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Started By
Message
Can someone explain BB's guitar style?
Posted on 5/15/15 at 11:55 am
Posted on 5/15/15 at 11:55 am
Heard on NPR that he doesn't play chords. He just plays strings. Wtf?
8
Posted on 5/15/15 at 11:59 am to TheOcean
Yea
He didn't play chords, he just played strings.
He didn't play chords, he just played strings.
This post was edited on 5/15/15 at 12:02 pm
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:00 pm to TheOcean
quote:not any more
He just plays strings
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:09 pm to TheOcean
LINK
quote:
King doesn’t play chords or slide; instead, he bends individual strings till the notes seem to cry. His style reflects his upbringing in the Mississippi Delta and coming of age in Memphis. Seminal early influences included such bluesmen as T-Bone Walker (whose “Stormy Monday,” King has said, is “what really started me to play the blues”), Lonnie Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson and Bukka White. A cousin of King’s, White schooled the fledgling guitarist in the idiom when he moved to Memphis. King also admired jazz guitarists Charlie Christian and Django Reinhart. Horns have played a big part in King’s music, and he’s successfully combined jazz and blues in a big-band context.
“I’ve always felt that there’s nothing wrong with listening to and trying to learn more,” King has said. “You just can’t stay in the same groove all the time.” This willingness to explore and grow explains King’s popularity across five decades in a wide variety of venues, from funky juke joints to posh Las Vegas lounges.
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:15 pm to Hat Tricks
But he never learned to sing and play at the same time
An intriguing bit of trivia: even during the lowest point of BB's career (the early to mid '60s, before he was rediscovered in the blues revival) his 5 piece backing band would always have two horn players. So the others were the standard drums/bass/keyboards, and BB would be the only guitar.
Always thought that was an interesting example of the importance of horns to his sound.
An intriguing bit of trivia: even during the lowest point of BB's career (the early to mid '60s, before he was rediscovered in the blues revival) his 5 piece backing band would always have two horn players. So the others were the standard drums/bass/keyboards, and BB would be the only guitar.
Always thought that was an interesting example of the importance of horns to his sound.
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:16 pm to Kafka
It's pretty simple. BB doesn't play and sing at the same time. He doesn't play any rythm. He only plays fills and solos. Thus never needing to play chords.
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:35 pm to Shoulderchoke
Posted on 5/15/15 at 12:55 pm to heypaul
quote:
He didn't play chords, he just played strings
BB King basically solo'd all over songs and got away with it for 50 years
that left hand shake he had was pretty awesome though.
Posted on 5/15/15 at 2:28 pm to TheOcean
quote:
Heard on NPR that he doesn't play chords. He just plays strings. Wtf?
True - B.B. played few, if any "chords" on a guitar. Straight, single string lead runs, primarily in blues scale (imagine that), and admonished a younger player, "Hey man, why don't you get you some lighter strings to make it easier to bend?" - the younger player was Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons.
He was often quoted as saying he made his money playing 1 note at a time.
quote:
You only live but once,
and when you're dead, you're done,
so let the good times roll
RIP B.B.
Posted on 5/15/15 at 5:21 pm to Ace Midnight
Here's an LA Times article about his style and what is called the B.B. Box. LINK
Posted on 5/15/15 at 9:53 pm to Twenty 49
Posted on 5/15/15 at 10:11 pm to TheOcean
Watch his documentary "the Life of Riley" he talks about never being good at chord playing ....
Posted on 5/16/15 at 12:11 am to sparkinator
His guitar playing really overshadowed how powerful his voice was. It may have been his greatest talent
Posted on 5/16/15 at 12:47 am to Pepe Lepew
A lot of lead guitar guys I've played with have no idea how to play a chord. I never really understood it but some people don't like plating chords.
Posted on 5/16/15 at 1:45 am to TheOcean
I saw an interview with him once,where he said that when he was a kid, he didn't have a guitar, but he stretched a string between 2 nails on his porch at home, and would just make sounds on that,1 at a time.
Posted on 5/16/15 at 3:43 am to auggie
He and Sammy Sosa hit grains of rice with a mop stick together
Posted on 5/16/15 at 7:34 am to TheOcean
Only heard of one other guitar player that admitted he couldn't play chords, CC DeVille from Poison.
Posted on 5/16/15 at 9:45 am to Zappas Stache
quote:
A lot of lead guitar guys I've played with have no idea how to play a chord. I never really understood it but some people don't like plating chords
The most impressive player I've personally played with had such a sound grip on theory that he could construct chords on the fly, in tempo. Any chord, any position. And I'm not talking just basic chords. B flat Maj7 (#11) type stuff. It was uncanny. It really, really pissed me off.
Posted on 5/17/15 at 12:38 am to PPL
quote:
he could construct chords on the fly, in tempo. Any chord, any position. And I'm not talking just basic chords. B flat Maj7 (#11) type stuff. It was uncanny. It really, really pissed me off.
I've played with a couple of those guys. We kick them outta the band right quick. We chug G C d an an Em....they just don't fit in....plus they never came back for a second jam session.
Posted on 5/17/15 at 10:45 am to TheOcean
Vibrato.
/thread
/thread
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