Blues Standards

I am recently playing in a trio and we are doing Robben Ford, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughn, ZZtop and Scott Henderson blues songs, just for fun. Since I don't have a "blues-culture" I was wondering if there are Blues Standards, as there are Jazz Standards, which are challenging but also important to play to enlarge my blues vocabulary?

I just read a good article recently in Modern Drummer (with Ringo on the cover) about playing blues music. There was a good reference to the structure of the 12 bar blues, how to play for the song, use of dynamics, etc etc.

There's also some suggested albums to check out too from a listening point of view.

From reading it, the main point I got from it was that blues drumming can be hard to grasp as a concept. It's a challenge to ensure the groove is interesting and musical without it becoming too sloppy. I've always made this mistake when attempting blues covers in a band situation.

I don't think there are many standards because most of the songs are so similar, none are really challenging. THey might be challenging if you can't put out a solid feel without fills. Think Al Jackson. I used to tihnk of his playing as I was playing those tunes. I'd sometimes tihnk of Rod Morgenstein if I had a chance to open up a bit and play with subdivisions like he did on the Steve Morse recording...

Just add the right amount of grease, don't over do it... [img]tongue.gif[/img] Blues tunes are the easiest to fake your way through...

Agree Benrand. I also play too many licks that smell of fusion though - bad habit! Especially with texas shuffles and the like.

Again, the thing to do is listen to stuff. Buy a compilation blues CD if you need to (damnit, i can't believe i'm saying this! I hate compilation things), as they can be pretty comprehensive. But i reckon the thing is, once you've got a few tunes, you've got them all. I dont think blues is quite like Jazz, in the sense that there's so many different ways to approach Jazz and still sound good/authentic. I think if you were that "creative" (i dont think thats the right word, but it's the only one i can think of) in a blues setting the bandleader would probably tell you just to shut up.

Although the stuff you play is cool and what I like to play and listen to when thinking "blues", it?s not considered as blues by "connaisseurs". I was confronted with that last summer in the blues gigs I did with an experienced singer. People didn?t appreciate much the Robben or Stevie stuff we played; and the singer had warned us. But they dug the old and more authentically played stuff.

Here are some tunes from the setlist, which can be considered as standards:

I woke up this morning (Lightnin? Hopkins ) A
Rockin? Daddy (Howlin Wolf) G
The Thrill is Gone (B.B. King) Bm
Goin? to Kansas City (Muddy Waters) E
Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Dixon/Muddy Waters) F
I?m Ready (Willie Dixon) E
Baby, What you want me to do (Jimmy Reed) A

The challenge in blues is not technical but purely about feel.

Thanks for the input, especially Tombo 7/4's. And that feel you describe is the hardest part of playing blues indeed.

I would search the Internet for popular Blues tunes.

Here's a partial list of 'no-brainers': these are some tunes I play in a Blues band:

Sweet Home Chicago
Kansas City
Red House
Thrill is Gone
Everyday I Have the Blues
Stormy Monday
Too Tall to Mambo
Pride and Joy
Roadhouse Blues
Tush
Tore Down
Walking the Dog
What I Say

It is hard to keep the feel going. We used to jam out on Red House nad Roadhouse Blues for what seemed like days.

Most of the stuff we played had a Zep influence...which was nice.

Benrand- you're contradicting yourself...is it easy to fake or hard to keep the feel going?

I've playing for a long time and playing a good shuffle remains one of the hardest things to play well with the right feel. All my favorite drummers can shuffle their asses off: Jeff Porcaro, Tom Brechtlein, Steve Gadd, etc.

IMO you're not really playing Blues unless you're shuffling at least 50% of your repertoire [img]wink.gif[/img]

Of course, it is hard to keep the feel consistent and not get too wonky and easy to play the actual patterns.

It's a hell of a lot easier to keep the feel for a long time if you are playing with a good guitarist who understands blues feels.

IMHO...

The Gadd Gang DVD that was up on dime has some of the best blues drumming I have ever heard. I use it to play/practice to when I'm working my blues groove and chops. Gadd has such an amazing feeling, I just want to jump out of my skin. Fat, thick, and SWINGIN!!

If you have a dimeadozen account, I highly recommend you get this DVD. It's just simply some great playing.

You have to resist the temptation to play over the top of the time like one might in Jazz or in shuffle styles of other musics. With any blues feel it has to be on the back side of the time to give it some authenticity. I recently began working with a blues band after having been away from it for a while and noticed the time was feeling very nervous attributing to the fact that I was on top where the rest of the band was on the backside. This creates the illusion that the drums are rushing even though I might be spot on the metronome. At the next gig I made a conscious effort to stay very relaxed and to "keep it greasy." Playing on the back side can take some time to feel but when you get it it feels great, like a well broken in pair of shoes. And this can be applied to a lot of different things that have been influenced by blues. Dig out some old Duke Ellington or Count Basie records to hear this in a big band Jazz setting as it's just so in your face it's unmistakable. David Garribaldi is a more contemporary master of this. Check out his playing with T.O.P. and listen to where his backbeat sits. Recordings by B.B. King, Ray Charles and others demonstrate how a whole large band can just sit on it. Delbert McClinton's "Live in Austin" is another that just smokes. The real trick is to be able to play with this kind of relaxed feel yet keep the intensity going at the same time.

of course there are blues standards. its safe to say there are standards in all music (dont go there about free jazz). and if you should ever wonder what the standards are in the style that interests you, some cursory research would give you LOTS of info. so i am glad you are including this board in your research. there was a series of films produced by Martin Scorsese on PBS that provide a good jumping off point. (i treid to link to them, but they didnt work). you can always get info at amazon.com- scan the reviews written by customers.

remember: no blues = no rock'n'roll, no jazz etc etc. blues is the foundation of american music and should be respected as such. it is NOT "easy" to play authentically! like jazz or latin, blues has a vocabulary that needs to be internalized. to dismiss it as easy would be to dismiss its extraordinary subtleties, complexities and depth---BITCH!!!! (i couldnt resist)

i love it becuase its party music, release music and is usually a joyful process.

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ December 27, 2005 07:22 PM: Message edited by: dr-funkenstein ]</font></font>

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ December 27, 2005 07:27 PM: Message edited by: dr-funkenstein ]</font>