Blues guitar: Stop Breaking Down (the "I Gotta Be Me" take)

[coolisfool]

fuckin do something about your hair man!

and your tone!

[GuitaristInProgress]

No!

[kokoro86]

Post some vids man!

Demonstrate your superior tone, so that all can worship at the altar of your great tone and coiffeur, fool!

Till then, leave the guy alone!

[quinoacat]

I like this style of Blues which involves 'syncopated call and response' between the vocals and the instrument. Nice work, gave ya a 5/5 star rating on this one. I do this type of stuff on Guitar and Mouth Harp and sometimes I think about working it up as a threesome between vocals, Guitar, and Harmonica.

[GuitaristInProgress]

Yeah, it's a dialog between instruments... we can thank Jimi Hendrix for showing the world some of the best examples of that.

[Spoonful18]

What keys this in? I always through Bob used the pentanic(whatevery) scale but this song just seems a little weird when i try and figur it out i mean me and the devil i found pretty easy to figur out but start breaking down just seems a little odd a different to his other stuff. oh and good vid by the way.

[GuitaristInProgress]

According to Woody Man's book, RJ did this in Open G, same key I play it in (although that's about all my playing has in common with his.)

[al0102030405]

Very nice. The most important thing is to be you, and you got that part down.

[GuitaristInProgress]

I can't help it!

[SouthSaturn]

you playin a whole lot, but you not sayin a whole lot. the metronome is the biggest killer of rhythm there is, you don't think robert johnson used one of those contraptions do you?

[GuitaristInProgress]

I do think a metronome is a strongly double-edged sword. I think it can be important for beginners, but it's also very important for people to learn "real rhythm" - being able to push beats around, play ahead of or behind the beat, etc. The very best percussions & drummers can do all that stuff... I've even known a few who could carry that over to guitar... but they all started with metronomes.

[GuitaristInProgress]

I knew a really dynamite bassist once... he played with John lee Hooker for 6 years... This guy had about the strongest sense of rhythm of anyone I've ever met. And he told me the best thing is to play with a metronome, but not to always play on it's tick. He said to play between the tick, play a 1/16th note behind the tick, etc. I think the problem is a lot of beginners (and even instructors) don't think of that.

[SouthSaturn]

what you really oughta try brother is learning to play polyrhythms. start listening to bob johnson but really learn how to exactly copy his songs like "stones in my passway", "travellin' riverside blues", "steady rollin' man". all you gotta do is nod your head.

[GuitaristInProgress]

Yeah, I actually have Woody Mann's book of RJ tablature... I spent some time learning some of the stuff note for note but, man, a lot of that fingerpicking is just beyond my skills. Honestly, wish I could play like that, but, "I Gotta Be Me" as the title says. Mostly I try to respectfully reinterpret things, and more importantly just have fun while I'm at it.

[GuitaristInProgress]

(And, in all fairness, this take was a... uh... "unusual" one. It's called the "I Gotta Be Me" take because more of my influences than usual crept into places where they ordinarily wouldn't belong.)

[SpeedKing84]

really cool stuff. Really good and amusing. a lot of fun to watch!!

[GuitaristInProgress]

Hey, thanks, man... that's exactly how I try to be. Glad you liked it!

[winstonsmith60626]

where are garth and wayne??

[darksidB]

I give you 5 stars because Youtube don't let me give you more ;).Thanks for your music,you are amazing.

[GuitaristInProgress]

Again with the compliments! :-)

Thanks a lot, man. Glad to know my music is being enjoyed.

[ShalomYal]

I'd love to see what your hands are doing. Thanks for the great playing!

[GuitaristInProgress]

Yeah, sorry about that man. Sometimes when I'm just fooling around with the camera I accidentally get a good take. This is actually my favorite take of my 3 or 4 takes of this song, too, I'm glad you liked it... thanks for the kudos.

[bollire]

absolutely 5 stars to the performance an 5 to the comment.

[GuitaristInProgress]

Bollire, thanks! It's always really nice to get a comment like that

[KeniLeeBurgess]

Nice Funky version. Cool. Sounds like something my man Hendrix would do. Thanks for sharing.

[GuitaristInProgress]

That's a high compliment indeed. thanks! Yeah, I like this take, it's totally sloppy but hopefully makes up for it in soul & character.

[KeniLeeBurgess]

That's always the problem, tightening up a song without making it stiff and liveless. The old blues masters played it like they felt it. I'll take a flawed diamond anyday.

[GuitaristInProgress]

Heh. You'll find a lot of those on my channel. :-)

[KeniLeeBurgess]

Thank you. I'll check more of your vids out.