Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Blues Jam On "The Grill Is Gone"
My first night back in Scotlandville, I was going to to a polished version of the B.B. King "Weird Al Yankovich" piece, but wound up just jamming on it in the fashion of musicians who have never met each other and settle upon "blues in B minor" as the congregation point.
When Elvis jammed with the Beatles, they just did a blues jam in E, not the greatest song ever (I mean Elvis AND the Beatles, what star power!)
So, here is last nights blues jam.
Today's song, I'm not posting because I picked the wrong drum beat, yet still went ahead with the project; with mediocre results....

4 comments:

  1. The Internet won't let me listen to "The Grill Is Gone" much less any blues jam on it. I think you should forget about this counterproductive hi-tech stuff and just work on trying to sound good. Homeless Mustard was smart this way, worked on sounding musical, and knew if he sounded good, sooner or later one of these kids with thousands of dollars for the latest phone would tape him and it'd go viral.

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  2. Yeah, my problem with putting myself in "the void" while sitting in front of a computer and doing the guitar without singing (I have found that I organize chords based around words, ...go to the D major on the word "blooming" in Sugar Magnolia, for example), and then, singing with no physical movement to coordinate the forcing of air out of my lungs (I have found that I actually time certain strums with exhaling and contracting the diaphragm, so that it is like a dance, or juggling and riding a unicycle...and chewing gum) but, I hope you get to listen to the grill jam, there are spots in it where the two guitars mesh into stuff that I would like to transcribe onto sheet music, complex chords sounding that one might think are out of the scope of that particular three chord artform...but; I persist
    I like to think that your comments; well, let me give you an example...when Steve Vai was in the studio with David Lee Roth, working on their first album (Eat 'em And Smile) [always a sexual innuendo from David Lee "Full Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" but, Steve went into the studio and blasted out a killer solo on the first song, and Dave, just f*** with him, shook his head and said something like "I don't know, that was a little lame"
    His personal pride offended, Steve went back in the studio and ripped off one of the amazing ones on that disc (check it out) and came back out where Dave, his jaw dropped open, tried to say that he was only kidding...
    That being said, I *probably* am not a Steve Vai, although I would like to see him write a song about the dogs getting into a carcass, but, your comments have helped me kind of sober up, musically, and realize that, yeah, maybe those drunks on Bourbon Street who chance upon me and, in their state of mind, think that I am a diamond in the rough...maybe they never DO e-mail me the videos of myself as promised because they listen back and think "I was pretty drunk when I shot this.."
    But, todays post has a song that I intended to sound just like I do on the street, except I couldn't resist imagining that Sue was sitting next to me, playing the ocinero...as you,ll see...internet permitting..

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  3. Uh, you're not a Steve Vai. In fact you're not even a Mr Van Driesen, the hippie teacher on Beavis And Butt-Head, whose most famous tune was "Lesbian Seagull".

    Unless you're just begging using a guitar as a prop, you have to be better as a guitarist on the street than say, one who has connections and gets to play in coffee shops.

    Now if all you *are* doing is using the guitar as a prop to beg, might as well be honest with yourself. It's probably why you do OK in NOLA, you can do just about anything and someone will toss you something. If that is what you are doing, then work on having lots of "flair", paint a cat's head on your guitar etc., because people are paying you for appearance, not (ugh) "music". And, drunks have poor impulse control. "Heyy, lookit, geetar guy!! Give geetar guy dollah, woops it's a 5, ookay, dat's ookay, the world is so drunk and I'm so happy!" they have whatever is the auditory version of "beer goggles".

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  4. wow, awesome article post.Thanks Again. Really Great.

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