Here are some really great bargains for all of you out there with the cash-money to burn that you saved on your guitar education through the JAMORAMA LEAD GUITAR course. Head to ebay and type in Gibson – it’s a fresh month for big name celebrities! Lets put our collective money where are mouths are […]
Tag Archives: freddie king
Blues Fundamentals
After finding an online video teaching the two-fret (whole tone) string bend as a fundamental blues lick, there has been a certain degree of disagreement around the office as to whether this simple bend can constitute an blues fundamental.
How can something as simple as this elicit so much passionate debate?
Well, it`s all about emotion, passion and technique.
For me the ultimate blues lick would probably have to consist of only one note and some might say that maybe no-one has played it yet. I disagree:
On Freddie King’s “Pack It Up”, and “Shake Your Booty Baby” King takes this simple single bend technique and pushes it to its emotional maximum.
If you wanna hear simple blues playing that just really really cooks like a blister burning on the surface of the sun this album is the real deal. If you play the guitar and you`d like to develop the kind of passion and string control that will take you somewhere then this is one of the top ten albums in your list:
Robin Trower
Here`s English guitarist Robin Trower, formerly of Procul Harem, playing the title track from his 1974 classic rock album Bridge of Sighs. Robin plays his own signature stratocaster which is an EXACT version of the on eyou can buy through Fender although when playing live Robin tunes his guitar a full step down, to a DGCFAD tuning. Robin`s tone is achieved through playing into several Marshall heads at high, high volume. Hendrix comparisons have plagued Trowers work but anyone who knows their onions will notice that Hendrix` rhythmic legacy from his days playing with Curtis Knight and Little Richard for example is not present in the fluid legato and unhurried melodic content of Robin Trower`s playing.
1990`s “In the Line of Fire” is a great album
The Art of Guitar
IMHO, there are ways to shred and burn on the guitar that far surpass the egocentric simplicity and slavery to technique of that whole guitar school, speed focussed, sweep picking, notes for notes sake playing that occurs in a vacuum devoid of taste, subtlety and emotion.
Real guitar shredding is emotive, not mechanical, slick or polished unless it needs to be as part of the expression – e.g. a Freddie King Lick an Albert King bend, a Clapton phrase, the Leslie West tone, Hendrix` sustain etcetera…..