Learn to Play The Bluesby Jack Hayford I moved to the South Bay area of Los Angeles in 1982 and started playing music in clubs in Manhattan, Redondo and Hermosa Beach. Although I was never a good "band keyboard player," and was always more suited to the singer-songwriter gigs (because I didn't have the chops and I didn't like learning cover songs), at one point I answered an ad and went out and auditioned for a rock cover-band in Orange County. I needed the money and I wanted to meet more local musicians. It went fine considering we all knew right away that I wasn't what they had in mind and I kept thinking, "Who am I kidding? I don't want to play 'Jesse's Girl.'" What has stuck with me, however, is something that was said while we were playing. It's like one of those examples of irony that maybe Alanis Morissette could have used in her "Isn't It Ironic" song (from Jagged Little Pill Since I didn't know what they wanted me to play, I suggested that we warm up on a song that I had recently written called, "Somewhere I Got The Blues," a pretty straight ahead I-IV-V Blues in G. So we played it and everybody jammed out on it a little bit until the main guy (the lead singer) in the band stopped playing (of course then we all stopped playing) and said, "Let's play something with some form!" I knew exactly what he meant: He wanted to play a song. Something with a beginning, middle and end. A cover song, as a matter of fact. And so we proceeded on to "Jesse's Girl," I think, or something of that ilk. But the irony of the situation was not lost upon me and has stayed with me ever since. We were playing the ultimate form-ulaic music: THE BLUES. But you see the band leader wanted to play a song with defined parts (the hallmark of a good cover band). That's what he meant by "form." And I had us jamming, improvising, over the 12 bar BLUES FORM. Why do I say in the title of this piece, "Learn to Play the Blues"? Because it will set you free! If you are just learning to play music, you likely are not improvising. You are trying to play the part(s) as written or as you are hearing them on a recording. The notion of improvising scares most budding musicians. You don't know what notes you can play without hitting a "clam" or "clunker." And you can't experiment with melody when you're concentrating on making the chord changes. Beginning musicians think of "improvising" as the exclusive territory of jazz players. And we all know that it takes a great command of your instrument to play jazz. But if you stay with the limited three chord blues form, and stick within the confines of the blues scale, you CAN improvise. (Not to mention, you can simultaneously improvise the lyrics!) BLUES BRIDGES THE GAP for those who want to express their creativity through music but don't play well enough to improvise songs that have a lot of chord changes or a difficult melody! SIDEBAR: I contend that the influence of Blues on rock n' roll music (think about Chuck Berry and Little Richard and all those early rockers who led us to where we are today in modern music) is ultimately responsible for the longevity of rock. Pop music became improvisational when the Blues started "coloring" the musical landscape. Black culture gave pop music SOUL, spontaneity, and the musicians the FREEDOM to improvise (to be a co-creator of the musical universe!). Take chances, EXPRESS YOURSELF. Learn to Play The Blues! (The fact that "The Blues" is actually the greatest feel-good music in the world is one of life's great paradoxes...don't you think?)
(a book on learning to play blues guitar by Griff Hamlin)
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