[BrianM]

Ok so where do I begin......... my name is brian, call me B. Just got a fender.... a very nice fender i g(e)(o)t wood every time i look at the thing.... NE way im looking a some blues to play. somthign that starts out very easy and will hit you after like a minute if you feel me. I love doing bends and pull offs i usually dont do alot of hammer ons, the blues i learned started out low E 1st then 4th then drop progesivly then work back up. but its nothing some dum de dummmmm tone. well icant type much more tired as s******* and i have to go make my living tomorrow.

[dorio]

Good ! Fender are trustworthy guitars. And the Blues, where we would be without
it...

Dadfad posted that fantastic piece by B.B King, in the Tabs forum the other day;


How Blue Can You Get




I really love it. Enjoy.

[dadfad]

Thanks, Dorio. I learned that tune from a really unknown old blues-guy who asked if I'd do a gig with him on harp with his band when his regular harmonica-player was in the hospital. I'd never heard the tune before then (or at least didn't remember hearing it). He played lead-guitar and did vocals. When he did this tune, his emotions were.....hard to explain. For the line "....I gave you seven children....etc...." he literally screamed them with tears running down his cheeks as he sang. Same kind of emotion throughout the tune, (At the end, he just shook his head and softly cried out "....just how blue, baby.....just how goddam blue......can one man get...." accapella, then closed it with a finale'. Sort of as I noted in the tab, but I can't really describe the intensity he used.). A few years later when we (my band) started doing the tune, we tried to do it the same way (as best we could). I don't know if I've ever seen anyone use the raw emotion like he did into that tune. Anyway, it's a really great tune.

[dorio]

I discovered it in the Blues Brothers part II. The way BB sang it with that super
band, turned it into a very humorious version. Quite the contrary of the old blues-guy you're talkin' about. Anyway, i'm tryin to learn that, and many thanks for the
tab. It's very well explained.

[dadfad]

Thanks, Dorio. I have a tendency to over-explain, but I guess it's better than the opposite. That tune wasn't too complex, but some of the stuff I do....fingerstyles, etc, are pretty complex tab-wise and if it was just lines of fret numbers it would be pretty hard to learn from. But if you know what positions to come from, fingerings to use and stuff like that, it all falls into place much easier. Anyway, when I tab something I try to add the little things that would be helpful to me if I were the guy reading it and trying to learn the tune. Again, thanks. I hope the tune works for you.

[dorio]

Well, to tell you frankly, it sent me straight back to the Blue Major/minor Pents
You explained it with a G C9 D9 and occasional C When i tried to learn it with
those conventional 4/4 G7 C7 G7 D7 C7 G7 D7.... That's the 'exoteric way', but
thanks to your tab, i'm back to the blue pent scale, which i have neglected. So, lot
of work with that one. Not to mention that Bb major pent.

[dadfad]

I love 9ths in blues. Not ALL ninths (usually) because then it starts sounding too much like jazz sometimes, but 9ths (especially in the IV and V positions) are pretty "cool" and laid-back. And they work good in a minor-blues too, like the "Thrill Is Gone" in G-m. Actually I like to do "Thrill" in ALL 9ths in the key of Cmaj (9). Or at least "around" a progression of 9ths. Like this (in a simple tab).....

(C9)The thrill is gone

(B9 to C9)The thrill is gone away

(F9)The thrill is gone

(C#9 to C9)The thrill is gone away

You (G9)done (F#9)me (F9)wrong (walk those through the position)

(C#9 to C9)You'll be sorry some day.........(G9aug5/7) (which is 323444)


Hold that G9aug just like you would a regular 9th-chord, but moved over one string. Then use your pinkie to bar the 1,2,3 strings on the fourth fret. Like this...

323444
MIRPPP

That G9sus is soooo cool (to me) when turning around in the key of C. It just FLOATS........ I love it!!!

When working in 9ths, the pinkie becomes very important. So its a good habit to get into just using your M, I and R fingers (like C9=XMIRRR) (barring the 1,2,3 with your R-finger) to hold it, which leaves your pinkie for other things. Like that G9sus above or, from the more common 9th position XMIRRR, you can use your pinkie added two frets up to create 13ths out of the 9ths. Like this........a C9 is XMIRRR. Add your pinkie on the 1 and 2 strings two frets up (now holding this...X32355 using XMIRPP). Adding 13th into 9ths is a pretty sophisticated-sounding way to move within a simple 12-bar progression and it really isn't very hard at all. (Throw a few 13ths on that thing above here and there and it really adds to it). If you have a problem holding those chords that way, believe me.... it will become very easy very quickly. Anyway.....That's all!!!



(And of course a lead-solo over it would be based around the Eb-pentatonic scale)

[misterM]

I kick ass at the blues

it's my specialty

exept I prefer a les paul over a fender
it has a nice bluesy sound too.

[evileye]

John, what's the name of that song you just posted above? I'd swear it's a song that I have here done by Harry Manx...!