Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: fbloke on December 11, 2009, 06:42:33 PM
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So, I'm sat here again with another huge book full of how to approach the blues guitar systematically, a great magazine article of alternative approaches to pentatonics, 12 instructional videos and I'm not using any of 'em. I realised that in the years when I made most progress with the guitar I simply played along to records and went to gigs and asked the guitar player questions. Not sure that the structured approach is for me.
Got me thinking - 1. How did the following learn the guitar? 2. How much fancy stuff do they use really? Isn't it pretty much pentatonics all the way?:
Freddie King
Billy Gibbons
Buddy Guy
Anyone have any insights from interviews or articles they may have read? Anyone met any of these guys?
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talent, mileage, a good ear and patience.. that's it actually.. with lots of practice practice practice in the form of playing with a band
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Davey is right about the good ear! All the players you list are great feel players for me.
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I'm pretty sure Buddy Guy started with a "diddley bow", a piece of wire attached to a broom handle or something!
Don't know about the others, but I'm fairly sure none of them approached it in anything like a "structured" way.
This is just a hunch, but I'd guess Billy Gibbons is probably pretty well versed in the history of the blues - but I bet he picked it up informally, not by actually studying it!
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Agreed - it's all in the ear. They listened to the previous guys, learnt some licks, and made some of their own up....
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This is just a hunch, but I'd guess Billy Gibbons is probably pretty well versed in the history of the blues - but I bet he picked it up informally, not by actually studying it!
He is,. there is a video of him emulating the signature licks and runs of a bunch of players, from BB king to Robert Johnson. Looked like he'd just listened in detail to a lot of blues of really analysed it.
EDIT:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wNfmpYrb8
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Cool clip! Incidentally, the Billy-Bo has a thicker, less twangy sound than I would've expected.
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you know, i honestly can't tell the difference with billy g wether his playing the billy bo or a paul...
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Pact with the devil, duh.
The old stuff has great imagination and adaptation of the guitar for its time but I don't find many of the old school 'greats' that impressive. I actually find listening to the blues really nauseating, I'm not sure when that happened!
I mean dear god... listen to Buddy Guys bends, he lands on all manner of micro-tonal hell.
I saw a video interview with BB.King and he said he developed his vibrato because he was never any good with the slide and wanted the vocal quality of the slide.
The problem with the books is they teach the mechanics of note structure in relation to each other but don't cover the actual execution. I remember when Guthrie spent a couple of hours going through vibrato it took my playing further than any theory before it.
What I like to hear in a guitarist is the blues sensibilities in regards to vibrato and phrasing but with a modern approach. It's easy to tell which players are going through the motions of someone else's music and those that have discovered who they are musically and play to their strengths.
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It's easy to tell which players are going through the motions of someone else's music and those that have discovered who they are musically and play to their strengths.
Nice one ; so true . :)
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They wanted to play a guitar, bought one, figured out how it works by trying. They learned chords (except for BB King) and licks from other players and figured out how to play from records.
Alot of trial and error.
I got a guitar and a chord book. After I learned some of the chords I tried to play along with records.
That's still the best way IMO. You'll develop a good ear. Not every piece of music is transcribed.
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It's amazing how consistent the replies are here - I posted this on another forum and the replies were almost identical. Seems to me that sitting down with books and videos, taking diplomas etc. are probably the wrong route for anyone with an intuitive musicality, which seems to be most of the greats in blues and rock. I think formal learning materials have their merit though, we are blessed with some great stuff these days.
I think they key is to be true to who you are and not care what other guitar players think of your playing.
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It's amazing how consistent the replies are here - I posted this on another forum and the replies were almost identical. Seems to me that sitting down with books and videos, taking diplomas etc. are probably the wrong route for anyone with an intuitive musicality, which seems to be most of the greats in blues and rock. I think formal learning materials have their merit though, we are blessed with some great stuff these days.
I think they key is to be true to who you are and not care what other guitar players think of your playing.
I agree that getting in some external guidance / learning materials is still very helpful ( for mere mortals ) - to facilitate the absorbtion of basic chords and pentatonic/ Blues scales , and thus something to 'hang your coat on'.
To give the hands, eyes and ears a tremendous clue as to where to start and what to do - and how all that relates to the music of our heroes. A certain amount of technical / theoretical knowledge , also enables us to communicate better with other instruments and styles , as opposed to just other guitarists.
Unless we are gifted with 'perfect pitch' the ears ( at least initially ) are best following the hands - then later, the hands following the ears e.t.c. :)
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The biggest weakness for self taught musicians(bedroom guitarists) is usually timing, particularly a lack of an 'inner' metronome. I think it's really important to have at-least a very basic foundation in the theory of time and to play with a click. I've battled my own demons of not being naturally gifted with good time + years of bad practice and I'm now at the point of being a bit of a nazi. Hard work has to continue where talent ends :D