is really not up to your other material, in my opinion markola...sorry
but this is not enjoyable to listen to from a blues standpoint. the
guitar tone, while interesting, is not a blues tone, at least not a
standard one. Nothing wrong with changing things up, but you have
to use your tone to express feeling. So the tone must help create the
dynamic...loud and soft, happy and sad...this tone is too industrial and
too one level to express anything. It is i single intesity and volume all
all the way thru.

Secondly...to sound bluesy, you really have to stick right around the
pentatonic scale , escpecially in a blues this structurally simple. To
have it sound like blues, you have to use the blues vocabulary. Your
excursions into strange modes and chromatic runs are misplaced and
very un-melodic. This is not the direction you want to go in if you
want to develop a blues style.

Go back and listen to the cats Jimi learned from...the Kings(bb, freddie
and albert). Listen to TBone Walker. Find some howlin wolf records
and listen tohis guitarist, Hubert Sumlin.

and try and get your voice with just the guitar and amp....learn from
the bottom up, don't start at the 12th floor! Then you can try and add
expression with your effects.

Your harp playing is much more bluesy....more taseful use of phrasing
and a natural blues tone.

Just my thoughts...I have been playing blues for a long time, and
wasted alot of my time doing what you have done here....don't make
that mistake if you are serious about being a blues player.

I also Highly recommend the blues drumbeat package put out by
betamonkey. Playing over real blues grooves will help enormously as
well.

Good luck, and if there's anything i can do to help, let me know!

z

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I just had a mild heart attack......

Ok I'm alright now.

This is going to take all night to answer.

First, thanks for taking the time to listen. So you like my other stuff, well
that's good.
I have loved and listened to the blues for 37 years, that's since I was 12 so I
know what the sound of good blues is and thats why I like your blues touch
and many others.
I've never been in a band, never learned how to read music, I can't afford a
amp or a new guitar. I got a old Teisco that I bought 26 years ago for $5 out
of some ones shed in Seattle. I can hardly remember chords and I don't think
I could repeat any of the playing I do.
I don't know quite how to explain how I play. It's all by ear. A pentatonic scale
makes about as much sense to me as the stock market. I started to play after
many years when I got my iMac recently. I wish I had one when I was 20.

A blues style is not what I'm going for and I'm not serious about being a blues
player. I just play the blues (my blues) and if it sounds good to me I save it, if
it doesn't I trash it. I have some talent and I'm exploring it. That's why I post
my work, to get feedback. So thanks for your input.

Your right about the drumbeat and bass grooves. The few times I have
jammed with experienced musicians I did sound better.

If you have some unused blues bass and drum tracks... well let me know.

MO

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Hi...yes actually...when i first got some recording software, before gb, i went
to the music store and got some disks thet were blues bands playing with no
vocals or solos, just the rhytm tracks....it is helpful to play to the right feel.

i still got the disks kicking around somewhere...I'l give a look and convert
some tracks and send them to you...they are not great...but solid and
different keys and tempos.

I am glad you took my comments with the positive attidude...as they were
intended!


keep playing...you have a nice feel, and a nice natural ear!

z

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That's great news ziti, looking forward to hear from you.

................I'm to old to get to upset.

Peace.

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this may not have that traditional blues tone but maybe thats not what you were looking for?still pretty cool and hendrixy keep rockin.

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Thanks paralax, you kind of made my day.
I'm not looking, just playing.

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I don't mind the occasional excursion from the pentatonic blues box.
I'll agree that the tone and intensity level is a bit too consistent--it
helps to build it up over time toward a climax or crescendo....I went to
see Johhny Winter once, and he spilled every lick had in the first two
tunes, then just kept spilling them over and over again. The technique
was jaw-dropping, but overall, the concert got kind of boring 'cause
there was no variation in intensity.

As for backing tracks, I'm pretty inexperienced with GB loops, but I
picked up at couple CD's off this guy's site and I really dig jammin both
guitar and harp with them: http://www.peteschmidt.com/
petemusjam.html.

Kepp on rockin!

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Hi, glad you liked.

Funny you mention Johnny Winter. He´s one of my favorites, cought him in
Philadelphia once. Maybe that´s where I got the sound. I just picked one of
my presets in GB and recorded it. Sounded good then and still does to me.

I checked the backing tracks you mentioned and downloaded some samples.
They sound good. Also checked out one of his recording links and found a
great harp player David Rotundo from Toronto. Johnny Winter had a great
harp player, Pat Ramsey. Here´s a link to some of his tunes if you like.
http://www.patramsey.com/clips.php

Thanks for listening.

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