Call and response

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spoonful
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Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:34 am

Call and response

Post by spoonful »

Hi there,

Has anyone intresting ideas about call and response patterns and how to get into that "fluidity thinking"?
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Blindboy
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Re: Call and response

Post by Blindboy »

It's mostly about phrasing. Think of your guitar lines like they were vocal lines. Leave pauses where a singer would breathe and between words. If you are doing call and response with a singer (even yourself), try to phrase your response lines similarly to the vocal line you are responding to. ( :think: Make any sense?)
Also, listen to a lot of blues. Pay attention to what you are hearing, and even play along. You don't have to get all the notes down, just try for the phrasing.
Good luck, it's fun!
"Throw yo' big leg over me Mama, I might not feel this good again!"
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VikingBlues
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Re: Call and response

Post by VikingBlues »

Blindboy wrote:It's mostly about phrasing. Think of your guitar lines like they were vocal lines. Leave pauses where a singer would breathe and between words.
Great advice - as is the whole of Bb's post. :thumbsup:

Really listening to what is going along and fitting in with it and responding to it with logical variations. Hell - that ain't easy by any stretch of the imagination, but ... if it works it's magical. :D

The blues guitar playing I like the most is when you could imagine the notes being sung by a voice, and where there would be a limitation of lung capacity meaning taking breaths is required. It somehow makes it more soulful and gives it a personality. :clap:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
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HalfBlindLefty
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Re: Call and response

Post by HalfBlindLefty »

I agree with BB and guess I'd better speak the music language :) Here are some examples of how I go about the call and response things.

Aly's Blues : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7189520 (guitar - singer)

Trio black & Blue : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7618988 ( 3 guitars, one player (took 3 takes in all))

Revisited : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7470571 (2 guitars, one player)

Bkent - HBL collab http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7119428 ( 2 guitars, 2 players) This one uses phrases of alternating length

Tell me of this helps :)
A long time ago, in the old forum : Registered: Mon, 27 Nov 2006. Wonder were the other old members all went....
spoonful
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Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2010 5:34 am

Re: Call and response

Post by spoonful »

Thanks

The "breathing bit" was really a good point, It reminds me of the saying "the most important notes are the notes you don't play, I guess that's a part of the call and response secret. This one you gave me was a also a great example: Revisited : http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7470571 (2 guitars, one player)
cruisemates
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Re: Call and response

Post by cruisemates »

How about this for a way to find new licks and practice new phrasing, space, ear training and call and response all at the same time.

Try playing the vocal melodies of songs on your guitar. I think this opens up a lot of ideas you don't here by just playing the blues scale all the time. Melody notes tend to follow chords more than guitar solos do.

One song I like to play the melody to is "Strange Brew" by Cream. Or "Born under a Bad Sign" shows a LOT in how and when to change between major and minor thirds.
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BluesLicksMaster
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Re: Call and response

Post by BluesLicksMaster »

cruisemates wrote: Try playing the vocal melodies of songs on your guitar. I think this opens up a lot of ideas you don't here by just playing the blues scale all the time. Melody notes tend to follow chords more than guitar solos do.
That's a great thing to do! Also try this:

1. Put your guitar down.
2. Relax.
3. Record yourself singing some tasty blues over a backing track.
4. Now get your guitar out and figure out how to play what you sang.

This will help you to get to the music in your soul, and not just play the same stuff on autopilot.

A few years ago something happened to me that completely changed my approach to playing. I wrote a blog post about it:

http://100blueslicks.com/yousuck/

(I hope it's OK to add that link. I'm NOT trying to spam this board, I just think that article applies to this topic and I hope to add to the discussion. If anyone is offended or upset about the link just let me know...I will refrain from doing that in the future.) :icon_whoknows:
"Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin' too..."
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VikingBlues
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Re: Call and response

Post by VikingBlues »

BluesLicksMaster wrote:
cruisemates wrote: Try playing the vocal melodies of songs on your guitar. I think this opens up a lot of ideas you don't here by just playing the blues scale all the time. Melody notes tend to follow chords more than guitar solos do.
That's a great thing to do! Also try this:

1. Put your guitar down.
2. Relax.
3. Record yourself singing some tasty blues over a backing track.
4. Now get your guitar out and figure out how to play what you sang.

This will help you to get to the music in your soul, and not just play the same stuff on autopilot.

A few years ago something happened to me that completely changed my approach to playing. I wrote a blog post about it:

http://100blueslicks.com/yousuck/

(I hope it's OK to add that link. I'm NOT trying to spam this board, I just think that article applies to this topic and I hope to add to the discussion. If anyone is offended or upset about the link just let me know...I will refrain from doing that in the future.) :icon_whoknows:
All great advice as far as I'm concerned BluesMaster, including the Blog.

I spent 40 years on and off playing guitar but all a bit aimless and lead playing was far and away the weakest element, Basically aimless and unmelodic noodling. My rhythm playing, and indeed my bass playing probably had significantly more merit. :roll:

The I encountered on-line a player / teacher called Rob Chapman. One of the skills he encoraged was training your ears to hear notes in your head and play them. At the same time, having got interested in the blues, I was starting to work through on-line lessons with Hawkeye Herman at JamPlay - he was very emphatic about the benefits of being able to sing and play the same notes on the guitar at the same time and being able to physically play what you could hear in your head.

Adding these together and a doing a CD course in intervalic training and suddenly it started coming together. Add to this finding the 12bar site, and the encouragement, support, and advice that had to offer and ... well, I've got to a place where I find the lead I try and play has a logic, a meaning, and melody. I can't play fast, and I have a huge amount to learn, and as everyone here knows I have more than a few moments of huge self-doubt (sorry guys :shy: ), but ... I now feel like there's a musician involved in my playing. :D

Like you say in point 3 about singing over a backing track (or even imagining you hear singing). It's so easy to hear (or imagine you hear) something bluesy and good. So, with a help in the right direction, it SHOULD be easy enough to do the same thing but picking out the notes on a guitar instead. It seems so obvious when it's been pointed out and you find yourself starting to be able to do it, but I for one spent decades in total ignorance of this musical life-changing but basic and simple concept. I'm so glad i've finally twigged and woken up to it, but - ohh, those wasted years. :sad:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
spoonful
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Re: Call and response

Post by spoonful »

Singing was a real mind opener. Thanks. Now I just have to come over that "fear of singing part". But a blues song without singing is like half o song anyway...
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Tabs
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Re: Call and response

Post by Tabs »

They way I like to think of a response lick is to contrast a bit to the "call". Just like in a conversation where a question often rises in pitch at the end and an answer falls in pitch at the end I like to do the same in phrasing so if the the lick or song line rises in pitch I like to put a phrase that falls in the end instead.

Other ways to constrast is in rhythm or length of notes.

/Tabs
Be cool!

/Tabs
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