A bit of Blues & not of Blues

[VikingBlues]

After a month or so of no musical output of any merit, things have improved a bit.

As this is a blues forum, I've tried to record something with some blues-iness to it.
Playing the Tanglewood TW133 all mahogany Parlour acoustic guitar, with Thomastik Infeld strings.
Just recorded on a Zoom H4n portable recorder using it's built in mics.
As you're allowed to break rules in blues, I've done this, so don't expect a properly structured and formed blues!
I'm too out of practice in the blues genre to manage to do things "right" anyway.

Will We Move Blues.mp3 - (3.29 MiB)

It's called "Will We Move Blues" because we're supposed to be moving house in just 9 days time, and the legal processes are still not complete for our sale or for our new purchase. It's been a long frustrating experience and I hope to hell it works out!

If I may, I'll take the opportunity of sneaking one of my "Celtic" type tunes into the Blues Room too.
A semi-improvised piece based loosely on the chords / structure of "Blind Mary", but pulled about a lot with changed and extra notes and longer phrases.
Trying for melodic and wistful. The Vintage Gordon Giltrap VE2000GG acoustic guitar. Also recorded onto the Zoom portable recorder.

Celt(ish).mp3 - (2.8 MiB)

[fenson]

'A Bit Of Blue'
"As you're allowed to break rules in blues"... Didn't noticed Robert Johnson, Skip James, Big Bill Broonzy or lately
John Lee Hooker have ever follow any rules...
One chord Blues, different time signature, 4/4, 3/4, 6/8 within same song that also might be 13 or 14 mesures long...
Don't worry 'bout Blues Rules, just like "false" notes it doesn't exist!
Blues is all about feelings but rules!

Thus it seems you've find you're own way to deal with the turnaround.

'And Not Blues'
If Rules exist for Celtic music, it seems you don't bother to that much since you just

pulled about a lot with changed and extra notes and longer phrases

As usual VB, full of feeling but laks a bit of daily practice (just kidding indeed)

Cheers

[12bar]

VB's no rules Celtic Blues!

First one makes me thinking of the Mississippi Delta, hearing the second one I'm somewhere in the Scottish Highlands... wonderful.

Tone is great, too!

[VikingBlues]

Thanks guys!

I do enjoy trying to play in a way that's my own quirky way.
It makes me feel better when I improvise and semi improvise - I feel mentally soothed by it and the music flows more often.

When I play a piece in a set way or the way someone else has already played it I don't get much of a happy feeling - it's too much of a exercise in technique. It very rarely flows properly.

I continue to be amazed how well the Zoom H4n portable recorder performs with an acoustic guitar.

[Blindboy]

I like both of these quite a bit. As Fenson noted, the origina blues men didn't worry too much about time signatures and consistent measures. Your recording setup sure captures the tones of your acoustic guitars very well.

[VikingBlues]

I like both of these quite a bit. As Fenson noted, the origina blues men didn't worry too much about time signatures and consistent measures. Your recording setup sure captures the tones of your acoustic guitars very well.

Thanks for those positive thoughts.

I love the simplicity of the portable recorder - just pop it down at a reasonable distance and pointing the right way - press the record button to arm it and again to start record and that's it! A USB cable to transfer the wav file to the computer for any editing - easier to do that on the big screen of a computer monitor than the very small one on the recorder.

Sorry it's taken me a while to reply - we moved house on the 16th and I've not had proper internet access till two days ago.
Note to myself for future reference - I don't want to move again - way too much stress!!!