what in your opinion made him so great??
-also does anyone know how he weaved the blues MODES into his soloing, my teacher says he was so good cause he knew the blues scale and Its MODES in and out like the back of his hand, i was just wondering if anybody had anyinfo on how he wove the blues modes into his soloing.....?.....?
SOUL
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Blues Modes???
Do you mean the myxolydian mode? I don`t think that SRV new "modes" like we learn them in lessons. He just felt what was right.:tw59
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Achim
Cause he could play his ass off. So well in fact that people lined up to pay good money to see and hear it! :!
Last edited by GeetarGoul; 02-14-2003 at 09:52 AM.
There's no such thing as blues modes. The guy was a great player who mimicked the masters and took that information and went his own way.
Not completely though. I think he wore Hendrix and Albert King on his sleeve, but there was alot of him in there too.
He used the blues scale, the pentatonic scale, and would occasionally throw in a few Mixolydian phrases for spice.
Even on the Jazzier material he was Mr. Blues scale which real jazz guys rarely stick to when playing over changes.
He wasn't thinking about playing over individual chords like more educated musicians do. He was an ear player playing what he wanted to hear based on the garden variety blues scale with possibly the Aeolian mode (Minor scale) over the slow minor tunes.
Blah, blah, blah.
Because through sheer force of will, talent and vision, he nearly singlehandedly resurrected the blues at a time when rock had pretty much died and had become pop mediocrity.
Because he was a musical force of nature.
Because HE had the guts to wear Hendrix and King on his sleeve, and proudly.
Because he was a huge soul with a even bigger heart who woke up a sleeping blues nation and gave us all something to shoot for again.
And finally, if you can't tell from listenting to him...
'My art and profession is to live.' Michel de Montaigne
Originally posted by GeetarGoul
Cause he could play his ass off. So well in fact that people lined up to pay good money to see and hear it! :!
Um sorry to you, BUT there are things called the blues modes, look it up on line there is 6 of them, they intersect with each other all over.....
Why is he so great? Superb guitar playing, cool songs, cool fuckin tone, he realy played from the gut. This is my opinion of him anyway.
Stevie Lives!:wail2
SRV's tone when he played #1 was about as good as it gets. SRV didnt have any idea of blues nodes or penatonic scales he just played what he felt and learned.
he would just say lets do that Howling wolf shuffle thing and start playing.
BB King Albert King Jimi SRV all the greats just played music couldnt read or write music but could play it.
I have seen some hand written stuff SRV did like the chords to Lenny he didnt know what the chord was called so he just did a drawing of the 6 strings and frets and put dots where your fingers go.
I only saw him live twice(once was the 'last' concert at Alpine Valley) and IMO it was the passion he put into his playing. A lot of SRV wannabees focus on the notes, scales, etc., but miss the emotional side. Like when he would seem to close off the world and just really rip into it - then play soft and sweet. There was a lot of dynamics(contrasts between loud & soft, fast & slow, etc.) in his playing that don't always come through on TV or even on the studio recordings.
I think it was Carlos Santana(another guy who shuts off the world and just plays) who said SRV was like a 'channel' for notes coming from somewhere else. ;)
He was an incredible guitar player, but I am so goddam sick of that goddam guitar style, and the clones.
I was playing a gig last Saturday and somebody started yelling out SRV requests. I got pissed and played some Miles Davis.
There's more to Blues than SRV!
All I have to say is put on a CD, kick back and listen.
brianf
Oh Man!!! I never knew Fender made amps too!!!
Because the dude could play like Hell!
Last edited by Wisertime; 02-21-2003 at 05:19 PM.
Saw SRV three times. The first time I saw him, my brothers and I were lucky enough to be right in front at center stage.
I still remember it clear as day. He came out and was wearing a black cut off T-Shirt that said double trouble on it, he had black jeans, and his black hat(of course) what stood out the most was he had these side lace "white" high cut pointed shoes.
He opened up with "Scuttle Buttin" and we were right in front and I got a chill, was scared to death, he was playing and he was so stoned, that when he started to play his eyes rolled back and all you could see was the whites of his eyes !!!! I mean NO PUPILS !!!!It scared me !!!It was like he went into another world!!
Later on he came up right in front sat on the monitors and shook our hands, and played "Tin Pan Alley". He was stumming that choppy back and forth ( front to back ) style of his, and bits of the pick were flying. He dropped his pick !!!He Looked lost for a second, then my brother handed him a pick much to Stevie's surprise, he continued and finished the song, then handed the pick back to my bro, we snapped a picture of him handing back the pick, My brother has the picture framed and hanging in his practice room with the two guitar picks framed along with it, the one Stevie dropped, and the one he gave Stevie that he handed back.Both picks were worn out on the corners after he used them. Was an awesome experience. Great show and fantastic playing.
He makes me strive to be a better guitarist.
Awesome story Old Dog! Must have been an incredible experience. My opinion of SRV? Why was he so great? He and his guitar spoke to me. His music truly touches me and grabs at my soul. He sucked listeners in and took them on a trip with him every song. Listen to the songs and you might be lucky enough to feel a tug on your chest like alot of us. Not trying to make him out to be a God but I love to have an artist, any artist, bring me into a portion of their soul. Cool stuff IMO.
No. Modes are all based upon the major scale. You got yer major pentatonic, yer minor pentatonic, and yer blues scale, but there is no such thing as blues 'modes'.Originally posted by Say What
Um sorry to you, BUT there are things called the blues modes, look it up on line there is 6 of them, they intersect with each other all over.....
Most of the time when we refer to modes we mean the seven modes of the major scale that Snags refers to, e.g. Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, etc. They are produced by playing the same notes but starting from a different place. This produces different intervals within the modal scale and a different sound.Originally posted by Snags
No. Modes are all based upon the major scale. You got yer major pentatonic, yer minor pentatonic, and yer blues scale, but there is no such thing as blues 'modes'.
You can take a major pentatonic and apply the same principle, which would give you five modes of a pentatonic scale. I suppose you could then take a blues scale, which has six notes, and produce six modes of a blues scale. "Say What" - are these the six blues modes your teacher is talking about?
Any teacher that suggests Stevie Ray Vaughan, or any other blues guitarist, knew or based their playing on modes of a blues scale is just plain wrong. In interviews, SRV explains his playing, describing it as "from the heart". He was an amazing guitarist, one of a rare breed that can play as they think.
For mere mortals, we have to learn scales to play blues or we end up feeling the right note and hearing the wrong one. But, as others have already said, minor pentatonic, blues scale, Mixolydian and maybe Dorian are about as far as it goes.
Say What: are you sure your teacher is not trying to blind you with this information to cover up his own lack of knowledge of the blues? If his style is rooted in the technical stuff where modes are important he may be trying to fall back on that with blues. It doesn't work. If you don't want to focus on blues, that may be OK. If you really want to play blues, I'd find another teacher.
... and to answer the original question: technically (I mean his dexterity rather than knowledge of theory) he was brilliant, his timing and feel were superb and, like many blues legends before him, he loved and absorbed what had gone before (a lot of Lightnin' Sam Hopkins in his playing IMO) to make his own sound.
Last edited by r-senior; 02-22-2003 at 02:13 AM.
We KNOW he couldn't read music; half the time he couldn't even tell you what chords he was playing. I saw him at the Gorge in George the last time he was there, & when I went to the front of the stage to check him out close up during Riviera Paradise, his technique was AWFUL! Using his thumb & all the "wrong" fingers to make those thirteens. But he was a self-taught artist that figured out for himself how to get the sounds he heard in his head out through the guitar. Just the quickest way from point A to point B. I think the reason he was (& is) so popular is because his music was so pure & simple; straight from the heart. Alot of guys can cop the notes & licks, but not the fire. He familiarized himself with his instrument to such a degree that playing a lick was just like talking for him.
...foot wrong.
I'm with all the guys that are talking about passion. the man communicated with me. he seemed to be able to sting together endless phrases, flowing from one to the next, and never bore me, or sound repetitive. I think he just communicated.
Re the modes discussion. I believe that we're at the end of an age where art has been academised (is this really a word?). people impose structures, like modes, etc. on music, and all sorts of other words on other art forms, as though those labels explain what is happening. we're then fooled into thinking that by understanding the labels, we'll get a bit of that into our playing.
I think all great artists, musicians, painters writers actors, just have some ineffable mojo, that speaks to people.
So thats what i think we should all strive for. That moment when we just say on our instrument what we want to say.
thankyou, and good night.
Jake
As this relates to my post, what are you talking about?Originally posted by Say What
Um sorry to you, BUT there are things called the blues modes, look it up on line there is 6 of them, they intersect with each other all over.....
Just check out SRV Live at El Mocambo and then come back and you tell me
Modes shmodes...SRV possessed the "X-Factor". Something we mere mortals observe as "Star Quality". He had an amazing sense of tone, rhythm and feel. He had a seemingly endless vocabulary of licks, that he never took full credit for. He was humble. His singing was directly from the heart and soul. Put it all together and he was a force of nature that we will not see again for quite some time.:wail2
"If you're cool, you don't know nothin' about it. It just is...or you ain't." - Keith Richards
Stevie just had "it.":bigal Can't just point to one area of his playing. Stevie was the one in a million that comes along. I think that he was revitalizing the blues by giving it something new.
Nobody since has been able to do that; Johnny Lang? nope; Kenny Wayne Wannabe? (oops I mean Shitterd)nope.
Who is out there now that is going to give the blues the kick in the ass that it needs? I don't see anyone yet going in that direction.
RIP SRV
Last edited by Chris Belena; 03-12-2003 at 11:38 PM.
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Trend: Something that people do when they can't come up with an original idea of their own.
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Chris Duarte does carry a pretty brilliant torch.
Catch him live sometime and you'll see too.
And gee..from San Antonio/Austin area. Go figure...must be the water down there.
;)
Simply because he gave so much devotion through his instrument that when he played it was like the guitar and him was "ONE",that's the way i perceived SRV,mho!
Ray Charles said it best: "It has to have feel."
With Stevie, you felt it. Not just his playing...his voice, too. Expression. Passion. Pain. Anger. Joy. Feeling silly.
Blues was always far more about your woman telling you she's walking out; losing your sanity; a day when you felt like the next best thing that could happen...couldn't be any worse. To hear it played and played well....touches the soul.
To me, few players/singers of any genre...can pull that off. Stevie made you feel it.
-Uncle B
"All I gotta say about it is I ain't never gonna do nuthin about none of it."
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