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June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | I listen to alot of blues ranging from the 40's thru the 70's. I am getting ready to undertake original lyrics and develop some songs myself.
Do any of the members here have any expertise in Blues and once the lyrics are done who could put music to it?
I am also starting to learn the hramonica because of it's presence in Blues. Any person here have suggestions for this as well?
Thanks guys & gals and have a great Memeorial Day! :D |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| Musically you could try EEEE,AA,EE,BAEB.
Then start again.
Sorry I couldn't be more help. |
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Joined:
November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | You got the Blues cause you ain't got the Blues?
....There's got to be a song in that |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | I'll try to take your questions seriously. The bottom line is: Rip off other people. I gave a student of mine this assignment. Start with the blues shuffle in E, something along the lines of "Before you accuse me" by diddley. But write your own lyrics. See what you come up with. The crazier the better. Good luck. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Well, it is necessary to mention drinking, prison, trucks, trains, and mama.
Oh sorry, that's a country song format, never mind. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | But if you can't afford to drink, have no money to buy a truck, can't ride a train cause you can't roll your wheelchair fast enough to jump on, and your mamma is your sister......then you qualify to sing the blues! |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | an4340..................you are right. Seems like all Blues is just a variation of the last song you listened to on the CD. I do have the Blue's shuffle that my guitar teacher showed me which is very easy to play. I guess you add a few riffs to it and wham...........you have a song about how tough it's been!
Will try and see what I come up with. |
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October 2004
Posts: 180
Location: Chicagoland | The key is true, honest emotion. |
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March 2004
Posts: 119
Location: Georgia USA | I play harmonica. If you are playing blues, you need to play "cross-key". Let's say you are playing a standard blues progression...
The basic blues progression uses 3 chords - the Tonic (I) or the chord that the song is centered on, the Dominant (V) or the chord based on the fifth step of the Tonic scale, and the Sub-dominant (IV) or the chord based on the fourth step of the Tonic scale. Using the key of E major. the Tonic is E, the Dominant is B and the Sub-dominant is A.
If you are playing blues in E, use a harp in the sub-dominant key (A). In the key of A, use D. In G, use C, etc.
Buy a Hohner Marine Band harp.
If anyone tells you to soak your harp in water before playing, don't listen.
Listen to music by Sonny Terry. He was the ultimate country blues harp player. Practice his style.
Here's how to learn to play by ear. Learn a song, any song. Stephen Foster tunes like Oh Susannah and hymns work fine. Play that song until everyone is tired of it, then learn another.
Y'know how, on guitar, you play blues and rock lead by using the pentatonic minor(blues)scale? Then for country music you move that scale down 3 frets to play the relative, or country scale? Well, similarly, use a straight harp style (playing in the actual key of the harp) for country or ballads. Use cross key (sub-dominant) for blues and rock. You'll actually be playing in Em on an A harp.
Hope this helps.
Jas |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | Thanks Jas............bought my first harp in key of A which is a German Hohner blues model or something like it. Want to finish out the keys in it as well.
Great advice! |
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Joined:
March 2004
Posts: 119
Location: Georgia USA | And I should mention... anyone wanting to play blues on guitar should have the Heavy Guitar Bible by Richard Daniels. Buy one on eBay or at heavyguitar.com |
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November 2005
Posts: 4832
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Found this on another site and thought it fit here. It it's been posted before, sorry....but I'm too busy laughing to care. PH
HOW TO SING THE BLUES
by Lame Mango Washington
(attributed to Memphis Earlene Gray with help from Uncle Plunky, revisions by Little Blind Patti D. and Dr. Stevie Franklin)
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning."
2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, 'less you stick something nasty in the next line, like " I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes ... sort of:
"Got a good woman - with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher - and she weigh 500 pound."
4. The Blues are not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch; ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys and Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues
transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft an' state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In blues, " adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in St. Paul or Tucson is just depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cuz you skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg cuz an alligator be chomping on it is.
9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
10. Good places for the Blues:
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty bed
d. bottom of a whiskey glass
Bad places:
a. Ashrams
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses
11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old ethnic person, and you slept in it.
12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if:
a. you're older than dirt
b. you're blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied
No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived.
d. you have a retirement plan or trust fund.
13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Gary Coleman could. Ugly white people also got a leg up on the blues.
14. If you ask for water and Baby give you gasoline, it's the Blues.
Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. wine
b. whiskey or bourbon
c. muddy water
d. black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. mixed drinks
b. kosher wine
c. Snapple
d. sparkling water
15. If it occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse, and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or getting liposuction.
16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling
17. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie
18. Persons with names like Sierra, Sequoia, Auburn, and Rainbow can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
19. Make your own Blues name (starter kit):
a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi,etc.)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
For example, Blind Lime Jefferson, or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")
20. I don't care how tragic your life: you own a computer, you cannot sing the blues. You best destroy it. Fire, a spilled bottle of Mad Dog, or get out a shotgun. I don't care. |
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Posts: 4413
| Likewise brilliant. |
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December 2004
Posts: 1116
Location: Keller, TX | Classical! Loved it! |
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Posts: 5331
Location: Cicero, NY | That's great.
Impotent Banana Johnson
(Hmm, maybe I'd better continue working on the name thing) |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Known to his friends as, Limp. |
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November 2004
Posts: 4413
| That takes the Biskit. |
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Blues Lyrics.........