Hi, so ive been trying to figure out how to sing the blues over a I IV V progression but the only problem i have is that I have a bad lisp and really poor sentance structuring so it doesnt sound quite right when I play it back. Were there any Blues artists with a lisp? i could use some motivation
Last Edited by ejakon on Jul 01, 2017 4:44 PM
Don't forget Bachman Turner Overdrive's "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet".
http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-10-09/story-behind-the-song-you-aint-seen-nothing-yet-by-bachman-turner-overdrive ---------- Marc Graci YouTube Channel
Last Edited by Mirco on Jul 01, 2017 7:32 PM
Mel Tillis was not a blues singer but quite famous and had a hell of a stuttering issue. I would possibly consult sites or maybe a speech therapist that could suggest verbal exercises.
Your speech issue is not who you are...it's an issue you live with. It will only stop you and beat you the day you quit trying. Best of luck to you
You are more than welcome.....if you want to contact me feel free....I'm not sure I can help but I'll try to help if you need resources or whatever. Trust me bro you aren't the only person with a disability here....just remember you have the disability....the disability only has you if you allow it. Go for your dream
Sonny Boy Williamson II- Alec "Rice" Miller- had bad teeth, like many blues guys from the delta. He was known to keep a bottle of liquor with him most of the time. I imagine him and others playing and singing through a lot of pain constantly. He died of something really grave, like TB.
I have been lucky, I have no challenge like you ejakon. But we all have our challenges and we either work through them or let them define us. Which do you want the most? I believe you can work past the issues you describe. Go forward and find your voice! ----------
CW Stoneking has an unusual voice, maybe it would be considered to be a mild impediment. He's one of my favourite blues singers because his voice is so distinctive
Last Edited by GamblersHand on Jul 05, 2017 6:54 AM
From what I understand a lot of people's stutters get better while they are singing. Lisps aren't going to ruin you (and they are a little easier to correct with a speech therapist if it bothers you.)
As for sentence structure/songs making sense, yes, practice makes that better. There are lots of little tricks you pick up too, for everything from changing the meter to making questionable rhymes work. One I've found- if you are using a wonky rhyme where you have to change how you pronounce a word it's better to use that part first. For instance, I have a song where I rhyme jetliner with China. By changing how I pronounce jetliner and using it first I make it sound fine...
Baby got to get on a jetlina Fly on back, back from China, yeah Baby gotta fly, baby gotta fly
(It's one of the only pop songs I've ever written).
I'm also fond of using two verses to set up a story turn, then a verse with a turn, then a verse to wrap it up. Structure wise that keeps the song making sense.
Verse about my girl messing around with another guy Verse about sitting at a bar hoping to find that guy Verse about telling him he can have you (but I want my grandmother's diamond ring back) Verse saying the girl isn't worth causing trouble over. Solo!
There are lots of little tricks you pick up, changing filler words to change the syllable count, making the rhyme fall on the same up or down beat from line to line, internal rhymes... they all get better the more you practice them.
Improv is particularly hard. I sometimes write songs at band practices that way, but in general, most people write them ahead of time. There can be a lot of mixing and matching verses once you have them down though.
I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll weigh in here.
A long time ago, there was a show about young Indiana Jones. In one of the episodes, he was challenged to learn an instrument, and he picked (flugle horn? Trumpet?) In any case, the guy he went to for lessons was a jazz guy. He had Indy learn "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Only that song. Play it over and over, hundreds of times. Thousands of times. What happened was Indy got bored playing the same melody, so he learned to mix it up a little. When it came time for the bet to be settled, he was brought on stage, and riffed over Twinkle Twinkle masterfully. He couldn't play any other song, but he had Twinkle Twinkle down cold.
My point is, maybe you could practice singing one song so much you get sick of it, and learn where to let your personality shine. Then take that confidence and apply it to the rest of your music. If you can play harp halfway decent, your tongue and mouth have the dexterity to not stutter: you just need to find the path the doesn't stutter for you.*
This guy reminds me of a great contemporary ragtime guitarist/vocalist. Can't remember his name. Two initials and a last name like ragscrapper... or burntscale or something odd like that. Deep baritone, always wore a hat with shades. Had a great mustache and soul patch. Same sense of authenticity and earnest love for the music. Somebody got a name please??
Last Edited by Georgia Blues on Jul 02, 2017 5:26 PM
ah, in that case, was there a trick for Blues guys like Sonny Terry or Sonny Boy Williamson II to write songs in a AAB format and make sense of it both lyrically and rhythmically ahead of time then?
Back when I was studying theatre in college, I always strangly (maybe sickly?) enjoyed watching classmates perform when they were fighting a cold or feeling with some other kind of illness/injury. They would often deliver some of their best, most moving work when they were forced to dig deep and really work to overcome an obstacle like that. I imagine the same could be true of your singing. The person sweating it out, doing everything they can to deliver a quality product will always do it with more soul and captivate more attention then the person with seemingly effortless talent who is merely coasting by.
Tom ---------- Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.
The very first Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Williamson, had the very same problems Ejakon talks about and he wound up turning it into an extremely influential vocal style so don't let that problem stop from doing anything!!! ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
Ejakon- If I'm anything like those early guys, I hear a riff or whatever in my head and then the lyrics come. Or I write in that call/response mode then sit down and imagine the harp part, then get with my dear wife to have her input on guitar.
Blues can be a very hypnotic form. Repetition of the music and of the response line reinforces the message. Music is like theater. There is an introduction, then a buildup of drama or excitement, and then at the end, resolution. It sounds more complicated than it is. ----------
@phil comment. Focusing on one song with a nice range of melody and space to improv is a great idea for lick building and practicing your voice management. I still use Blues Traveler's "Hook" (the hook itself) and When the Saints go Marching In. The first time I ever heard my mother cuss me flat out is when I had played the Saints for about a day straight on a Kazoo...Probably the best thing she ever did to me, as I still have not stopped gravitating to it.
@Ejakon: Just don't stop. As soon as you get any kind of frustration hitting you, remember that that is not necessarily a negative. It is part of the learning process.
Don't worry about sentence structure as much as you worry about melody and timing. There is quite a bit of slurring and connecting of words in quite a bit of music. Making effort to articulate the "ings" "ths" etc holds your melodic opportunity back:
For example: Good Morning Little School Girl might come out for me as: "Gud.maw.nen.lil.el.skewl.gurl" or variation thereof. There will be truncation and stretching of whatever I sing to fit into the melody/hook to whatever I am playing. Over time, it will be second nature. This comes out to be 6-7 notes (sometimes the "Lil.el" for me will come out just "lil" more stretched) that will match the melody I am hearing in my head for the song.
Last Edited by Chris Sachitano on Jul 05, 2017 10:01 AM
If thats the case, how does one create a blues melody? it does explain why most blues song lyrics dont really make sense (Got a bottle up and gone anyone?)
The message a lot of singers and writers convey...(or players play) is much greater than the sum of the words or dialect of English chosen.
Many write about very real and raw experiences....it's not necessarily about the exact words chosen or even if a note or two is dropped or split when it's played or a word is incorrect delivering the lyrics....check out Jason Ricci (our own Moon Cat) he posted one for you from his newest album..... there are other artists of course but my point is that his lyrics are solid, raw and real.
You could understand him, I believe, even if you spoke NO English....the feeling is still driven home. Talent is vital, but it's feeling...being real....being you ..and delivering that....that makes a great song in my opinion only...
"ah, in that case, was there a trick for Blues guys like Sonny Terry or Sonny Boy Williamson II to write songs in a AAB format and make sense of it both lyrically and rhythmically ahead of time then?"
Rhyme scheme and stanza structure are a huge part of making lines easier to remember. Blues did a lot of AAB CCB rhymes schemes. Pop uses a lot of ABAB. AABB works... but it gives you a clue as to what comes next. Another trick is to write lyrics so each verse logically leads to the next. I had a lot of problems with that when I was starting out. I'd write long songs that had a lot of verses but the verses didn't have to be sung in any particular order. I'd accidentally leave parts out. It would get particularly problematic when someone else would be singing too! We'd be on different verses.
Now I try to write it so I have a couple stanzas of verse that tell the beginning, then a chorus, then a couple for the middle, then a chorus, then a couple for the end, then maybe repeat the chorus a couple more times. (A lot of modern stuff actually starts with a chorus). Generally, make either the chorus or the verse louder.
My choruses tend to be more repetitive...
(I'm going) Down down down downtown Down down down downtown Down down down downtown tonight
Down down down downtown Down down down downtown Down down down downtown to die
Stupid simple to remember the chorus... or
I came in from the rain, like a wet dog I came in from the rain, like a wet dog
Sort of a hook so people know what song it is. A lot of old blues songs got rewritten by every artist who performed them, but the hook of the song stays the same. In the Pines will always have "In the pines, in the pines, where the sun don't ever shine" but people play with the verses all the time.
Another good exercise is to take a classic song and make it your own. Find the hook and use it, but tailor the rest of it to you. It gives you a nice structure to build from.
Someone (Jim Rumbaugh?) has a really nice version of St. James Infirmary posted in one of the old threads. I like his lyrics better than the original, but it still uses the original hook.
For me and for a lot of fans and makers of blues and other genres, the emotion drives the song. There are not that many topics- the boss, the woman, the Great Flood, cool cars and clothes, etc., but in reality to me it is like literature. 3 main topics: Man against Man, Man against Nature, Man against Self. Structure does matter but for my $$ feel is king. ----------
