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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > 'But I don't like blues'
'But I don't like blues'
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Philippe
29 posts
Nov 20, 2010
3:45 PM
I was at a party yesterday, and I put on the Boom Boom cover by The Animals. I then notified the group that if they dislike any song I play, to tell me and I would change it. One fellow said this song was excellent, and that he likes pretty much anything *except blues*.

I, of course, proceeded to politely inform him on the matter: Blues rules!

It would seem many people assume blues to be slow and sad.
Joe_L
842 posts
Nov 20, 2010
4:36 PM
Philippe - People who feel that way tend to have never listened to much Blues. They are ignorant. Feel sorry for them.

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pharpo
436 posts
Nov 20, 2010
5:45 PM
The gentleman is confused...the song that he described as excellent - Boom Boom....is a blues song !
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BigBlindRay
12 posts
Nov 20, 2010
6:04 PM
Strangely enough, I was not into Blues at all when I first started playing the Harmonica. I took it up because I wanted to learn an instrument which I thought would help me to annoy others. So it was a toss up between harp and The Piano Accordian.

So i took the cheaper Option. 13 years later I'm loving it to death.

But you know what makes me sad?

Any style of pop music that utilises vast amounts of Auto Tune. Or anything by T-Pain.

Come to think of it. Are there any Blues recordings out there currently that use Auto Tune? I'd be scared (yet morbidly curious) to have a listen to it.

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chromaticblues
317 posts
Nov 20, 2010
6:50 PM
I'm like Big Bad Blind Ray! I listened to what is now called clasic rock. I didn't like blues music at all(or at least I didn't think so). Untill I started listening to blues after I started playing the harp.
nacoran
3278 posts
Nov 20, 2010
7:11 PM
Blind Ray, I'm not sure about auto-tune, but there are harp playing rappers out there.

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hvyj
843 posts
Nov 20, 2010
10:21 PM
There are some musicians who can't play blues competently and therefore don't.
jbone
437 posts
Nov 21, 2010
4:29 AM
since a lot of the roots of rock and roll come from blues this just points out the general unawareness of the public at large.
my band once hosted a jam. at the time i had gotten a big woven beach hat that had a tropical looking band on it, and wore it to a jam. during our house set all we did was blues and blues-rock. one half drunk guy kept yelling out beach boys song titles. at break he came over and asked when we would be playing some beach boys. i told him we were a blues band and he said, "i HATE blues"!. ironic since he'd been dancing during the first set to some shuffles we were doing.

a lot of blues and a lot of rock is based on the I-IV-V progression. rock sprung out of an urban desire for snappier music to dance and juke to. like Muddy said- "the blues had a baby and they called it rock and roll".
joeleebush
133 posts
Nov 21, 2010
4:57 AM
To jbone.
I know that guy, he was at my gig last night.
We had just finished destroying the place with "Night Riding Daddy"(Jimmy Harman) and that fool was yelling for............yep you guessed it, "Brown Eyed Girl".
Regards,
Joe Lee
Diggsblues
615 posts
Nov 21, 2010
5:04 AM
The idea of the blues has been destroyed by
bands that only play shuffle, slow blues, up swing blues. If bands don't do their homework and
discover the rich rhythmic part of the blues
they bore the average audience.

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Philippe
30 posts
Nov 21, 2010
7:31 AM
I started with classic rock too, then found blues. The harmonica helped deepen my interest/understanding of blues.

Diggs - well-said. I heard several bands limiting themselves to shuffles, very boring stuff.
harpdude61
491 posts
Nov 21, 2010
8:10 AM
A lot of people think songs like Sweet Home Chicago and Pride n Joy are NOT blues.
They say they don't want to go to a blues show cuz they can't dance.
Spead the word..Blues Is Cool!!
steve j.
73 posts
Nov 22, 2010
5:45 AM
As a SRV fan from way back, the statement that "Pride & Joy" isnt blues , sounds absolutely insane.
What would you call it then? If you wanted to say rockin blues, that would fit ,,, but not blues???
As a fellow Texan , I have to have Stevies back here.
Steve
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HarpNinja
784 posts
Nov 22, 2010
7:14 AM
A few things that kill "blues" bands...

The stereotypical image associated with mostly white men playing blues is boring to most people.

People associate the blues with primarily delta blues and don't get that it can be fun, funky, and danceable.

Musicians playing solely for themselves and alienating the audience (long drawn out solos using the same scale over and over, not approaching the show as entertainment, lots of crappy bands to compete with...).
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ZackPomerleau
1311 posts
Nov 24, 2010
11:03 PM
"Sweet Home Alabama" isn't blues, in my opinion.
Rev. Jim
34 posts
Nov 25, 2010
12:04 AM
Robert Johnson's "Sweet Home Chicago" is what he said, I believe.
Ed
1 post
Nov 25, 2010
2:46 AM
hi everyone I'm a newbie what key harp is best to accompany a blues song in open D
jbone
438 posts
Nov 25, 2010
7:49 AM
hi ed, for second position aka cross harp use a G harp. but in my opinion, open tuned guitars beg for a third or slant position harp. in that case a C harp played in 3rd position.

what the heck am i talking about you ask? your next move may be to find a "circle of 5ths" chart. google will bring up a lot of them, some very complicated. look for a simple one that shows which key harp goes with what key guitar in which position.

different positions in essence means you play the same notes as the root key- guitar- on a different key harp.

in 3rd position you start with the 4 draw and draw 3-4-5-6. then you can also draw 7-8-9-10, moving up and down with the guitar chords. if you learn to tongue block- cover 4 holes with the mouth and block the middle 2 holes with your tongue, and move up and down the harp, you can use all the draw notes which makes for great variety.

incidentally i am not a learned trained musician. i fly by the seat of my pants and have made plenty of discoveries by just trying things. others who see this question and respond may have other opinions and more knowledge technically, which is a good thing.

have you looked up Adam Gussow's lessons on youtube? a wealth of information is there.


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