On Practicing Guitar

Keeping The Blues Alive at the Wild Horse Tavern Blues Jam

 

I’ve always felt that the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving is a great night to go out, and this past Wednesday evening proved me right when I went to the Wild Horse Tavern Blues Jam. There was a really good crowd on hand with plenty of great players to create a spirited and highly entertaining musical experience. It was my first time going to the jam and I will definitely be returning soon.

I made some new friends and got to connect with some important blues musicians on the scene. I played a couple of songs with guitarist Dan “Bluesy Dan” Berliner and he forwarded me a video (above) of his earlier performances and the two songs that I played and sang, my own “Door To Door Blues,” and Muddy Waters’ “Going Down To Mainstreet.”  The video is about twenty-three minutes long and I come in around the eleven minute mark.

 

The jam was hosted by Jonathan Kalb (third from left). Jonathan performs and organizes numerous concerts and events, including a blues jam down at the Parkside Lounge on the Lower East Side that I believe is still running. Jonathan sang and played some very tasty blues on a ’63 Strat. My friend T.J. Hogarty (far right) was also on hand and I also met drummer Michael Fox and enjoyed a couple of songs by hot guitarist Johnny Allen. There was a great vibe and I hope that this jam will be running for a long time to come.

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The Dawn of Rock and Roll? T-Bone Walker, Part II

A hot summer night in Los Angeles, 1951. Ike Turner had recently waxed “Rocket 88,” in Memphis and Fats Domino’s “Blueberry Hill” was still five years off. With the birth of rock and roll at hand, T-Bone Walker probably figured he could experiment a little. And so, he recorded this eighth note boogie, married to a blues form with raging saxophones and we’ve got “Welcome Blues (Hey Pretty Baby).”

Aside from being a very catchy riff, the ‘rock & roll’ section of the tune, which opens the song and supports the leering, sleazy sax solo, makes for a good exercise in right hand picking and keeping up your momentum and concentration.

I recommend straight alternate picking, although I don’t always do this for various reasons. One is that upstrokes sometimes sound a little weak on the lowest bass strings. And in general, I don’t feel that sticking to a strict picking pattern will ever outweigh musicality. Music rarely does the same thing all the time. But in this case, it does.

Note: The repeat symbols in measures 2 – 4, 5, 7, & 12 are a valuable reading tool. Simply repeat the last written out measure; when new material comes up, play that. However, you have to memorize these patterns – the hand is quicker than the eye! If you have trouble keeping the tempo up, slow it down for practicing. To really get comfortable with it, practice until you can play it faster than the record.

Play along with the song. When the riff is not being played, feel free to wail along with the sax or over the vocals, although I would lay out during the stop time passages. How often do you get to play with such a killer rhythm section? Note also, the beautiful tone of the guitar and the catchy hook that comes in measures 9 – 10, utilizing space as a huge release of tension.

Another note: There are other ways to finger/arrange this riff on the guitar, perhaps utilizing only the E, A & D strings – try it, but remember, smoothness is key. Eliminating the G string adds fatness and consistency to the sound, but at the expense of ease of playing. Experiment.

The use of the capo may seem a little stiff to some. But, how many times do you see a picture of Muddy Waters or another blues slinger with a capo on their guitar? T-Bone often plays in flat keys, to help the horns sound their best. It can be a little uncomfortable to bend strings and improvise in the key of F with a capo on, but if you’re going to play the blues, both aspects are important to get used to. There are many great blues tunes in F, for example “My Babe,” by Little Walter. Capo I, and that riff sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?!

Smooth As Silk: T-Bone Walker Part I

“My blues is not screaming blues or howling blues but kind of sweet blues,” said T-Bone Walker. You could add the term ‘riffing blues,’ as well and you can see the evidence in the turnaround lick that is transcribed below. T-Bone Walker was one of the first guitarists to go electric and by 1950 he sounded smoother and better than plenty of young turks in the early to mid-sixties.

BB King was a devotee, and he shares some of his thoughts on this video. Both Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix were deeply influenced by his licks as well as his stage moves which included the duck walk as well as playing behind his head and with his teeth. Walker’s The Complete Imperial Sessions is a must have and of course you will want to cop some of T-Bone’s licks and figure out what he’s doing.

 

The section of “Evil Hearted Woman” that I’ve transcribed above is a long, smooth phrase that unwinds over the turnaround of the first verse. It’s a simple turnaround, with just a I – V – I motion underneath, outlined by the bass. The tempo is slow which provides a perfect opportunity to toss out a burst of quick notes in a kind of compressed free time. T-Bone’s rhythm is quite sophisticated with numerous triple and duple permutations, but what impresses me most is how the melodic contour matches the harmony.

Each line represents one measure. The first five note lick outlines the I7 chord (Ab7) and then there is a sequential descent that bottoms out on the fifth of the scale, Eb, at the end of the first line. An upward pass through the tonic ends with the note Eb at the very end of the phrase. Note how there’s a rest at the beginning and the end of the phrase. The first rest sets the stage for this brief solo, and the one at the end, which is really almost two beats, provides plenty of room for the entrance of the vocal on the fourth beat.

There are several of T-Bone’s trademark licks at play here. The first three notes with the quarter step bend will juice up any novice blues player’s solo. The first bend and release on the sixth degree of the scale, in this case an F, is something that most blues-rock players don’t do much, but T-Bone does it all the time so why not give it a try? Finally, the six notes that proceed the repeat of the first three note lick at the end form a dominant chord arpeggio, a jazzy touch that T-Bone always has on hand. Interesting how he starts and finishes on the same lick, huh?

One thing you may also notice is that he smoothly cranks out these thirty or so notes in rapid succession without the use of pull-offs or hammer-ons. Although your right hand picking may be challenged, this material is useful at any speed. But getting the speed up is an excellent goal – a perfect opportunity to add some chops to your playing that go beyond repetition or scale-based runs.

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A Delicious Double Hit

This past Sunday I had two gigs, a happy occurrence. It was a bit of a trial, because I was fighting bronchitis and had to sing lead and harmony at the first one and lead at the second one. Definitely an experience. The first one was with my friend Ron at HiFi with our new Gram Parsons Tribute project, and the second was at the Wild Horse Tavern with my soon to be renamed blues outfit.

I woke up late and started to get some practicing/warm-up in. On gig days, I’m always reminded of a quote from Rick Derringer that I read in a Guitar Player Magazine interview many years ago. He said, “Although I may practice for only fifteen minutes four times during the day, I’m going to have to play really well for two hours that night.” I interpret this in two ways. He doesn’t want to get tired from over-practicing. Also, the second half of the sentence suggests that he intends to refrain from any extracurricular activities that might get in the way.

So, as per custom and with the time I had, I did two twenty minute warm ups, playing lead, a few of the blues tunes that we would play that night and a couple of run throughs of “That’ll Never Happen No More,” the most challenging piece I’ve been playing lately, a fingerpicked number by Blind Blake/Hot Tuna. Around 5pm, I headed over to Ron’s where we ran through the country set. It went well, one of those lucky gig day omens.

The show at HiFi (top) went smoothly and there was a nice crowd, mainly friends of the organizers and house band, a friendly and supportive group, taking up most of the seats. About five of them were sound men, so, hah hah – the sound was great and it was easy to set up. Ron let me use his Martin D-28 Herringbone acoustic, which was a treat. While I was singing the Advil Cold and Sinus plus the strong coffee I got at the 7/11 across the street was making my hair stand up on end, but I was able to sing OK, it was fun but a bit hair-raising, ha ha.

I had to run out of there while the next performer was on, a kind of obscurity driven, hipster singalong, very nice. The cab ride uptown depleted all the money I would make at the Wild Horse, no problem; I forwent the free beer, sob.

The show there (above) was pretty good. I started to lose my voice about two thirds of the way. The crowd thinned out from the previous band almost immediately. We did some interesting tunes including a cover of “Come Back Baby” by Hot Tuna (there are many versions, I think it’s basically a Ray Charles song) which I have always loved. A major plus was the improved lighting at the venue. We’ll be back on December 13^th.