how to play for advancement

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
I know, I am starting to ask a lot of questions...but, I took the plunge and bought almost all the courses, at the price, why not ? I want to go beyond the hack porch player I am

I went a little backwards to the beginning blues, because I wanted to make sure the more advanced courses, I had a full understanding to get the most out of them.

But, when playing the first exercise with the chords and fills, I tend to go off  on how I feel it instead of the more straight forward quarter note sound, I guess you could say I like to put my own stank on it. Things like playing a small chord, I am so used to the full b7, its easier for me to play that, the fills, I throw in a more tripela on it

Is this okay, or do I need to try and stay exact to get the most benefit....don't want to cheat myself down the line
 

piebaldpython

Blues Junior
No such thing as too many questions around here.

So, you're at Sitting Easy Blues?  OK, so you have quarter notes, quarter rests and eighth notes.  If you can play it "straight" with no problem and your timing is "spot on", then move on to the next part of the course.  "Timing" is HUGE and so long as you have it, then move on.

However, I would play the "little chord" version of B7 and not deviate from that as the "little chords" are foundational throughout Griff's courses and definitely geared for blues.

It will facilitate switching between comping and soloing.

That said, the Sitting Blues is a nice little vamp and you can always come back and embellish at will provided you can play it straight.

Personally, when I get something down pat, then I try to play the exercise using a slide for the solo parts.  BBG is great for working on your slide and interspersing it with rhythm work.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
thanks, actually, forcing myself to use little chords is tough for me.
I spent so much of my playing the past year, using the 6th string barre chords every time there was an opportunity, a G chord, third fret barre, A 5th fret Barre.....hopefully they will be useful later
 

piebaldpython

Blues Junior
thanks, actually, forcing myself to use little chords is tough for me.

Which is exactly why you should do them now, whenever possible.  Get used to them now, while the exercises are easy.  There will be plenty of chances you to use full barre chords, and then you will be ahead of the game.

If you are playing in a jam or group, you might not be required to play full chords, in fact if you do, it might step on others toes who are holding down the bottom end.  Little chords may make you more valuable as a player.  Griff has written extensively about this very point.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I'll second piebaldpython's comments.

1) Play it the way it is written (or Demoed by Griff).

2) If you can nail it (or pretty close) and you can count it, then play it any way you like.
The point here is: Don't play it "your way" because you can't play it Griff's way. MANY of us have problems with timing and in MY case, (I always used to play by myself), I tended to get lazy with my timing.

3) I had the same issue with little chords. Every time I tried to play one, my fingers wanted to play the full chord.
Getting used to little chords will clean up your sound in a multi-instrument environment. If you are certain that you will NEVER play in a band or church ensemble then full chords are fine, but I'd argue that you WILL eventually play with other people.
 

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
You can always finger the full chord and only play part of it, I cut my teeth playing Neil Young tunes and he rarely plays a full chord, usually just hits the sweet notes in them here and there
 

washbrook

Darlington, UK
Hi, I to had the same issues with the little chords as I too was used to the barre versions. Like you, I got hooked (started with BGU2) I then jumped in and bought many of the other courses and being totally new to Blues, realised I wanted to learn properly from scratch so also went back and bought BBG to start from there. I initially thought the little chords were the 'easy' way to play these chords that would eventually lead up to the full barre versions later on but I was wrong and I can now see their importance so I do think that the little chords are actually well worth learning.

I totally agree with MikeS three points too as I basically asked Griff the same questions last week and he explained basically the same things MikeS has said. I now know its definately worth persevering to play just as Griff explains in the courses. Griff has also put a lot of effort into the structure of the course material to help us all get the best results in the end, regardless of our skill levels and from what others have said here, the courses work really well.

Good luck (y)
 

mountain man

Still got the Blues!
Here is something to consider. When you play the BBG course you are playing a lot of stuff on the first few strings and off the nut. The more advanced players typically avoid playing the simpleness of the BBG. So this course is actually a good course for those folks too........
  1. Work on the course as written.
  2. Then branch off and play using more advanced chords.
  3. Then always go back and play it as written.
  4. Then you can alternate at will..........
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
great points......I took a few days off playing, then went back and everything played nice. For some weird reason, if I do the dedictate "x"amount of time to practice daily, I start to hit a mechanical type of rut playing.

If I take a few days away, and come back, everything seems to gel a little better........of course during that time, I picked it up and played a little elvis
 

Scotty R

Blues Newbie
No such thing as too many questions around here.

So, you're at Sitting Easy Blues? OK, so you have quarter notes, quarter rests and eighth notes. If you can play it "straight" with no problem and your timing is "spot on", then move on to the next part of the course. "Timing" is HUGE and so long as you have it, then move on.

However, I would play the "little chord" version of B7 and not deviate from that as the "little chords" are foundational throughout Griff's courses and definitely geared for blues.

It will facilitate switching between comping and soloing.

That said, the Sitting Blues is a nice little vamp and you can always come back and embellish at will provided you can play it straight.

Personally, when I get something down pat, then I try to play the exercise using a slide for the solo parts. BBG is great for working on your slide and interspersing it with rhythm work.

Going back and playing the little chords is a great suggestion!
Similar to another comment, I tend to only play the big chords as I mostly play alone. I will go back and try some of these tunes with the little chords. If nothing else it will be a good refresher and help me with my memorization and fills.
 

twbuff

The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!
For me, you have to know the basics and "work in side of the lines" prior to going out on your own and improvising. Follow the recommendations from Griff (or whoever is teaching) to learn the basics then venture outside of the strict lines. Perhaps the difficulty with playing the small cords is the exact training necessary to enable you to move forward? It also gets your out of your comfort zone and that is where the results occur.
 

HotLks

Blues - it's in me and it's got to come out.
As I work through the courses I dedicate time to learning to play them as presented. If lesson boredom starts creeping in I change it up. If I hear other songs or another groove I just let it rip for a while. After working with Griff's lessons is usually when I discover riffs and rhythm lines for songs I know and like. In the end it all ends up being gains. I think it's important to apply everything I learn in BGU lessons in as many ways as I can think of. This is why I like BGU so much. It unlocks many things for me that I was never able to figure out for myself. Now that I've had some BGU help other things fall into place. Get the maximum mileage out of every lesson.

See you down the road! :thumbup:
 
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