performance

The video of Beginning Student Hob Bosold rehearsing for the student concert is now up at http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/hob_bosold

My personal favorite way to open a song is to play the opening four bars of the I (one) chord by myself, with the band entering on the IV. The band will interpret the tempo of the song from my playing, so there's no need to count anyone in (tempo errors are more likely to happen when you count the band in verbally). You also don't need to tell the band the feel of the song in most cases (shuffle, slow blues, swing, etc.). What you'll play will be rhythmic, and the use of eighth notes (swing or straight) will tell them the groove. continue reading...

The next most common place to open a song is from the V. This is bar 9 in the 12 Bar Blues Progression. Even though there is a V Chord associated with the turnaround in bar 12, it's known that "The V" only means bar 9.

There are three options to this opening type...

1) You and the entire band starts from the V ("All In")... "E, Shuffle, From the V, All In" continue reading...

The common way to count a song in is to just count 1 2 3 4 and away you go. If the bandstand is loud and you need to get the attention of the band, use a pre-count. The pre-count is 1 (skip a beat) 2 (skip a beat) and then proceed with your standard four count. The end result is 1 . 2 . 1 2 3 4.

The pre-count is also useful/needed when the tempo is very fast and 1 2 3 4 is too quick for all of the musicians to get ready to play (the drummer to sit up on their throne... bass and guitar players to turn their volumes up... harp player to get their harp to their lips, etc.). continue reading...

Now provided in this lesson is a PDF list of famous songs that contain the grooves we cover in this lesson. For those that have not studied this lesson, join me and a group of the most experienced harmonica-backing blues musicians on the planet for a lesson on Grooves. Our band for this lesson is Rusty Zinn (guitar), RW Grigsby (bass) and Marty Dodson (drums). continue reading...

Last tip I spoke briefly about counting the band in. The most common error on the bandstand is to count the band in at the wrong tempo (commonly too fast due to being excited). The key point I stated was to hear the song in your head before tapping your foot and counting. continue reading...

Our first type of opening is simply from the beginning of the 12 Bar Blues Form, from the I (from the one... we use Roman numerals for chords). The speech will be as follows for "Need My Baby" by Big Walter Horton...

1) "G"

2) "Shuffle" (in this case with a Quick Change)

3) "From the I"

4) Count the band in and play continue reading...

A common question I get asked is how fast 4/4 time is. The 4/4 at the beginning of a line of music doesn't indicate the tempo of a song, it indicates how many beats are in a bar (4 in this case) and which note value receives the beat (quarter note in this case). This 4/4 is what's known as the Time Signature.

Tempo is up to the player, even when playing a known song. continue reading...

Let's use an example of a common error when performing a memorized piece of music to a backing track or live band. Let's say that you accidentally rest for 5 beats after a phrase instead of the required 6. You've worked on your song so much to memorize it that you have the spacing worked out between each lick so well that if you're not saving some of your mental power for listening to the band as you play to make sure that you are where you're supposed to be in the form, then you'll most likely stay out of time for a loooong time.

Here's a tool you can use... continue reading...

School of the Blues students rehearsed for their Fall student concert Sunday and one of the areas they could have benefited from doing beforehand was to listen carefully to what the band was doing in their song. They did work out what the groove was, the key, the opening, ending and if there were breaks, but what they missed was what the instruments were doing within the groove of their song. In many cases this level of detail was not needed, but in some it was essential. continue reading...