The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

Ok, I finally got it together (sort of ) and did my part of this collab with some great picking by Bluesinbflat, Vikingblues, and Lynrd77skynrd. Sorry it took me so long, but my wife actually owns the computer, and I have to wait until she isn't using it. download/file.php?id=115
Great playing everyone, sorry I am sort of sloppy, I have been running a chainsaw all day which leaves my hands sort of out of whack.

Great and very different playing styles!

Blindboy wrote: I have been running a chainsaw all day which leaves my hands sort of out of whack.

You've literally cut those note out of the scale...

Man, that sounds good - every part!

Since I'm still learning when I listen to blues critically I'm mostly looking at technique, some standard phrasing and background education. What always surprises me about these collaborations is the level of creativity. Where do these musical ideas come from?

You get to know each person's style and you expect to hear that. But what you really hear is a new concept for their part of the collab, an approach, a musical idea that you didn't see coming. That's what makes me listen to it over and over. And I wonder - will I ever get to the level where I'm creating new musical ideas? I hope so.

It also makes me realize that, while I struggle to gain technical proficiency, that's not really the goal. The musical creativity that is shown in these collaborations - that's the goal.

Great job, guys!

Thanks for putting the final part to my first colab BB, sounds great! And thanks everybody else for your kind comments on both the threads. In response to MojoJim, i honestly wasn't aware that i had a "personal style", i always just thought that i was just playing along and hoping it didn't sound god awful, it was only when i discovered this forum and got involved that i discovered my individuality and that my playing was unique to me and it's given me a new confidence about playing because of it. As for where i get my musical ideas, most importantly of course is practice, but many hundreds of hours spent listening to my blues hero's also. A lot of my time is spent listening to songs and trying to play along in their style, for example i will first play along with a couple of B.B. King tracks for that laid back mellow blues, then i'll play along with a couple of Luther Allison songs which are far more gritty and almost hearing pain from his guitar compared to B.B's Lucille singing. Then to finish off i will stick a couple of Gary Moore tracks on and cling on for dear life as i try to keep up with his highly energetic yet equally emotive playing. The final step is to then just try to play naturally, not think about it, just let whatever notes want to come out happen, the result for me hopefully is that i will combine different aspects of all their playing to end up with my own unique style (which i think i'm achieving).
Hardly ground breaking technique i know, but whatever works for you is the best method, certainly works for me so i thought i'd ramble on for a bit in the hope that it may be a useful bit of advice to you. Just think of the guitar legends; Stevie Ray Vaughan for example, he managed to fuse Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, Jimmie Vaughan and several others, and still managed to come up with a completely unique style of his own.

Lynrd77Skynrd is absolutly right. You pick up bits that you like from here and there, cram them together in whatever way sounds right to you, and eventually you develop a style. Like dynamics, it is (for me, anyway) a never ending process. My "style" has changed a number of times over the years. I also think that listening is very important. There are many things that I listen to that don't find thier way directly into my playing, but nevertheless, influence it in one way or another.

Thanks for the final piece of the jigsaw Blindboy and thanks guys for all your work on this collab.

After using a chainsaw all day, having your hands out of whack is probably a positive outcome - I'd be fearful of my hands being in small pieces spread around the landscape.

And as always we see just how different the style, tone, musical approach is from the participants - and that's just on a pretty standard 12bar accompaniement. Shows why the blues genre has survived as long as it has.

"it was only when i discovered this forum and got involved that i discovered my individuality and that my playing was unique to me and it's given me a new confidence about playing because of it" as Lynrd77Skynrd said. That could have been me talking. Just 7 months ago when I first joined in on this forum I was struggling for any musical identity (other than "mediocre"). The knowledge gained here and the skilful promptings of the old hands have turned my musical life into a joy for me. I recall HalfBlindLefty making some really key and highly perceptive comments on my early blues room pieces. The happy coincidence of getting some decent gear for the first time and my cottoning on to the possibility of being able to play what I could hear in my head was the icing on the cake. I can't believe it's only 7 months since I was first here and less than 6 months since I posted my first work to the blues room, but that's what a search of the posts on the old forum tells me - that was the first "public" airing of my playing for over 30 years. It seems that the last 7 months have been a different lifetime for me - and a very happy one.

I still hope to take part in a collab one day though when I'll be as happy with my bit of playing as I sometimes am with my solo pieces. Now - there's another goal to achieve.

VB, it sounds like you (like me) are your own worst critic. I am rarely happy with things that I record. Perhaps that is why I love playing live... can't listen back to it. I enjoyed your contribution to this collab, but I particularly liked the second chorus (verse, 12 bars, whatever). I wasn't happy with how I wound up my part, my hands were numb and clumsy so I seem to have tried to cover it up with gain and agression. Ah well. Actually I thought everyone played great on this. Bluesinbflat always sounds good, and Lynrd77Skynrd seems to be another one who is too hard on himself, he sounded really good.