Help: talking blues guitar playing

Subject: talking blues
From: Mikey joe
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 11:00 AM

Can anyone help me with getting a decent sound when playing the guitar with talking blues. No matter how it just don't sound right, and I can't gifure out whats wrong.

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 11:46 AM

All I can tell ya is to listen to the correct way to do it. Then listen to what you are doing. Figure out what you are doing wrong and change it to what is the correct way to achieve what you want.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: Fortunato
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 03:06 PM

From this distance I can only guess, but I'd like to try.

IMHOP the talking blues is played almost entirely in simple runs. Very little full chord strumming.
If you were in G: Strike the sixth string then hammer on the 5th. For the C chord strike the 5th string and hammer on the 4th. For D chord strike the 4th string bass run back into G. (on the 6th string: open, 2nd fret, third fret.

When the song requires do the hold in D by alternately hammering on the the third string and striking the 4th.
When these sound good to you you might add a few bass runs to it where they add texture.
Use a full strum only to resolve the end of the measure or at other times VERY sparely for accent.

If you keep it clean and spare it might sound better to you. Hope this helps. cheers, fortunato

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: GUEST,Steve
Date: 23 Oct 00 - 07:52 PM

Listen to these Talking Blues- the playing is done virtually the same by the artists:
Talking World War 3 Blues- Bob Dylan
Talking Fisherman- Jack Elliott
Talking Guitar Blues- Cisco Houston
Talking Dust Bowl- Jack Elliott Talking New York- Bob Dylan

There are many more, but these are excellent examples of how the guitar should sound. Just twist your guitar up to the record, and play along....it will take you a while to get comfortable with the dry-humor "talking", but just keep at it!

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 24 Oct 00 - 02:21 AM

The trick with self-accompaniment is that either the voice or the playing has to be practiced to the point that it becomes an automatic process. Good singers don't sing as well if they have to think about where their fingers are going - fact! If you learn the talking thoroughly, you'll be able to put more into the accompaniment, but then you'll still be aiming at a thin performance. You have to either do a song unaccompanied or get someone else to play the accompaniment until you've learnt it to performance level. If the thing won't work in public without accompaniment, tape record an accompaniment and practice the vocal over that. This will let you see where your accompaniment is going wrong, if nothing else. I might add that this isn't my advice - it's advice I got about 25 years ago from Martin Carthy - but it's good advice!

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: Mikey joe
Date: 24 Oct 00 - 05:10 AM

thank you very much folks

Slán

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 24 Oct 00 - 04:03 PM

Sorry to be obtuse, but after a three hour car journey with my daughter insisting on listening to 'her' tape, it struck me on the fifth listening that Benny Hill's 'Ernie' is a talking blues!

You could 'ear the 'oofbeats pound ........

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Help: talking blues
From: GUEST,Jeremy J Woodland
Date: 25 Oct 00 - 12:41 AM

Hey Mikey, Talking blues songs usually use a bass type strumming that is quite similar to bluegrass playing. A melody (or melodic) note is struck in the bass, and only the top 3 or 4 strings are strummed. Try walking from chord to chord as well, ie. from a G to a C, play the G note on the 6th string, then the open fifth string, then the 2nd fret 5th string, then you are at the C chord!! ENjoy, BTW, Townes Van Zandt has some real good talking blues stuff.