Dave & King of the Blues

[Steve G]

Dave, I'm glad this thread got uptated & attracted my attention so I could hear you play.   First off, you were great, and secondly, what an example you set for those of us(definitely me anyway) who wish we had the intestinal fortitude to get up on stage & do something like that.  Thank you and all the others who have posted similar experiences for giving a lot of us members something to aspire to.

John,  we already have three guitars for my Thanksgiving feast but we could use a drummer.  I know it's a long trip, CA being on the other side of the world & all, but I was wondering... .   Must be a bit frustrating for you, but musical versatility is a talent to be admired.

 

[johnc]

Thanks steve sometimes I think it is a curse, drumming. All that awkward hardware.  I really love the bass but never had the opportunity to play.  Maybe one day I'll get back to it.

 

[Garymcm]

Quick Question John

our little group of three that jam together (and argue about perfoming for bloody anyone - family, friends, the trees....) are all guitar players. I can usually get some drum sounds together from somewhere (my daughters roland keyboard has some pretty good sound that we can use), but it annoys me to have 3 people play the same thing (I've started using some blues scales solos (3-6 notes at a time,  just to break the monotomy).
But I;ve been thinking of buying and playing a bit of bass just to spark things up (some of the packaged bass kits (guit, amp etc) and not that expensive, but I know bugger all about bass. How easy is it to be able to get togther some basic bass riffs and rythms. i dont want to take too much time away from BGU, but if I dont, I'm gonna scream if I hear all three guitars strumming the same bloody chords to the same bloody songs ( and I dont want to p.ss anyone off cos there good blokes and i dont have anyone else to play with).

Cheers
Gary

 

[johnc]

Gary I feel your pain.
3 guitars can definitely get messy. And you need to be a bit creative and make sure you are not playing the same chords or at least the same positions.
2 guitars are fine if one is predominantly rhythm and the other offering some melodic patterns or some partial chords in a different positions to the rhythm.
An acoustic 6 or 12 string just stummed and mixed lightly can be nice.
You can only try to encourage the guys to consider these things even if you get one on the open fingerings and one on bar chords.

I would be happy to pick up the bass and play along rather than add another guitar as well.  With your knowlege already gained on guitar you should be able to pick up some bass lines.
I would encourage you to do it, if you can afford the extra gear and have some time to learn at least the basics.

It would actually be good for you and should make you think more about the scale you are working with and what notes are in the chords.

I reckon for every drummer or bass player there are 10 guitar players who wont or can't play anything else.  A second instrument is definitely a good thing.
I am only very very basic on bass, but do love the opportunity to play it and maybe some more down the track.

 

[Garymcm]

Thanks for that John.
Its beginning to drive me crazy. both of the other guys are ex-farmers and very conservative and dont want to try things that are a bit different or to experiment a bit (one cant play barre chords so playing in different positions for him doesnt; work). While i'm not the best guitarist, i dont care about making a goose of myself by duffing notes or stuffing up a small solo (its only a fun jam) and I'm finding that I'm growing as a player just by stuffing around. Yesterday we got together for an hour while the kid played and i made a point not to play any of the chords of the songs we were playing (Mainly Flame Trees - and as its in A, I just noodled around the minor pentatonic) some sounds were good, others crap. At one point a neighbour came in and said that it was sounding good (she's not noted for being complementary!!). So some of this course is really rubbing off. The others struggle with songs that dont sound exactly the same as the record - I'm happy with following the theme or sound rather than note for note stuff - in all honesty I am never going to be able to play SRV note for note anyway!!! but can sound sort of like him sometimes).
I'm in Perth for a course next week, might skip a few hours here and there and have a bit of a look around - will also need to think of how to tell my wife that I need more room for another guitar and amp. Can you recommend any book or short course or can you get way with playing the main notes of the chords that the others are playing???
GAry

 

[Pete R]

Dave, I've been a little out of touch lately and can't believe I didn't see this until now.  Congrats, man.  You did a great job and have inspired me to give it a try next year as well.  You're truly an inspiration to all of us.