Time for some urban blues for those of you who choose to play the electric guitar?

Well, let's start off with B.B. King's style of playing.

This is a typical 12-bar blues in the key of C ... pay attention to the tied/slur notes that are held.
Ys, you can play this on the acoustic guitar, too ... it just might be easier to hold on to the tid/slurred notes for the duration demanded on the the electric ... but maybe not ... depends on how responsive your acoustic box is.

This should be fun and easy to play ... remember to tap your foot and count to get the phrasing right.

If you're not familiar with 9th chords ... now is the time to do so ... as I will be using lots of 9th chords in my urban blues transcriptions.

It's a good idea to use a tape machine or your computer to record the 12-bar format rhythm chords presented here ... no need to get fancy ... just play one chord per beat to lay down the 12-bar rhythm track ... then you can use that rhythm track to learn/practice the lead aspect. Be sure to count out loud while you record your rhythm track, so that you always know where you are when practicing the lead by hearing your chords and the counting on the pre-recorded track ... when recording the rhythm track, start by counting 1-2-3-4 for the intro measure so that you can play the 'pick-up' notes that occur ... then count as play one chord per beat throughout the recording.

Again, pay attention to the held/tied/slurred notes ... that's an important spect of B.B.'s phrasing.

Play it slow ... and it should sound fine ... pick it up to a medium shuffle when you feel comfortble with what you're doing ... at a slow or medium speed, this should be useful stuff; licks/riffs/chords throughout your future playing experience.

Once you start to get this down ... trying grimacing your face up when you hit those high tied/slurrred notes ... and you'll be a real blues player ... for examples of this "guitar face" technique see 'action' photos of our BBF pal Sean Carey/BG, or , yours truly ... or B.B. himself.

As always ... enjoy your time with the guitar.

Hawkeye

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... and here's page 2 of" Blues In C" ... in the style of B.B. King.

Note the added photo examples of the "grimacing/guitar face technique" mentioned in my previous post.

Cheers,

Hawkeye

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Hello Hawkeye,

Thanks so much,
Will try some of the standard tuned stuff.
Very new to the guitar so nuf said.

Just wanted to share my story.
I walked into the Queens lounge on the 2005 LRBC.
Didn't know who was going to play so just sat down and waited.
Had a bit of a headach and sleep deprivation.
You came on stage sat down and said something about not needing any instrument to sing blues and started singing. It was kind of wierd cause I didn't know any thing about you and had not heard that song before. After you picked up your guitar and sang a few more songs I loved it. Have been on a few cruises and one of the joys is to be exposed to new music and people. Love your music and passion for the blues. Great to see you on this forum.
Thinking we will meet on a future cruise, there is always hope.

BlusinBrotherGlenn

BlusinBrotherGlenn,

Thanks for the kind words/comments.
Yes, I always sing a capella when performing ... the blues came fromthe human voice ... not the guitar. That song, "Hawk's Worried Blues" is on my CD, Blues Alive ... and you can hear it at my web site and at:
www.soundclick.com/michaelhawkeyeherman

I'll be performing on the Legendary R&B Cruise again, in Oct., from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, along with Taj Mahl, Irma Thomas, Ike Turner, and many others.
http://www.bluescruise.com/

I hope our paths cross on the blues highway ... or on the blues high seas, again.
If not, you can always find me here at the BBF.

Again, thanks so much.

Now get out that guitar and give those BB King licks a try.

Cheers,

Hawkeye

Nice try, but you need to study Robin Trower a bit more

Cliff

Clff,

Yea maybe ... but ya see ... I'm so old and old-school blues ... that I wouldn't recognize a photo of Robin Trower if I saw it.
I know his name ... but not his music ... nor his facial gymnastics.
So I reckon you won't be seeing any Robin Trower guitar transcriptions from me, either. Sorry for my being so out of touch ... but I'm not so out of touch to not get the drift of your humor.

Cheers,
Hawkeye

Hey Hawkeye,

Just wanted to further explain the 2005 cruise experience.
Your performance moved me and inspired some inner blues passion.
You really woke me up that morning !
Great voice not easy to forget and your desire to pass on some of the knowledge and stories is fantastic.
As soon as I recouped from the cruise I was on the internet and on your site.

Thanks again,

BlusinBrotherGlenn

BBG,

Wow ... thanks so much for the kind comments ... my whole purpose in life is to spread the "gospel of the blues" ... even when I perform at festivals I can't help but 'teach' as I play ... I learned from so many great icons of the blues, now long passed on, who never questioned my motives, my skin color, or asked me for a nickel ... Lightnin', Bukka, Son, Mance, T-Bone, Sam Chatmon, Brownie & Sonny, Charles Brown, KC Douglas, Cool Papa, Furry, John Jackson, Yank Rachell, Howard Armstrong, Archie Edwards, etc. ... they gave me skills that have carried me though a life in the blues ... exclusively music since 1975 ... and my way of repaying them and the African American culture from which the music sprang is to share what I've learned along the way with others, of all ages. I am currently doing a 3-week residency at an elementary school in S. Oregon for the Oregon Arts Council ... last fall I did 16 schools in 8 (!) days for the Colorado Blues Society ... and the kids love it ... the program I teach is so popular (now having done it in 18 states and for over 100,000 students in 200 schools in the lst 26 years, from elem. level to college level) ... that I have to turn down more than 50% of the Blues in the Schools work that I am offered ... not because I don't want to do it ... but because I only have so much time ... between concerts, festivals, and cruise gigs ... so I don't tour on the concert/festival circuit between late November and mid-May, and dedicate that time of the year to doing educational programs. I'm really looking forward to going to France and doing a week of educational programs/concerts there for Blues Sur Seine in early November of this year ... and hope to make it to Germany, Belgium, Holland, and anywhere else I can get to before the Christmas Holidays.

If you haven't been to my web site in a while ... check it out again ... as we update it every few weeks ... the photo gallery is always growing (lots of great photos from the cruise we were on together ... and more recent ones, right up through the last few weeks) ... the Blues in the Schools page has lots of cool kids photos and articles ... and my pride and joy is the 'original articles' page, which has .pdf/downloadable files of many of the articles I have written about blues greats I've learned from, blues history, etc. ... and I give permission to all to download them and reprint them in blues society newsletters, or wherever. Of course, there are over 40 song samples, free listening, on the 'blues shop/music' page.

As far as my voice goes ... thanks for the most charitable words ... I worked very hard early on to become a singing storyteller (and am still working on it) ... not just a guitar player (still working on that, too) ... almost all of the folks I learned from in Black culture instilled in me the need to be a good singer/storyteller first and foremost ... the guitar is simply a vehicle for the song/story ... not the main focus ... there will always be guitar players who can run circles around me on the guitar ... but I was taught to find "my own voice and tell the story my own way" ... Otis Spann once said, "White folks like the music. Black folks like the story." That's where I come from. I spent well over 30 years in the Black blues scene in the SF/Oakland Bay area ... playing in clubs, concerts, bars, festivals, churches ... and what I witnessed and learned is what I try to pass on to those who were not lucky enough to have lived through such an experience. Blues is cultural ... not just the music on recordings and duplicating what you hear ... but so much more ... lessons learned live on stage ... and how five different people can sing the same song one after the other ... and each of them send chills up your spine because each of them has got their own style.

In 1969, when I asked Bukka White where the blues came from, he said, "Hawkeye, the blues come from behind a mule." I knew what he meant immediately ... and I proceeded to call my first blues band "Behind The Mule," so I'd never forget what he had told me. Ya see ... blues comes from the voice ... not the guitar ... you can't plow a field with a team of mules ... or even one mule, and play the guitar/harmonica/piano/banjo/sax at the same time ... you sing to the mules, a capella, as you work (and the mules respond to the music of your voice, ears standing up when you sing, and laid back down when you don't) ... and that's the origin of the music ... from the voice ... the guitar is just a vehicle and a luxury that came into the music when you were lucky enough to play music and be sitting on the porch or at a party ... but day in and day out, in the field, the blues originated from the voice/human spirit ... voice alone ... and since 1969, it is with that concept that I have always approached the blues.

So ... I ain't concerned about all those pickers who can run me into the ground on the guitar ... 'cause that's not my focus ... my focus is on the song/story and enough good guitar to move the song along ... I leave the hot-licks' to all those youngsters who came up outside of Black culture and whose focus is on blistering guitar playing ... and little or no attention to vocal/storytelling techniques ... the modern White shade of blues ... fine with me ... there's room for everybody ... and I've got my own 'lil thang' ... that's how I was taught ... and your recognizing it, and being moved by it ... is worth, to me, a million quickly played notes on the guitar fingerboard.

Again, thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to ... be myself.

Cheers,

Hawkeye