Page 2 of 3 FirstFirst 123 LastLast
Results 26 to 50 of 52

Thread: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

  1. #26
    🎶 Play Pretty 🎶 Greg Connor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    170

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    “You asked specifically about showing you some licks, so I’ll offer these two videos of Rich DelGrosso. I found it really fun and helpful to transcribe, learn and play these passages, attempting to find the blues feel. Pay attention to the timing, the subtle rakes, the slides, etc. and learn these licks and groove with them. Doesn’t hurt to analyze the intervals while you’re learning them, either.”


    Thank you, I have watched Rich DelGrosso before and found him to be an excellent example of what I’m lookin for.

  2. #27
    Registered User Tom Haywood's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    PTC GA
    Posts
    1,348

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    The blues are in the mandolin. Problem is the mandolin has such a happy voice. Bill Monroe's (and others') blues always sound so happy to my ear. There are a few Grisman bluegrass tabs on the internet where he plays "standard" blues licks that kind of get you there. Chicago style blues sounds can be gotten out of the mandolin with mostly note choices, down strokes, and shuffle timing. I'm not a lick player; to me the authentic blues playing is just a language where phrases are somewhat repetitive but not really. Standard licks point you in the right direction. When this thread was started, I happened to be tabbing out Hendrix's Red House to play on acoustic guitar transposed to the key of E. I tried just the intro on the mandolin in E, and it is very informative for iconic Chicago style blues. When improvising, I sometimes see the boxes in terms of the "relative major" key, so blues in E major that solo in the minor pentatonic can be looked at from a G major box. This can add power and get past some of the happy sounds.
    Tom

    "Feel the wood."
    Luthier Page: Facebook

  3. The following members say thank you to Tom Haywood for this post:


  4. #28

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Could it be that you are missing being able to bend notes as effectively as on guitar, harmonica, sax....?
    --

    2021 Eastman MD505
    2000 Master Works hammered dulcimer
    1953 Body

  5. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to randybrown For This Useful Post:


  6. #29
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    The mandolin has been a blues instrument for as long as blues has been around. No one's breaking new ground here, except perhaps in one's own playing. There are plenty of blues mandolinists to listen to and learn from. In 1903, bandleader W.C. Handy, the so-called "Father of The Blues," described his first encounter with the blues, when he encountered a street trio making more money than he and his trained, professional band could: "They were led by a long-legged chocolate boy and their band consisted of just three pieces, a battered guitar, a mandolin, and a worn-out bass...thump, thump, thump went their feet on the floor. Their eyes rolled. Their shoulders swayed... It was not really annoying or unpleasant. Perhaps 'haunting' is a better word..." (W.C. Handy, quoted in DelGrosso, Rich, Mandolin Blues from Memphis to MaxWell St. Hal Leonard, p.4).

    For anyone who wants to hear how the mandolin sounds in raunchy Chicago or Detroit blues, listen to later Yank Rachell, Johnny Young, Rich Del Grosso, and Lino Muio, for a start. There are many others such as Howard Armstrong and Carl Martin, who sometimes played very aggressive, heavy blues, but also lighter blues, and, in their cases, jazz, old time, and pop music. (Videos of these musicians can all be found on YouTube and on the Forum; see the previous posts, including Post #20 above). As a person immerses themselves in this music, they quickly see that a wide trail has already been blazed. A few good books on blues music have been listed above. For someone with a blues background on guitar or another instrument, interested in "Chicago" Blues, Del Grosso's may be the best. He gives online lessons too.

    I don't think anyone will find that the "happy" voice of the mandolin diminished the urban, electric blues performance below (if you can't connect, search YouTube for "Yank Rachell and Homesick James 5-28-93 Chicago Blues Fest"):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfYM...shortiebighead

    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  7. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Ranald For This Useful Post:


  8. #30

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Haywood View Post
    The blues are in the mandolin. Problem is the mandolin has such a happy voice. Bill Monroe's (and others') blues always sound so happy to my ear.
    It's not the voice, it's the vocabulary and the accent.

    Coming from a non-bluegrass background, I always cringe when a bluegrass player claims to be playing jazz or blues... and then uses all kinds of stereotypical bluegrass devices. It's an entirely different language, and hearing the results are like someone who claims to speak Spanish, but they're using mostly English while adding the letter "O" to the ends of words.

    Eva Scow and Aaron Weinstein (and others) can play jazz without needing to refer to non-jazzers like Monroe. And why would they, anymore than someone studying Shakespeare would need to read the French translation?

    I suggest that interested parties put in a little ear time woodshedding with the Master of the Telecaster, the Iceman himself, Albert Collins. This track has all kinds of licks which are all indisputably the blues,and it's better to learn from a native speaker than from someone who carries over a heavy accent from a different language.



    You'll have to embrace a lack of open strings or use a capo (Collins did, so it's okay!), and likely slow it down while working it out, but for those who start down that path by ear, the sky is the limit....
    ----

    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

    Love mandola?
    Join the Mandola Social Group!

  9. The Following 7 Users Say Thank You to Explorer For This Useful Post:


  10. #31
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    I agree with your point, Explorer. I don't play bluegrass, and find "bluegrass blues" far from my favourite blues. Furthermore, I used to get annoyed with rock musicians playing a "blues show" or leading a paid "blues jam" until I learned how many musicians need money, and will do nearly any gig they're paid for. (As one friend said, "I'm an Englishman, singing English folks songs, in the English language, while accompanying myself on English concertina, but if someone wants to pay to hire me then bill me as a "Celtic" musician, I'll be there.") Now, with the aid of the internet, I can usually find out in advance whether I'm likely to hear the type of blues that I want to, which, admittedly, destroys some of the serendipity of my musical life.

    To use your language analogy, English is spoken all over the world. If I go to twenty English-speaking countries, I'll hear twenty different accents and far more dialects. Within those countries, I'll hear numerous sub-accents and sub-dialects for myriad reasons. Even within Canada, some native English speakers are barely comprehensible to others. Some Canadians speak franglais, a mixture of French and English, in informal situations, though they are fluent in one or both the other languages. Similarly, the blues language has many accents and sub-dialects, and even contributes to new, blended languages. Cephas and Wiggins's Peidmont blues, Lightnin' Hopkins acoustic Texas blues, and James Cotton's electric Chicago blues are very different. These musicians would likely all understand each other's music, but they might not be great at playing together. in fact, I've seen a few train wrecks when young and old blues musicians of different styles were brought together at festivals, less so these days.

    Keb Mo', a blues musician who knows far more about blues than I do, includes bluegrass, rock 'n roll, and Doc Watson's music, as forms of blues, in his NPR series on the blues: http://bmpaudio.com/the-blues-the-hi...t-roots-music/ . Still, there is a difference between those who blues aficionados regard as "blues musicians" and jazz, rock, bluegrass, or polka musicians playing "a little blues." The blues fans might be entertained but not entirely satisfied by the latter. It takes knowledge of the subtleties of a musical genre, not just familiarity with general patterns, to play it well. (Exception is made for musical geniuses, who quickly grasp subtleties.) So, yes, if you want to play the blues, immerse yourself in blues!
    Last edited by Ranald; Mar-04-2023 at 4:09pm.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  11. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Ranald For This Useful Post:


  12. #32
    🎶 Play Pretty 🎶 Greg Connor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    170

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by randybrown View Post
    Could it be that you are missing being able to bend notes as effectively as on guitar, harmonica, sax....?
    Bending notes might be part of it. I think the root of my problem is finding comfortable finger patterns, double stops etc to pull out that blues sound. Thanks to this thread I’ve had a few “EURIKA” moments. I have found a few things that work, I’ve changed keys, and used a looper pedal to lay down a rhythm track to play against. It’s coming along and I’ll just say THANK YOU to everyone.

  13. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Greg Connor For This Useful Post:


  14. #33

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Explorer View Post
    I'm from a part of the country where Piedmont blues was the main form being played. I was lucky enough to learn guitar from the late John Cephas, and formed my initial harmonica chops taking private lessons from Phil Wiggins at his house in AM in DC.

    I later transferred those ideas over to mandolin and mandola by ear.

    One thing I'm gonna caution about is... bluegrass riffing and timing. I can hear someone starting with a blues feel, but then they switch to a bluegrass feel, a barrage of triplets or slides that don't follow the normal shuffle, and it's like, well, another dilletante!

    I'd recommend learning the scales, chord progressions and such where you can, but tgen listening to actual blues players to learn the phrasing. In fact, blues harmonica players have to play within certain scale constraints which prevent quite a lot of bluegrass scale phrasing, so you can't go wrong starting there.

    If someone is just going for a bluesy feel, by all means do that, but if one wants to play actual blues without bluegrass, limit yourself to the blues. Learn from the actual blues.

    Whatever one chooses, good luck!
    Bowling Green John Cephas and Harmonica Phil Wiggins! The only guitar lesson I ever took was from John Cephas, back circa 1985. I was a reporter for the Diamondback, the University of Maryland student newspaper, and I was covering a blues workshop John and Phil were doing on campus. John asked me if I played, and I told him I had been at it about a year. He said to come back the second day of the workshop without the notebook, bring my guitar and learn something (which I eagerly did)! Wonderful experience.

  15. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to L50EF15 For This Useful Post:


  16. #34
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Howell, NJ
    Posts
    26,875

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Ranald View Post
    ...As one friend said, "I'm an Englishman, singing English folks songs, in the English language, while accompanying myself on English concertina, but if someone wants to pay to hire me then bill me as a "Celtic" musician, I'll be there."...
    And suddenly I understand how it came to be that many years ago my band found itself playing yee-haw music in an Irish bar on St. Patrick's Day. Amazingly enough, nobody in the bar noticed.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  17. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to MikeEdgerton For This Useful Post:


  18. #35
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Nashville, TN
    Posts
    388

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by randybrown View Post
    Could it be that you are missing being able to bend notes as effectively as on guitar, harmonica, sax....?
    Just my opinion, but this is why a mandolin never sounds bluesy to me, no bending notes. Without the bending the mandolin just sounds like an attempted approximation using a blues scale. But some guys do make a pretty good job of it.

  19. The following members say thank you to Nashville for this post:


  20. #36

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by L50EF15 View Post
    I was covering a blues workshop John and Phil were doing on campus. John asked me if I played, and I told him I had been at it about a year. He said to come back the second day of the workshop without the notebook, bring my guitar and learn something (which I eagerly did)! Wonderful experience.
    I think I was at that particular workshop, and some of the tunes might have been "Black Rat Woman" and "John Henry." That and a few other workshops led to me taking lessons from them.

    Nice guys, both of them.

    I'm not in the area anymore, but I wonder if there are still blues sessions at the Alpha Tonsorial Parlor, aka Archie (Edwards)'s Barbershop.
    ----

    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

    Love mandola?
    Join the Mandola Social Group!

  21. The following members say thank you to Explorer for this post:


  22. #37
    Registered User Bren's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Aberdeen, Scotland
    Posts
    1,036

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by randybrown View Post
    Could it be that you are missing being able to bend notes as effectively as on guitar, harmonica, sax....?
    Doesn't seem to bother piano blues players.

    Ry Cooder and Rory Gallagher were two of my inspirations for taking up mandolin back in the 70s so it was blues from the start. Never occurred to me otherwise.

    The tension between flattened third and natural third, as mentioned by Don, was something I picked up from trying to copy Dr John piano licks. Huey Smith is another piano player I steal ideas from, that translate to mandolin pretty well.
    Bren

  23. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Bren For This Useful Post:


  24. #38

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Connor View Post
    Bending notes might be part of it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nashville View Post
    Just my opinion, but this is why a mandolin never sounds bluesy to me, no bending notes. Without the bending the mandolin just sounds like an attempted approximation using a blues scale. But some guys do make a pretty good job of it.
    Three solutions I use at various times:

    1. I slide indo and out of notes. I do it judiciously and rarely more than one fret. I try to emulate how it would sound if I was just singing it, scoops and all.

    2. I use a Dunlop glass knuckle slide or Shy Slide at the base of my fretting hand pinkie. I can use it comfortably on the top two courses, and can shift my hand to cover the bottom courses.

    https://www.jimdunlop.com/3420400000...p-glass-slide/

    http://www.jimdunlop.com/shy-slide/

    3. The JetSlide. This thing stays out of the way until I want it, gets the job done, then instantly lets me get back to fretting and chording normally. It works on all the courses easily, since it even works on my 12-string guitar. I prefer the feel of glass, so I use the brass bar (for the weight) with the glass sleeve.

    http://www.jetslide.com/

    If you want to hear how smooth sliding can be on mandolin, listen to those Indian players. Yes, they're playing electric usually, but don't use that as an excuse. Push it and you'll see how far you can get.

    Whatever path you choose to explore, good luck!
    Last edited by Explorer; Mar-05-2023 at 1:27pm.
    ----

    Playing a funky oval-hole scroll-body mandolin, several mandolins retuned to CGDA, three CGDA-tuned Flatiron mandolas, two Flatiron mandolas tuned as octave mandolins,and a six-course 25.5" scale CGDAEB-tuned Ovation Mandophone.

    Love mandola?
    Join the Mandola Social Group!

  25. The following members say thank you to Explorer for this post:


  26. #39
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Nashville View Post
    Just my opinion, but this is why a mandolin never sounds bluesy to me, no bending notes. Without the bending the mandolin just sounds like an attempted approximation using a blues scale. But some guys do make a pretty good job of it.
    So an instrument that has been used consistently in blues since blues began doesn't sound "bluesy" because it isn't a guitar or harmonica. Thanks for letting us know.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  27. #40
    harvester of clams Bill McCall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Forest Grove, Oregon
    Posts
    2,775

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Connor View Post
    I’ve been trying, but no luck finding anything that sounds like the Blues in my mandolin. I play blues harp and guitar in a pickup band every week and would like to bring the mandolin once in a while, but there are no blues to be found in that instrument.

    Can somebody please get me started with a couple easy licks?
    <removed by moderator, unnecessary>
    Last edited by Mandolin Cafe; Mar-05-2023 at 2:44pm. Reason: violates forum posting guidelines
    Not all the clams are at the beach

    Arrow Manouche
    Arrow Jazzbo
    Arrow G
    Clark 2 point
    Gibson F5L
    Gibson A-4
    Ratliff CountryBoy A

  28. #41
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    I wonder if not finding any blues on your instrument is due to having wayyyy to much fun, joy, and bliss playing it. There is a cognitive dissonance for me playing blues on such a happy powerful dare I say glorious instrument.

    Ohh... Never mind.
    Last edited by JeffD; Mar-05-2023 at 10:13pm.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  29. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to JeffD For This Useful Post:


  30. #42
    Professional Dreamer journeybear's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Northeastern South Carolina, west of North Carolina
    Posts
    15,346
    Blog Entries
    2

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    I know (or at least, believe) you're saying this with a bit of a wink. If the mandolin is indeed a glorious instrument - as I believe it is - then it is capable of playing an astounding variety of styles, genres, and moods, which obviously includes the blues. Examples abound.

    But there is kernel of truth in there, albeit not from the direction you intended. I have in my collection of instruments a resonator mandolin - not the steel or dobro kind, bit with a wooden ring around the body, flush with the back. It has a series of holes around it, presumably to provide volume. I found it utterly impossible to produce sad sounds on it; it seemed to be maddeningly dedicated to making happy music. It was very frustrating, and I put it away in deep storage, where it is to this day. So I can see some sort of support for the OP's assertion in this example. But I insist this is quite unusual, specific to this instrument, and no generalization from this occurrence should be made so as to apply this result to a general inability for mandolins to sound like authentic blues instruments.

    If the OP is having problems playing blues on the mandolin, it's most likely he just haven't figured out how yet. There's a lot of good advice being offered here. Apply as much of it as you can, see where it takes you.

    Aha - looks like this:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Belltone 1.jpg 
Views:	33 
Size:	293.3 KB 
ID:	206431 Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Belltone 2.jpg 
Views:	38 
Size:	309.9 KB 
ID:	206432 Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Belltone 3.jpg 
Views:	31 
Size:	453.1 KB 
ID:	206433
    But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller

    Furthering Mandolin Consciousness

    Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!

  31. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to journeybear For This Useful Post:


  32. #43
    Registered User rnjl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Hudson Valley, New York
    Posts
    369

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    OK it's time to tell my Yank Rachell story again. Way back in the 80's I helped run the University of Chicago Folk Festival as a student and one year we had Yank Rachell come up from St Louis. I got to meet him and hang out with him backstage for a bit and he told me that all those blues songs about cheating and women leaving and heartbreak and hard living was just a musical act. In real life he was happily married for decades, had children and grandchildren (and always had lots of pictures to show), didn't drink or party, was a deacon in his church and raised all his family as proper Christians, some of whom sang in gospel groups. When he died he had 25 kids and 40 great-grandkids, according to the NYT.

    That's an amazing life.

  33. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to rnjl For This Useful Post:


  34. #44
    Registered User Ranald's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2017
    Location
    Ottawa, Canada
    Posts
    1,733

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by rnjl View Post
    OK it's time to tell my Yank Rachell story again. Way back in the 80's I helped run the University of Chicago Folk Festival as a student and one year we had Yank Rachell come up from St Louis. I got to meet him and hang out with him backstage for a bit and he told me that all those blues songs about cheating and women leaving and heartbreak and hard living was just a musical act. In real life he was happily married for decades, had children and grandchildren (and always had lots of pictures to show), didn't drink or party, was a deacon in his church and raised all his family as proper Christians, some of whom sang in gospel groups. When he died he had 25 kids and 40 great-grandkids, according to the NYT.

    That's an amazing life.
    Though he also made clear that some of his musical partners lived pretty hard -- alcoholism and poverty were not uncommon -- and that he stopped going on the road for many years because his family values conflicted with both the travelling musicians' lifestyle and his ability to provide properly for his family. I'm sure there were many others like Yank but also many who weren't. You were fortunate to spend time with him.

    Have you read Blues Mandolin Man: The Life and Music of Yank Rachell by Richard Congress? It's a good book.
    Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
    "I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
    Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.

  35. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Ranald For This Useful Post:


  36. #45
    Registered User rnjl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Hudson Valley, New York
    Posts
    369

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Hi Ranald, you know, I've heard of that book, I'll have to get to it sometime. I certainly didn't mean to imply that all blues musicians were like Yank, or that he had any judgment of other musicians or the audience. I remember Yank being so proud of his family, showing me lots of pictures, and proud of being a deacon, showing me pictures of him dressed smartly for church.

    I have some great mandolin memories (and recordings) from the Folk Festival during my undergraduate days at the U of C ("where fun goes to die"), including Red Rector playing in my kitchen, Red doing a show with Jethro Burns, Mick Moloney, and Howard Armstrong.

  37. The following members say thank you to rnjl for this post:

    Ranald 

  38. #46
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    0.8 mpc from NGC224, upstairs
    Posts
    10,054

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Waking up in the morning and finding you've forgotten all you practised yesterday - that's all the Blues you'll get
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

  39. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Bertram Henze For This Useful Post:


  40. #47
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    North CA
    Posts
    5,020

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Just a historical reminder that much early blues was played by jazz bands.

    Yet most folks don't think of the trumpet or clarinet as "blues" instruments these days.





    https://acousticguitar.com/learn-to-...blues%20record.

    "The blues of the early ’20s, featuring mostly female singers—and song forms and instrumentation from vaudeville—is referred to as “classic” blues. The sound on the original is very Dixieland jazz-ish with contrapuntal horns and piano rhythm."

    https://acousticguitar.com/guitar-on...c-instruments/

    "on March 26, 1917, the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s “Livery Stable Blues,” "

    A turning point came in 1923, when three seminal blues artists made their first recordings. The first two, Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, were singers. The third, Sylvester Weaver, was a guitar player. His instrumental “Guitar Blues,” which the Louisville native recorded solo using a knife as a slide, is immediately recognizable as what we now call country blues."

  41. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to DavidKOS For This Useful Post:


  42. #48
    🎶 Play Pretty 🎶 Greg Connor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Minnesota
    Posts
    170

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    I’d just like to say THANK YOU for everyone’s help in getting me started with Blues Mandolin. Just a little guidance was all it took to get me going. I’m definitely a beginner but I can at least find my way through most things now.

    I play Blues on Guitar, bottle neck, Square Neck and Cross Harp Harmonica but that Blues sound on Mandolin was evading me. Now I found it!

    Thanks,
    Greg Connor

  43. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Greg Connor For This Useful Post:


  44. #49
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Haywood View Post
    The blues are in the mandolin. Problem is the mandolin has such a happy voice.
    Yes. Add to this how happy one can feel with a mandolin in your hand and 90 minutes before the next scheduled distraction. It is hard to feel blue.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  45. The following members say thank you to JeffD for this post:


  46. #50
    Registered User Perry's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Rockland Cty, NY
    Posts
    2,145

    Default Re: I can’t find The Blues in my Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg Connor View Post
    I’ve been trying, but no luck finding anything that sounds like the Blues in my mandolin. I play blues harp and guitar in a pickup band every week and would like to bring the mandolin once in a while, but there are no blues to be found in that instrument.

    Can somebody please get me started with a couple easy licks?
    This may help. I did this video a long time ago.

  47. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Perry For This Useful Post:


Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •