Here's Pino doing a very sweet little walking number with John Mayer.
Love this !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ91QqkS9MQ&list=FLHR3_NlpGB24M5ttBOFKArg&index=2&feature=plpp_video

[Guest subaudio]

[quote name='kennyrodg' timestamp='1328972222' post='1535463']
Here's Pino doing a very sweet little walking number with John Mayer.
Love this !
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ91QqkS9MQ&list=FLHR3_NlpGB24M5ttBOFKArg&index=2&feature=plpp_video[/media]
[/quote]

Now that's what I'm talking about very nice indeed!

[Happy Jack]

I really really want to play venues where they give each musician his own hand-woven rug to stand on.

[jackers]

it's things like that that make me feel hugely inadequate as a bass player haha. John Mayer has some really amazing bluesy stuff.

[KennysFord]

Whilst we're on a John Mayer and Pino trip there's this. Not Blues but tasty all the same.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IjkCDCGSMc
and this, back on to a Slow Blues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQkO3SGB3So

[SteveK]

You can do a lot worse than getting yourself a copy of [url="http://jimmycopley.com/albumpage.html#"]this[/url]. [url="http://jimmycopley.com/albumpage.html#"]A solo album by my compadre, mucker and general tub thumper Sir James of Copley.[/url] And who do you suppose is playing bass on the first track?

And if you're partial to a little Jeff Beck...well, he comes included :-)


EDIT: Should add, the link takes you to a track samples page. Well worth a listen.

Edited February 11, 2012 by SteveK

[RhysP]

[quote name='subaudio' timestamp='1328968161' post='1535404']
what is the form on blues jams?
[/quote]

Basically you plod along playing a walking bassline whilst a load of guitarists w*** on endlessly over the top of it, pausing occasionally to sing some bollocks about how tough their life is before playing another solo on their £5000 private stock PRS or similar.

[skankdelvar]

If there's one bit of advice I'd give, it would be play half as many notes as you think you need to.

Further info here in some older threads:

[i]Blues Songs:[/i]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/142487-which-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/122227-good-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/47821-blues-playlist-for-beginners/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87900-blues-band-standards/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/142487-which-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1[/url]
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/142487-which-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/122227-good-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/47821-blues-playlist-for-beginners/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87900-blues-band-standards/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/122227-good-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1[/url]
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/142487-which-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/122227-good-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/47821-blues-playlist-for-beginners/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87900-blues-band-standards/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/47821-blues-playlist-for-beginners/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1[/url]
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/142487-which-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/122227-good-blues-songs/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/47821-blues-playlist-for-beginners/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87900-blues-band-standards/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/87900-blues-band-standards/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1[/url]

[i]Auditioning for blues bands:[/i]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/93500-got-an-audition-for-blues-band/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1http://basschat.co.uk/topic/72720-just-why-is-blues-so-important-when-learning-bass/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/93500-got-an-audition-for-blues-band/page__hl__blues__fromsearch__1[/url]


An advanced search for Blues as topic title throws up a couple of pages. The above are the longer threads. Lots more out there.

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1328971772' post='1535458']
Listen to blues. Some are 12 bars long, some are 16 bars long. The standard is 12 bars but it's not a hard and fast rule.
[/quote]
Definitely not a hard and fast rule. I depped with a band that did an 11 and 3/4 bar blues and a 10 and a 1/2 bar blues. No one warned me. I was definitely confused and blamed the drummer.

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1328977921' post='1535581']
Basically ...or similar[/quote]

If you're unlucky. True, many jams seem to consist mostly of dum-di-dum Jimmy Reed shuffles. OTOH, others can be quite rewarding. You just have to go round a few and see what you find.

But as a beginner, it's worth doing a few of the more - shall we say - [i]conservative[/i] jams, just to get a feel for the genre and the scene. Thereafter, the world's your oyster.

As an antidote to the Clapton-esque doodlings of many Brit bluesers or the omnipresent Stevie Ray clones, check out Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Howling Wolf and RL Burnside for a variety of takes on Blues.

[quote name='EssentialTension' timestamp='1328978186' post='1535586']
Definitely not a hard and fast rule. [/quote]

Indeed. That wildly over-exposed chestnut 'Keys To The Highway' is an 8-bar. Almost guaranteed to crop up at a jam.

Edited February 11, 2012 by skankdelvar

[leftybassman392]

Couple of things to consider that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

8-bar Blues (e.g. Key to the Highway);

Different rhythms. Blues can be played a number of different ways rhythmically. 12/8 plonk-p-plonk is just one of them.

Different chord patterns. Not every Blues song uses I-IV-V based chord patterns. A good example of this might be 'Albatross' (an old Peter Green/Fleetwood Mac song). In fact early Fleeetwood Mac stuff is well worth a listen generally - at the time (late 60's) it was felt by many that Greenie was the best UK Blues guitarist of his era - Gary Moore for one. (Others would disagree of course).

Edited February 11, 2012 by leftybassman392

[Coilte]

All good advice so far. I'll add one more important suggestion. Blues is as much about the "feel" as anything else. It is all well and good knowing the structure, chords, etc, but without feel, it will sound just like an exercise, especially on the slower songs. This "feel" can be an elusive thing though.

[gjones]

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1328977921' post='1535581']
Basically you plod along playing a walking bassline whilst a load of guitarists w*** on endlessly over the top of it, pausing occasionally to sing some bollocks about how tough their life is before playing another solo on their £5000 private stock PRS or similar.
[/quote]

Hmmmmmm.........you may have a point there?

[Jazzneck]

For starters:

Howlin' Wolf
Muddy Waters
Little Walter
Buddy Guy with Junior Wells
Bo Diddley
Anything with Willie Dixon involvement
Any of the Chess and Checker label stuff
1960s BB King (Blues Is King live album with Louis Satterfield on bass)
Freddie King

For the Brits:
John Mayall with Clapton / Peter Green / Mick Taylor~ John MacVie on bass - bloody wonderful and highly underated imo.
Early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green~ John MacVie on bass - bloody wonderful and highly underated imo.
Early Savoy Brown Blues Band.
Early Chicken Shack

You'll discover that although a lot is 12 bar, there are a lot of one chord/multi chord stuff with loads of groovin' rhythmns about which can be great fun to play.

And as far as I'm concerned you can keep your Gary Moores and SRVs and their clones.......................

Edited February 11, 2012 by Jazzneck

[leftybassman392]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1328983790' post='1535720']
Hmmmmmm.........you may have a point there?
[/quote]

Don't listen to him. He's obviously just jealous of his guitarist's guitar. O ye of little faith!

[The Admiral]

[quote name='Alec 'Aleb' Mills' timestamp='1328971916' post='1535460']
[url="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cqnfXq6o_Fo"]http://www.youtube.c...bed/cqnfXq6o_Fo[/url]

Vintage Trouble I like. Nice based in the blues.
[/quote]



Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! These guys are about as genuine as anything Simon Cowell has put together : the singer came 3rd in the 'Inxs find a singer' reality TV show a year or two ago, and the other three guys have been playing sessions in LA for years. It's so contrived, image by a stylist, deliberate 'DIY' vibe to the whole thing, but, they are managed by Doc McGhee (Bon Jovi, Motley Crue etc) and strangely enough they are out opening for Bon Jovi this summer. I'm sure they are great guys - but it just feels to me like they are 'dressing up' & don't believe it - and it's just a big marketing ploy. That said - The Wombles still had some good tunes.

And finally, why does Rory Gallagher always get left off when people start talking about great blues players - who aren't American?

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zsRRt1FWE&feature=related[/media]

Edited February 11, 2012 by The Admiral

[peteb]

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1328985391' post='1535755']
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! These guys are about as genuine as anything Simon Cowell has put together : the singer came 3rd in the 'Inxs find a singer' reality TV show a year or two ago, and the other three guys have been playing sessions in LA for years. It's so contrived, image by a stylist, deliberate 'DIY' vibe to the whole thing, but, they are managed by Doc McGhee (Bon Jovi, Motley Crue etc) and strangely enough they are out opening for Bon Jovi this summer. I'm sure they are great guys - but it just feels to me like they are 'dressing up' & don't believe it - and it's just a big marketing ploy. That said - The Wombles still had some good tunes.

[/quote]
Plus one - well spotted!

Well crafted but not as authentic as they appear to be....