shamsterdam - Posted - 11/05/2013:  02:47:41

I see there was a post about blues on the 5-string a couple of days ago, but to make sure this is read i'll start a new thread.

I read in Tony Trischka's Banjo Song Book that a friend of him "has worked out some of B.B. King's breaks note for note on the banjo, chokes and all".

Ooh! That makes me curious! Does anybody have an idea about these notes? Were they ever published somewhere? I would like to try this out!

- - -

(I was going to say something about Earl Scruggs; that his style has a lot of blues and swing in it -- way more than a lot of musicians that play "Scruggs Style" -- but I'm afraid this post will go off-topic when I do...)

Stuntbaby - Posted - 11/05/2013:  02:53:24

I do blues on the banjo, play a version of Red House by Jimi Hendrix, with Harmonica breaks, also Bulletproof by the Alabama 3, also with harmonica breaks

Banjophobic - Posted - 11/05/2013:  06:33:57

Learn the standard blues scale and or how pentatonics work in blues playing.. A bend is just a way to reach a blues note from a non-blues position by stretching the string. With that knowledge, you can figure out any blues solo. 

shamsterdam - Posted - 11/05/2013:  07:12:58

Thanks, but why learn & study when somebody else did all the work already? (this would be a good place for a smiley).
Of course you're right but I was just curious to see how Trischka's friend interpreted BB Kings solos! (BTW ~ The lessons you make are great)!

Banjophobic - Posted - 11/05/2013:  09:25:44

quote:

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Originally posted by shamsterdam

 

Thanks, but why learn & study when somebody else did all the work already? (this would be a good place for a smiley).

Of course you're right but I was just curious to see how Trischka's friend interpreted BB Kings solos! (BTW ~ The lessons you make are great)!

 

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Because the work you do is what makes you understand whats happening-copying someone elses work without understanding 'why' is a waste of time. Like I said, if you learn a simple blues scale and how to bend a note, voila..you'll have all the information you need to figure out the notes BB plays. But the hard part (work), is getting your technique up to par in order to pull off that solo well. No theory can help you with that,haha.

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 11/05/2013:  10:47:09

Playing BB King on the banjo is not impossible, but that kind of blues has a lot of raw emotion behind it, and it's a lot more than learning licks or a blues pent scale. For instance, It can take years to get the left hand vibrato right (if ever). The licks themselves are deceptively simple. I say deceptive because simple can be really hard to pull off.

Good luck with it!

steve davis - Posted - 11/05/2013:  12:02:22

Listen to a bunch of good blues and get it in your head.
It would be of great benefit to hook up with some open-minded blues players.

JoeDownes - Posted - 11/05/2013:  14:00:45

Why not just tune your first string up to E and go looking for guitar tabs and tutorials? Most of the blues solo stuff is happening on the first four strings and you can play it the same way as you would on a guitar.

I play some blues guitar, too and I'd really miss the sustain when playing B.B. King style solo's on a banjo. I messed around with some banjo rockabilly stuff lately in G tuning, I think I'll try DGBE next time.

Edited by - JoeDownes on 11/05/2013 14:19:08

MrManners - Posted - 11/05/2013:  15:06:36

a banjo does not possess anything near the sustain of BB's Lucille,so his licks note for note are not going to be that much,plus his right hand would not be so much to copy, ,but the smoothness of his left is a pact with the devil kinda stuff.You will need to do more right hand notes per time frame on the banjo in my opinion .You can still get a blues vibe with the blue notes and bends etc.You might give a listen to some of the early acoustic blues pioneers.---Tom

PS bb said his first instrument was a wire stretched on the wall of the house

Edited by - MrManners on 11/05/2013 15:08:52

Banjelo - Posted - 11/05/2013:  23:05:32

quote:

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Originally posted by MrManners

 

a banjo does not possess anything near the sustain of BB's Lucille,

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    Most banjos do not have that kind of sustain.  However, the Deering Saratoga is an exception.  Too bad it is out of my price range.

MrManners - Posted - 11/06/2013:  05:18:42

i would have to hear that to believe it--i would love to see BB play one,a friend of mine owns a Tenbrook

Banjophobic - Posted - 11/06/2013:  07:31:36

Well, remember the goal here is to transpose the notes and ideas from BB's solos to banjo. That is no big feat, structurally speaking. Except for limitations in the octave range of notes, you can transpose any blues solo to banjo if you have the technical chops.  The goal is not to make your banjo sound like his guitar. The logical thing to do if you want that kind of tone and sustain is to use that type of guitar.

The real fun is in bringing those ideas to banjo and letting the instrument use its natural voice. 

Laurence Diehl - Posted - 11/06/2013:  08:05:48

I agree with that. JD plays lots of blues licks but it doesn't sound like he is imitating another instrument - just pure banjo personality coming through.

MrManners - Posted - 11/06/2013:  08:16:15

guitar.about.com/od/specificle...tab_9.htm

-here is some bb tab,i just don't think those long chokes and vibrato are going to come thru but i would love to hear it done,

i think they will die out too quick,but you could plug it up and put a mute on it,seems like marty culter may have went that way some on charged particles,it has been awhile,right he had a strat banjoized-Tom

Edited by - MrManners on 11/06/2013 08:20:27

steve davis - Posted - 11/07/2013:  06:26:03

There are various kinds of blues.
Reverend Gary Davis's stuff is quite different from The Allman Brothers.

MrManners - Posted - 11/07/2013:  08:14:39

same thing i was thinking Steve Lead Belly, WC Handy or Birch Monroe--or
Big Band ---Delta ---Chicago (muddy--howling Wolf)---70s rock type
1 chord -3chord -- zillion chord orchestrated

WNCBluegrass - Posted - 11/07/2013:  10:19:49

I have been playing different blues songs for a bit. I don't try to sound like BB, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, Lightin' Hopkins - but I don't sound like Earl Scruggs, JD Crowe, Mike Munford either (not that I would mind that, btw). I started exploring this when I decided I wanted to see how a banjo would fit (or not fit) with an electric blues band that plays Chicago, Delta, and North Mississippi Hill Country Blues. It's been a lot of fun.

For me to get it to work I had to decouple the banjo "the instrument" from a specific right-hand technique "playing method." I still use a repeating right-hand pattern. Might even be considered a roll at times but not always. I'd been told that the "only" way to play the banjo and fit into bluegrass is to use a three-finger roll. I'm not finding that to be the case. But, on the other hand, there are things that I do that bluegrass accompaniment doesn't work. One unexpected result is that my straight-ahead bluegrass playing has also improved. Looking back that shouldn't have been a surprised because I was becoming more familiar with playing the instrument instead of trying to play a song a certain way. (Hard to explain that if you don't know what I mean.)

BTW, the way I went about figuring out a way to play the blues was not only by learning the pentatonic scales but to also learn left-hand positions that use notes from the pentatonic notes with a right-hand repeating picking pattern.

Cheers!

steve davis - Posted - 11/08/2013:  07:51:31

I enjoy figuring out banjo accompaniment to the old solo performers of blues from the 20s through 40s.
I like not having an example of other banjo renditionsof a tune and force myself to think of what might fit.

Developing my own taste...learning the difference between what sounds right and what doesn't.
Like any music,you have to fit the person you are playing with at that moment so you can't just get a pocketful of rules to guide you...it has to be in the moment,imo.