thepurpleblob Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 This is all really useful. I've been a musician of one sort or another for over 40 years and can read and have pretty good theory knowledge. However, the 'freedom' of improvisation does not come easily to me (30 years of playing percussion in orchestras and brass bands). It's something I aspire to. As I say, I get by, but I'd like to be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 (edited) [quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1479936074' post='3180465']...However, the 'freedom' of improvisation does not come easily to me... [/quote] One 'trick' to improve this is to sing along, or hum, an accompaniment to anything, anything at all, on the car radio, adverts on the telly, CD's you're listening to. Different melodies, different rhythms and/or beats, or just drone notes or harmonies... Let it come out naturally, without looking for any particular structure, and see how it develops. Not just bassy stuff, either; anything goes. Best practised when one is alone, rather than in a cinema, of course. Hope this helps. Edited November 23, 2016 by Dad3353 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 You don't have to improvise in Blues. Work out a great bass line and stick to it. Many players do that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 [quote name='blue' timestamp='1479921637' post='3180332'] BB King , Live And Well. Pick up a copy. [/quote] I was going to suggest this one too. Jerry Jemmott absolutely kills on it. The studio album Completely Well should be mandatory also! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 Thank you Thepurpleblob, for starting this thread. I just checked out the BB King albums in the posts folks have posted, on YouTube. Once you start a BB King video on there it just keeps playing more of his great music. Some of the line ups he had were amazing too. You could do a lot worse than to do the same and sit there with your bass and play a simple bass line to it. I guess something that does matter in your situation is the dynamic of your band. What IS expected of you? Are you there as a rhythm keeper, or are you there as a lead? If you take BB King's bass player he's not there to play anything fancy. He's only job is to provide the background for BB to look good. So you can do this by keeping a simple 4/4 going with a 145 bass line. Have fun with it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 (edited) Checkout Tim Waites playing great solid bass with Lucky Peterson, who is as mad as a box of frogs but the band is a great example of a modern blues band. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alzAG7rCAQA[/media] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGbN8GUF7DA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGbN8GUF7DA[/url] Also check out the Tedeschi Trucks Band for a different and fantastic take on the Blues. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3eisYawGT4[/media] Edited November 24, 2016 by chris_b Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 (edited) [quote name='miles'tone' timestamp='1479944008' post='3180560'] I was going to suggest this one too. Jerry Jemmott absolutely kills on it. The studio album Completely Well should be mandatory also! [/quote] Yes indeedy, I forgot about Completely Well. Blue Edited November 24, 2016 by blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blue Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 [quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1479936074' post='3180465'] This is all really useful. I've been a musician of one sort or another for over 40 years and can read and have pretty good theory knowledge. However, the 'freedom' of improvisation does not come easily to me (30 years of playing percussion in orchestras and brass bands). It's something I aspire to. As I say, I get by, but I'd like to be better. [/quote] Your knowledge of theory should help. I would think it would help a lot. Blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockfordStone Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 when i was in a blues trio for a few years, i was blessed to have one of the best guitarists i've ever played with, which just left me to play and sing. we were influenced a lot by the likes of clapton, hendrix, bonamassa, bb king, robert cray, sometimes it was complex, other times simple 12 bar based stuff. for me, improvisation was key, because sometimes there is a lot of space that needs filling but you have to know when enough is enough. the biggest element is feel. some of our songs that went down the best were simple, when you get the feel right, 5 notes can speak more than 10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckinthepod Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 John McVie, Dusty Hill - ZZ Top, Jack Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coilte Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 [quote name='stuckinthepod' timestamp='1479993538' post='3180840'] John McVie [/quote] +1. A very under rated bassist. For anyone new to blues bass, all you need to do is listen to his contribution on the John Mayall "Beano" album (John Mayall & Eric Clapton). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikel Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 [quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1480003009' post='3180940'] +1. A very under rated bassist. For anyone new to blues bass, all you need to do is listen to his contribution on the John Mayall "Beano" album (John Mayall & Eric Clapton). [/quote] +1 Listen to the very early Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac. Some of the best white man blues on record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 [quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1480003009' post='3180940'] +1. A very under rated bassist. For anyone new to blues bass, all you need to do is listen to his contribution on the John Mayall "Beano" album (John Mayall & Eric Clapton). [/quote] And he was barely 20 - 21 when he made that record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeEvans Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 [quote] [b] The Blues... and what to do about it[/b] [/quote] Pack your leaving trunk, would be my advice. Or possibly dust your broom, if it takes you that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivansc Posted November 24, 2016 Share Posted November 24, 2016 I shared the same dentist with Delbert McClinton in Nashville years ago. Dentist had me in stitches one day with the following story. Delbert had dropped by and given the dentist a copy of his latest album, which the dentist really liked and was wearing out on the office musak system. He asked one of his patients, an older black gentleman, what he thought of the music they were listening to. "Sounds like some white boy trying to sing the blues to me" was the reply. Which of course puts all the various unlikely suggestions as to who would be good to listen to, to get a handle on the blues, in a slightly different light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rexel Matador Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 I found this lesson really helpful for getting to grips with the basics of blues bass: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNmSx6A_QxM And part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnIZX9VfcyI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzy Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 (edited) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09j6vMdKi3E"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09j6vMdKi3E[/url] Always good to go back to the source Love the way this is so relaxed but so powerful Edited November 25, 2016 by Buzzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coilte Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 (edited) [quote name='ivansc' timestamp='1480030503' post='3181234'] I shared the same dentist with Delbert McClinton in Nashville years ago. Dentist had me in stitches one day with the following story. Delbert had dropped by and given the dentist a copy of his latest album, which the dentist really liked and was wearing out on the office musak system. He asked one of his patients, an older black gentleman, what he thought of the music they were listening to. "Sounds like some white boy trying to sing the blues to me" was the reply. Which of course puts all the various unlikely suggestions as to who would be good to listen to, to get a handle on the blues, in a slightly different light. [/quote] The other myth about the blues is that you have to be poor and had a hard life, to be able to play convincingly. I personally don't accept either. Miles Davis seemed to be in agreement with me when he once said, when asked do you have to be a "poor boy" in order to play the blues with conviction...."MY daddy's rich, and MY mamma's good looking, and I can play the blues". Edited November 25, 2016 by Coilte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzy Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 a bit more Wolf, and a lecture about the Blues [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpKB6OZ_B4c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpKB6OZ_B4c[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepurpleblob Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Thanks again guys... I'm ploughing my way through your suggestions. It's an education Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odysseus Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Go to Scottsbasslessons and do the Blues Deep Dive course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikel Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 (edited) Listen to "Smokestack Lightning", by Howlin Wolf. It should make the hair on your neck stand up. If not, dont bother with the Blues. Edited November 25, 2016 by mikel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HengistPod Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Everything I know about the blues, and how to get them, I learned from watching the movie Crossroads many times. So I never did know much about the blues, and I don't mind that. I can, if pushed (or paid), stand and play variations on a 12-bar for as long as you like - but I'd really rather not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivansc Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 (edited) [quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1480068904' post='3181399'] Miles Davis seemed to be in agreement with me when he once said, when asked do you have to be a "poor boy" in order to play the blues with conviction...."MY daddy's rich, and MY mamma's good looking, and I can play the blues". [/quote] Miles Davis... the blues.... Hm. I prefer to think of him as the man who finally nailed the coffin shut on Jazz. Just so you know, I worked for Big Bear Records in the seventies providing backing musicians for visiting chicago (mostly) blues players that BB Records brought over to do college gig tours. Big John Wrencher was the most memorable! One-armed harmonica player/singer with a penchant for emerald green suits, tyrolean hats and Courvoisier. What a character! We were down in south wales and stopped so he could check out the scenery. He stooped beside a mountian stream and scooped up some of the water for a drink.... a local who saw this said "Dont do that, boyo - there are sheep shitting in there, just upstream from you" Due to his bottle a day habit, he finished up the last date of the tour at London`s City University with his foot resting on an inflatable model of the goodyear blimp, as he was suffering badly with "the gouch"!. You want to hear blues with a raw edge of pain in the vocal? He would get into it and start stomping his feet in the middle of a song.... A million miles from anything Miles Davis ever did in his life. He was about as far from, if not further from the roots of blues music as any of the white boy sing de blooze contenders. But of course this is all just my opinion, Edited November 25, 2016 by ivansc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepurpleblob Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 We rehearse in Livingston in Scotland. There's nothing you can teach me about misery! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.