Ok what are the tunes that you consider "must knows" for a blues jam?
I haven't been to one in years since my local coffee house got kicked out of their place because of a Starbucks moving in.
Ok what are the tunes that you consider "must knows" for a blues jam?
I haven't been to one in years since my local coffee house got kicked out of their place because of a Starbucks moving in.
Blues Jams vary according to participants so it's difficult to say exactly which blues classics are a "must know".
Basic 1-4-5 (1-4-1-5-4-1) skills are most definitely needed but knowing a couple of the more "chordy" songs like the ever frequently used Stormy Monday is a good tune to add to your repetoire.
You might also consider learning a couple of tunes that don't follow the set 1-4-5 pattern, like Key To The Highway and Born Under A Bad Sign or Sitting On Top of The World and a few minor key tunes like Help The Poor.
Getting the feel for the meter of slower blues like The Thrill is Gone, Three O'clock in The Morning or Have You Ever Been Mistreated may also be helpful so that you'll place your accents nicely.
If you're in charge of the stage, I find that I get the best audience results doing one fast, one slow and one medium tempo blues tune....mixes it up a bit. I usually try not to play the same chord pattern arrangement in two consecutive tunes even if one is fast and the next is slow unless there's something like a full stop or two in the second tune to make it seem different from the first.
Changing keys also helps a bit if you're doing two 1-4-5's in a row, and/or a general rhythm change from slow 1-4-5 to rhumba 1-4-5 for instance will sound OK if you're stuck with other players who only know basic 1-4-5.
Hope that helps.
This might save you some waiting. I asked a similar question a while back.
What tunes?
On SmartPhones:
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But That only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." Frank Herbert.
Fenderboy's got a ton of must-know blues tunes in his repertoire...
I'd add that you might want to know "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Sweet Home Chicago." "Hoochie Coochie Man" is a good one to know. Might want to work up Buddy Guy's "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
The list could just go on and on and on...
You might want to be able to play a couple of SRV tunes, 'cause many blues players want to play them..."Pride and Joy" is always a crowd pleaser...
Believe it or not, "Shakey Ground" used to be a song that was always done in the local blues jams around here...not sure if it's a true blues song but it does have its proponents.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Just for the record...and I'm not the first one to state this...a true Blues Tune is about the strife between a man and a woman, ie.; heartache, lost love, sorrow, grief.
Songs like Sweet Home Chicago & (I guess) Key To The Highway, while they may be great tunes, are not blues tunes essentially, but are blues based melodies and use blues influenced chording patterns.
Fenderboy...I do not agree with your perception of a true blues tune.
Oh, ya....to add to the "must know tunes". It never hurts to have a Jimmy Reed tune in your "blues bag".
Thanks guys. looks like I have the basics covered. Another standard from what I recall is Red House. It usually gets played at least once from what I recall.
Mu$tang $ally!!!
"We catched fish and talked, and we took a swim now and then to keep off sleepiness." Mark Twain
Watch the DVD...."Lightning in a Bottle".Originally Posted by RedRain
I haven't seen "lightnin in a bottle" but that seems like a very narrow definition of what the blues is. Most people who have not made a study of the blues would not know the difference. By your definition 2 of the 3 'blues' numbers on my last album would not be "true" blues...even though one of them has the word "blues" in the title ;)
So what you're saying is that it's the subject matter, and not the chording or melodic phrasing, that make a song a "true" blues, eh? I prefer to take a broader definition. Anyways, Sweet Home Chicago has been played by innumerable blues artists over the years. I myself am particular to the Robert Johnson version. That song is bluesy enough for me, whether it's true blues or not.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
I gotta step in and add to the list of "true" blues subjects.
The strife can and has often historically been about way more than just between a "Man and a woman". Strife between man and nature, man and "the man", man and his "boss man", Man and the railroads, etc.
Another way to get more out of the "blues jam" is mix up the types of tempos. You'll need grinders, shuffles, and swings. An occasional "latin" type groove (Who's been Talkin' - Howlin Wolf).
Wilko, you're "the Man!"
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Wouldn't that also fit just about any music style?
These subjects are not the sole property of a blues style song.
You're heard them in pop songs, rock songs, country songs, etc...
It's not the lyricks that define a song style but its musical characteristics.
How many songs have been transposed from one style to another, with the same lyricks.
For example, Sheryl Crow with Sweet Child Of Mine from Guns 'N Roses. Same song, two different style with the same lyricks.
It's all about music, not lyricks.
There's someone in my head but it's not me.
You're preaching to the choir.
Strife, or more accurately described in art and literature circles, "conflict" is what drives almost all art.
Lyrical content is just one of the facets of the genre. For a "blues jam" lyrics are pretty low on the scale of important elements.
According to one of my lit profs, you can put most literary themes into one of 3 categories:
Man vs. Man
Man vs. Nature
Man vs. Himself
So, in that sense, I'm sure that most lyrical themes can be broken down in similar fashion.
The movie Fenderboy cites seems to be saying that a "true" blues tune lyric is a subcategory of the Man vs. Man theme, where there is a conflict between a man and his woman. Although it could be said that the song's theme could be Man vs. Himself in that he is trying to come to grips with his own raw emotions over losing the woman. Ach, trying to analyze the blues is a fool's errand...I think I'll just enjoy it instead. ;)
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
You're preaching to the choir.
Strife, or more accurately described in art and literature circles, "conflict" is what drives almost all art.
Lyrical content is just one of the facets of the genre. For a "blues jam" lyrics are pretty low on the scale of important elements.
I don't write harmony, for that need strife as its foil. I write of stasis. :-|
I saw "Lightning in a Bottle", and did not come away with the thought that the blues are about strife. BB King has said that the blues are not only about sad things in life (strife) but can also be of happy things.
A song that pops up at every jam I do is "Boom Boom"
Built for comfort (Strife? What strife?)
Spoonfull
hideaway
This is WAY to complicated for me too.
I'm switching to only Buffalo Springfield covers....or maybe The Lovin' Spoonful. Nobody ever questions dem folk.
In the meantime...just play the damn blues fer cripe sake.
Geez I didn't mean to start a controversy. Just wanted to know what a good foundation would be for the jams around here. Blues or otherwise. :)
Back to the topic. Just learn the basic blues forms. Learn the basic 145, learn the quick change, learn the Bobby Blue Bland type, learn the shuffle, the jump, the boogie, and the vamp.
Learn 8 bars, 12, bars, and the basic turns like the I,VI, II, V and you'll be ready for most anything they throw at you.
Learn the forms rather than memorizing songs to be a good jammer. Once you realize there are only about 8 different original blues tunes and everything else is a knock-off with a signature lick you're on your way.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
There ya go. That's it OA.
Offshore put it in a nutshell for sure.
Yep. The single biggest mistake a guitar player cam make in the blues is not realizing the blues is TOTALLY about the singer and the lyrics. The gutar is an embellishment. Many of the "greats" wouldn't pass the audition for a garage band these days!
If the guitar playing becomes the main focus of your blues playing, then you, quite frankly, don't understand the blues at a very basic level.
Flame away, but the truth is the truth. Nobody became a famous blues guitarist. They became blues singers who played guitar. The blues is also highly based on showmanship. Being a badass guitar player means very little in the blues. In fact, it's generally seen as a distraction. The guitar solo is showmanship if you're the frontman. If you're just backing the singer, it's just filling up the song.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
How'd you get so dang smart, Chuck?
I'm CERTAIN what you said will cause a GREAT controversy...but you won't hear a peep from me in disagreement with your writings here.
Nor from me. All the great sides are just that, sides. 3 minutes of great blues tune, most of which are vocal tunes, with the major exception of a handful of COMPOSED instrumentals, like Hideaway.
As much as a lot of folks think of them as BLUES GODS the folks who ushered in the blues as an endless wankathon are folks like Clapton, Page, Bloomfield.....
Several guitars in different colors
Things to make them fuzzy
Things to make them louder
orange picks
I personally prefer the tighter song structures with fewer choruses of soloing, too. One of the reasons that Mr. Clapner was so good early on with Mayall was that they were still sticking to trad blues structures. I guess I wouldn't call what he was doing with Cream 'blues' at all but blues-rock. Same think with Pagey. Great stuff, to be sure, but not traditional like Buddy, Muddy, and BB.
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
I humbly submit
LOLA
by the Kinks.....
It fits every definition given for a true blues song.
If you leave the house, you're just asking for it.
And the wankathon was actually TECHNOLOGY driven. Up untl then, all we ahd was 45's and 78's, so a song lasted about 3 munites. When LP's became the norm, the wankfest ensued to fill up the album in place of songwriting.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Dumbasses. What about "Godzilla vs Megalon"?, "Santa Claus vs the Martians"
Alien vs Predator.
That's why I passed on a full ride graduate study in lit. (Really) Professors don't know shit.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
OK, well, let's see...
In Godzilla we are supposed to see the reluctant hero. He has been bad, but he has turned over a new leaf, so now he is mankind's best new hope against the evil Megadon. That could be construed as Man vs. Nature.
Santa Claus, though he is characterized as a "Right Jolly Old Elf," is actually a human; witness his great size when compared to his elves. And since I am Xenophobic, I will not be calling Martians "human" so they must be part of nature, so in the second case, Santa vs. Martians is another classic case of Man vs. Nature.
As for Alien vs. Predator, my Xenophobia places both of them on the same side against humanity. Remember the catchphrase 'no matter who wins, we lose?" Alien vs. Predator, the title, while catchy, is a misnomer, because the real conflict is, again, Man vs. Nature.
Don't even get me started on Freddy vs. Jason...
As for a blues song, if Lola is submitted, then I have to submit "Whiskey Lullabye" by Brad Paisley...at least, it gives ME the blues...
"I'm gonna find myself a girl
that can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing colors
In each other's paint-by-number dreams..."
Ah, but by calling a superior, technological and sentient species "nature" we must then, by logic, include man as part of nature also. And hence, all literature is nature vs nature. But since one thing cannot be "vs" itself, then literature really doesn't exist.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Nope, it's got a bridge.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
MAN! Talk about hijacking a thread!
Man vs man.
Nature = man by proxy (metaphorically speaking)
BTW, Godzilla is also man's champion (proxy)
And in Alien, the Alien is also proxy to man.
Whiskey Lullaby is a killer blues tune:yay
Even it does have a bridge.
If you leave the house, you're just asking for it.
I submit that it is not. The basis of a blues song is the use of the dominant and subdominate to build tension and then release to the tonic. Whiskey Lulliby uses the minor for tension and hence, would be structurally a Bluegrass song.
"No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim
Good point Offshore about the frontman and soloing. Could be that the guitar playing aspect of blues has become overinflated and many folks are losing touch with the "pulse" of Blues music. So...If your just a backup guitarist in a blues band and find yourself "wanking" to much my advice is to kick back and pretend your Herburt Sumlin. That should help.
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