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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
What's the purpose of a pick up?
What's the purpose of a pick up?
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Tweed
45 posts
May 02, 2010
10:42 PM
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In many of AG's lessons the first bar is preceded by a pick up. Why is this so and why not start the tune at the beginning of the first bar. If the pickup is moved into the first bar and all the following notes are shifted the same or close to it, all notes then fit nicely into the 12 bar format.
Whats the purpose of the pick up other than a start up into the tune?
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Kingley
1134 posts
May 03, 2010
12:54 AM
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My understanding (I could be wrong) is that it adds colour and tension into a tune. It can also make it easier to set up the structure for playing behind or ahead the beat. Which in turn adds more colour and tension to the tune.
In short it's used as a stylistic device to compliment the tune and to enhance the "blues" feel.
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phogi
408 posts
May 03, 2010
3:53 AM
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Short answer: Because people have been using pickups in music for hundreds of years. Not just blues, but every style of music. So, tradition.
Long answer: Sometimes the rhythm of a phrase would sound funny if you just started to first note on one. Take the beginning of 'my babe.' Without the pick up at the start (in the guitar), we would miss the establishment of the phrasing pattern. Also, pick up's can help establish key and tonality (depends on which notes are used).
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arzajac
172 posts
May 03, 2010
4:43 AM
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"If the pickup is moved into the first bar and all the following notes are shifted the same or close to it, all notes then fit nicely into the 12 bar format."
No it wouldn't fit nicely. The 12 bars blues resolves nicely at bar 12 but if you shifted everything over you would reach the end of your 12 bars and be left there hanging with no resolution. High and dry.
Last Edited by on May 03, 2010 4:43 AM
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congaron
860 posts
May 03, 2010
11:15 AM
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If you try counting with your foot and playing a riff with a pickup in it, you'll soon see how hard it is to keep time when you start off the beat like that.
Try the riff from King bee, for example. edit- okay, I listened to King be last night at work...bad example, but there are plenty of riffs that do start on the pickup to beat 1.
Pickups to a measure give everybody a starting reference, since everybody in the band doesn't play the pickup notes.
I was in a trumpet ensemble last Christmas where the leader transposed some of the pieces incorrectly and put the wrong rest values for the pickup notes in the parts that came in on the downbeat. It was a trainwreck at the first practice. There are so many new and weird versions of old traditional numbers, you need to be able to rely on the sheet music until you learn it. When we all played the first incorrectly annotated piece, it was so bad it was almost funny ...in the first measure! All because of incorrect rest annotations for the pickup.
Last Edited by on May 05, 2010 11:38 AM
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oldwailer
1227 posts
May 03, 2010
5:01 PM
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The most obvious reason to do a pick-up is to sound good. . .
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DesertDog
26 posts
May 05, 2010
7:04 AM
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Hey Tweed, I've had similar questions. My theory for why pickups "sound good" is that the first and third beats in blues are strong beats. That's where you want to end phrases with chord tones, so it's awkward to start a phrase on the first beat. Hence the use of pickups.
-DesertDog
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Blind Melon
35 posts
May 20, 2010
5:46 PM
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"What's the purpose of a pick up?"
Short Answer:
To get you from point A to point B.
Long Answer:
To get you, your old lady, and yer shit from point A to point B.
signed,
Bubba
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CaptainBolide
68 posts
May 20, 2010
11:16 PM
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so, correct me if i'm wrong...
|pickup||intro1 |intro2 |
|intro3 |intro4 |1st bar|
|2nd bar|3rd bar|4th bar|
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,,,,,,/``,`,``,,`,``,``,,`,``,``,,`,`\,,,,,
####[C][a][p][t][B][o][l][i][d][e]####
````\``,`,``,,`,``,``,,`,``,``,,`,,/````
Last Edited by on May 20, 2010 11:18 PM
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Andrew
995 posts
May 20, 2010
11:50 PM
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I think the obvious answer is that it originates from when a group of people are playing, and instead of someone demonstrating the pitch on a tuned instrument and someone counting "one two three four", one person can start off indicating the pitch and the tempo together in a musical way.
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Kinda hot in these rhinos!
Last Edited by on May 20, 2010 11:50 PM
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captainbliss
102 posts
May 21, 2010
1:26 AM
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@Tweed:
/Why is this so and why not start the tune at the beginning of the first bar/
1. Bars are an imperfect way of measuring music.
2. Phrases (a bit like life, really) don't always fit neatly into our imperfect systems of measurement.
xxx
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