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If one were
to oversimplify the meaning of “the blues”, one might call it music that is
played slow and sad, with lyrics that tell a story of grief, loneliness,
depression, tragedy and despair. The actual history, however, goes much deeper
than that and it is everything but simple.
The blues
emerged as a bi-product of the pain and suffering sustained by blacks at the
hands of white slave owners in the Deep South during the during the 18th
and 19th centuries in the United States.
On any given day, from the
cotton fields of Texas to the levees in the Mississippi Delta and up throughout
the South, one could hear the wailing of “field hollers” piercing through the
hot Dixie air. These lamenting lyrics personified a hellish tale of tragedy and
hopelessness.
Each black
slave had his own particular style of holler, which became his unique
identification. The hollers were slow in tempo and were always sung by a solo
voice without an actual rhythmic pattern. The melodic phrases with their minor intervals
always gave a melancholy character to the theme.
With the end of the Civil War in 1865 and new found freedom for most slaves, a migration north began. Many ex-slaves headed north in search of a better life. Many decided to remain in The South. There was a large migration from Mississippi into New Orleans.
For the black slave, musical
instruments were expensive and difficult to come by. This, however,
did not deter creativity. Industrious blacks created instruments out
of jugs, washboards and almost anything capable of making noise. The
kazoo was created and later patented by a black musician.
As this unique sound spread, it became
more popular. White musicians began to pick up on the mechanics of
playing the blues. But to really be able to pull it off and go beyond
the mere mechanics, a memory of some kind of genuine, profound
suffering needs to be there to draw from. This ability to mentally
re-experience this suffering and allow it to flow into the musical
instrument is what separates a mere musician from the genuine
article.
That lesson clearly taught me that
having knowledge and conveying knowledge are very
different animals . Sometimes a teacher who has had to struggle to
master something may turn out to be a better teacher than one that
quickly and easily grasps and understands complex ideas. The teacher
who has struggled has been forced to develop multiple pathways along
which complex ideas had to travel in order to reach a complete
understanding. This teacher is usually quite sensitive to why and
where a student is stuck in his or her understanding.
Learning to play blues guitar is no
different. The best online guitar lessons require a good teacher who can convey
understanding. This cannot be measured by the virtuosity of the
teacher or how many hours of training videos a course offers. Great
blues guitar teachers come in a variety of packages...old, young,
male, female and in a variety of colors. The course I am
recommending here is taught by an old white man with an Australian
accent. What could be farther away than that from the cotton fields
of Mississippi?
I think that when you examine this
course you will find it quite comprehensive and quite good. The intro
video on the home page gives you a feel for the variety styles of some of
the great blues artists. It zeros in on the placement of the hands
and the number of fingers used to produce a certain effect. Most of
these blues greats were self-taught. You will see some amazing feats
with just one finger. An emphasis is placed on developing your own personal style while learning various techniques from the masters.
These factors plus a gut feeling permit me to me rate this course an easy 4 1/2 stars. An added plus is that the course is extremely inexpensive.
With the end of the Civil War in 1865 and new found freedom for most slaves, a migration north began. Many ex-slaves headed north in search of a better life. Many decided to remain in The South. There was a large migration from Mississippi into New Orleans.
As more and more blacks began to
acquire banjos, guitars and horns , the blues began to take on its
familiar persona. The blues is a uniquely American experience forged
by the cotton fields of Dixie.
With the acquisition of the guitars and
horns, blacks before long had trained these instruments to cry and
personify their most intimate and sacred feelings. They began to bent
and shake the sound at the end of notes bringing them to life and giving them
their own unique personality. Jazz owes its evolution out of this
experience called the blues.
As this unique sound spread, it became
more popular. White musicians began to pick up on the mechanics of
playing the blues. But to really be able to pull it off and go beyond
the mere mechanics, a memory of some kind of genuine, profound
suffering needs to be there to draw from. This ability to mentally
re-experience this suffering and allow it to flow into the musical
instrument is what separates a mere musician from the genuine
article.
Being a slave is certainly not a
prerequisite for playing the blues. Most people can relate to grief
and suffering somewhere in their lives. The more the suffering the
more to draw from. But no matter how much suffering one has in one's
life, without the mechanics of playing the instrument... there will
be no blues.
I learned early on that a virtuoso does
not necessarily translate into a good teacher. I once had a math
teacher who was a renowned mathematician. One day I and several other
students needed clarification on a certain aspect that he had just
explained. After a few more failed attempts to clarify, he finally
threw up his hands in frustration and uttered the dreaded words “I
just don't know how to explain this any simpler”. A wave of fear
went through the room as students began looking for the exit.
That lesson clearly taught me that
having knowledge and conveying knowledge are very
different animals . Sometimes a teacher who has had to struggle to
master something may turn out to be a better teacher than one that
quickly and easily grasps and understands complex ideas. The teacher
who has struggled has been forced to develop multiple pathways along
which complex ideas had to travel in order to reach a complete
understanding. This teacher is usually quite sensitive to why and
where a student is stuck in his or her understanding.
Learning to play blues guitar is no
different. The best online guitar lessons require a good teacher who can convey
understanding. This cannot be measured by the virtuosity of the
teacher or how many hours of training videos a course offers. Great
blues guitar teachers come in a variety of packages...old, young,
male, female and in a variety of colors. The course I am
recommending here is taught by an old white man with an Australian
accent. What could be farther away than that from the cotton fields
of Mississippi?I think that when you examine this
course you will find it quite comprehensive and quite good. The intro
video on the home page gives you a feel for the variety styles of some of
the great blues artists. It zeros in on the placement of the hands
and the number of fingers used to produce a certain effect. Most of
these blues greats were self-taught. You will see some amazing feats
with just one finger. An emphasis is placed on developing your own personal style while learning various techniques from the masters.
Here are the points I find that separate this course from the plethora of other online guitar courses:
- The teaching style is easy going and pleasant to listen to.
- The course is well organized and easy to follow.
- The teacher is patient and understanding with a rare talent for explaining complex aspects in a simple and easy to understand manner.
- He is a very talented musician with many, many years of actual teaching experience. He did not just decide to start teaching guitar lessons.
These factors plus a gut feeling permit me to me rate this course an easy 4 1/2 stars. An added plus is that the course is extremely inexpensive.
CLICK
HERE to
check it out.
I think you will be pleased with the
results you get.
