TOPIC: Fretmentor's Blues Class - Class 3

Hello Blues Class Students

In last night's class we covered the following:

1. How to play a Minor scale.

2. We compared Major and Minor scales while using one string playing up the neck. We also discussed how to converted them into Major and Minor pentatonics.

3. Right hand technique rhythm was addressed while demonstrating the difference between 8ths and swing 8ths.

What to practice the next two weeks:

1. Work with the file "guitartimingexercises" found in the guitar section under the Technique tab. This file is also found in the banjo and mandolin sections (if you downloaded them) and provides similar exercises for those instruments as well.

2. Review the Scale comparison found in the Theory - All Instruments section.

3. Print out your songs and become familiar with Minor Swing. There is a Tef version of this song's part One. You can likely also hear versions of this song on YouTube.

4. Learn the shuffle pattern found in the Guitar / Rhythm sections. The files is entitled Guitarmatchboxshuffle.tef. It is also renamed for banjo and guitar.

5. Listen to the files for Matchbox Blues and become familiar with the song


Now let's see who was paying attention. Here are some questions I want you to answer and discuss as a group below:

1. What do I mean about phrasing notes while playing blues rifts?

2. What is the difference in the first five notes between the Major and the Minor scales?

3. What distinguishes a major pentatonic and a minor pentatonic from its respective Major and Minor scales?

4. Explain what we mean by 12 Bar Blues and 8 Bar Blues?

5. Who wrote the original version of Matchbox Blues and how was it modified and by whom in later years (Tip .. review your history section)?

The next class is in two weeks (since the school is closed for President's Day next week.

Good Luck

FM

I'll take the first and last questions.
1. Phrasing relates to the feeling of a piece, grouping of notes, space between them, speed played, it's the guitar's voice in a musical conversation. Instead of playing 1 2 3 4, it might play as 123 4 or as 12 34.
5. Blind Lemon Jefferson originally wrote the delta blues style song and recorded it on two different labels. Carls Perkins revamped the song in a rockabilly style that became highly popular. The song was further developed by Ike Turner into an urban blues style song.

I started listening to songs by Memphis Slim who plays blues piano and has the style of blues that I like best. Upbeat and boogie woogie stuff.

Here is his biography FYI:

MEMPHIS SLIM BIOGRAPHY

An amazingly prolific artist who brought a brisk air of urban sophistication to his frequently stunning presentation, John "Peter" Chatman -- better known as Memphis Slim- assuredly ranks with the greatest blues pianists of all time. He was smart enough to take Big Bill Broonzy's early advice about developing a style to call his own to heart, instead of imitating that of his idol, Roosevelt Sykes. Soon enough, other 88s pounders were copying Slim rather than the other way around; his thundering ivories attack set him apart from most of his contemporaries, while his deeply burnished voice possessed a commanding authority. As befits his stage name, John "Peter" Chatman was born and raised in Memphis; a great place to commit to a career as a bluesman.

Sometime in the late '30s, he resettled in Chicago and began recording as a leader in 1939 for OKeh, then switched over to Bluebird the next year. Around the same time, Slim joined forces with Broonzy, then the dominant force on the local blues scene. After serving as Broonzy's invaluable accompanist for a few years, Slim emerged as his own man in 1944. After the close of World War II, Slim joined-Tone Records, cutting eight tracks that were later picked up by King. Lee Egalnick's Miracle label reeled in the pianist in 1947; backed by his jumping band, the House Rockers (its members usually included saxists Alex Atkins and Ernest), Slim recorded his classic "Lend Me Your Love" and "Rockin' the House." The next year brought the landmark "Nobody Loves Me" (better known via subsequent covers by Lowell Fulson, Joe Williams, and B.B. King as “Everyday Have the Blues") and the heartbroken "Messin' Around (With the Blues)."

The pianist kept on label-hopping, moving from Miracle to Peacock to Premium (where he waxed the first version of his uncommonly wise down-tempo blues "Mother Earth") to Chess to Mercury before staying put at Chicago's United Records from 1952 to 1954. This was a particularly fertile period for the pianist; he recruited his first permanent guitarist, the estimable Matt Murphy, who added some serious fret fire to "The Come Back," "Sassy Mae," and "Memphis Slim U.S.A."

Before the decade was through, the pianist landed at Vee-Jay Records, where he cut definitive versions of his best-known songs with Murphy and a stellar combo in gorgeously sympathetic support (Murphy was nothing short of spectacular throughout). Slim exhibited his perpetually independent mindset by leaving the country for good in 1962. A tour of Europe in partnership with bassist Willie Dixon a couple of years earlier had so intrigued the pianist that he permanently moved to Paris, where recording and touring possibilities seemed limitless and the veteran pianist was treated with the respect too often denied even African-American blues stars at home back then. He remained there until his 1988 death, enjoying his stature as expatriate blues royalty. ~ Bill Dahl, Rovi

Read more athttp://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/memphis-slim/467229#5jEsTVDTylyphwZq.99