21 replies to this topic

[Dave Crevie]

Today is B. B. King's birthday. What a loss it was when he passed. I tried so hard to emulate his 'trill.' But I could listen to him for hours.

 

[Jim Difalco]

Dave, what other blues artists do you like to listen to? New or old school. I mostly go to blues/rock concerts.

[Bill Breck]

The correct musical term for B. B.'s "trill" is vibrato. Yes, he definitely has a fast and distinctive vibrato.

[Dave Crevie]

Stevie Ray Vaughan is another of my favorites. Here he is with Albert King, yet another one of my favorites, on "Born Under a Bad Sign," one of my favorite tunes.
 

 
Then there is Muddy Waters, he lived not far from me in Westmont, IL., and Freddie King, Led Belly Ledbetter, and Buddy Guy. Been to his club, "Legends" often. Such a long list.
 
By the way, "vibrato" is the scientific name. There is a lever on many guitars, that wobbles the bridge or tailpiece, that the manufacturers call a vibrato bar. Heavy metal players call it a wammy bar. B. B. uses the  term 'trill.' I have watched his video on playing the blues that he made at Montreux over and over. It was shown on AXS, and I taped it, unfortunately on VHS. Never had a chance to convert it to DVD. Haven't found it on the web.

[Jim Difalco]

I have been slowly making my way into listening to more legendary performers the more I explore on Spotify. Especially when I search for all the versions of a song and listen to the various artists who have done the original version. 'Big Legged Woman,' "I'm Leaving you (commit a crime)," "Letter to my Girlfriend" songs and so on. 

 

A few months ago I went to see Jimmy Vaughn 41 years after I first saw him open for Stevie Ray in 1985 in NY. He even appeared in the lobby after the show to meet and greet about 30 of us who stayed, talked, and signed merchandise. Stevie Ray wanted everyone to let people know who influenced his music.

 

Other artists I listen to Christone Kingfish Ingram, Eric Steckel, Aynsley Lister, Samantha Fish, Joe Bonamassa, R.L Burnside. If you have not listened to any Chris Duarte, his 'Sun Prairie Blues,' 'C-Butt Rock.' and 'My Way Down" songs will make you a fan. Probably the closest guitarist who's playing will make you think of Stevie Ray's songs the most. He also does really fine instrumentals like Vaughn.

 

Not that it is a great song but Buddy Whittington's 'Stevie Rave On' is worth a listen to as a tribute to Stevie Ray.

[Dave Crevie]

Probably the most covered blues tunes is 'Crossroad' by Robert Johnson. I do listen to many of the new blues players, especially Samantha Fish. Her use of the cigar box guitar is most entertaining. Kingfish does about the best version of 'Hey, Joe' I've heard.

The blues are going to be around forever.

[Phil Hackett]

One of my favorite albums:

 

 

Another one The Paladins album. I could go on but it would get tiresome.

 

[Jim Difalco]

Not really blues bands but 'Blue Jean Blues' by ZZ Top or the late Jeff Healey are pretty gritty songs.

[Bill Breck]

The "official" name for a "whammy bar" is a tremolo bar. I played guitar for over 20 years and have owned a Fender Stratocaster which is one of the most common guitars with a tremolo. Fender calls it a "synchronized tremolo system" on a Strat. Vintage Strats have a decal on the head stock that says "with synchronized tremolo" and also includes Fender's patent number. Gretsch guitars often have a Bigsby tremolo, and modern guitars will sometimes have a Floyd Rose locking tremolo. 
 
Vibrato is definitely a musical term. It describes a periodic variation in pitch. It's commonly associated with vocals.
 
A trill is a musical ornament consisting of a rapid alternation between two adjacent notes, usually a semitone or tone apart. It's very prominent in Baroque era compositions like the Bach Brandenburg concertos. B.B. can call it whatever he wants - he's a blues master. Doesn't make any difference to me. 
 
BTW, I have a BA in Music so hopefully I learned something in those four years. 
 
This ends your music lesson for today.    

[Dave Crevie]

You are technically correct. But I didn't go to college to learn music. I came up from the 'trenches,' playing clubs and lounges. We have always referred to tremolo/vibrato done by fingering as 'trill.' Similar to key changes being called 'modulation.' It might be wrong, but it is rock band speak, and they are the ones making the millions in music.

 

I quit playing lounges in 1989. The best known band I was in during the 1973-74 era was with "Wednesday's Child," a fairly well-known Chicago area blues/rock band. But I continued recording back-up for local bands on their records, and jingles for radio ads. I was probably best known as a stand-in at a venue when someone couldn't make the gig. Some of the Chicago kids that were around during the heyday of live music would recognize some of the clubs I played at. The Blue Village and Cellar in my earliest years, Mother's, Thirsty Whale, Earth Lounge, Back Door, Aragon, Some Other Place, Rock Garden, Sail Inn, Fiddler's, and Barron's. After I quit doing clubs, I even did acoustic shows at Ground Round with a friend from work. Probably over 30 years altogether.

 

No doubt if you want to play with a symphony or orchestra, you need the college creds. Most rock-and-rollers can't read music. ( I can, thanks to my school district's music program.)  

[Dave Crevie]

Not the video I was looking for, but a friend just turned me on to this one (and yes, BB calls it 'trill'). Anyway, some good humor, and some good playing.

 

Sorry it is in three parts. Just how it was posted on the net.

 

 

 

[Cheater]

Dave,

 

I don't think you've told us what instrument you played.

[Dave Crevie]

I think that has been covered in several other threads. But for those who missed it, guitar, electric and double bass, and some keyboards. See the thread under "What do you do when you can't do anything" to see some of the guitar collection that I recently sold.

[Jim Difalco]

Dave, I am not much of a Youtube watcher but I came across this video of Carlos Santana in a guitar store. The biased reaction of a snobby shop owner that did not recognize him when he wanted to check out some vintage guitars. He gets his comeuppance in the end.

 

[Dave Crevie]

I've seen that. Very telling of how some people's egos get a bit over the top.

I know it was made up video, but the message hits home

[Cheater]

Guys, there's a whole series of such "Carlos wasn't recognized" YouTube videos. Almost all of them are AI generated, and are now marked as such. Some are very nice stories but virtually all of them are pure fiction.

 

Here's the AI tag on the video posted above.

 

[Jim Difalco]

You know, i was wondering how did they get still photos of all this interaction between them! The pictures were too clear to come from in-store cameras. I guess I was taken in by the story. I am vigilant about my emails because scams come in everyday. Live and learn.

 

Maybe AI will kill us all!

[Cheater]

Jim,

 

I've watched a lot of these videos, first, because I am big Santana fan and, second, they are actually for the most part very well done. Someone is producing these things for revenue, sure, but seemingly also to 'polish' Santana's reputation as a good guy.

 

Hopefully, YouTube will soon provide us the ability to hide AI-generated videos. I saw a note on some news feed about that very subject earlier today.

[Dave Crevie]

The  "doom-and-gloomers" have been scaring people the last several months that the AI machines are going to kill us all in the next decade. It is all over the TV news shows. Personally, I'm sure I won't be around to see it.

 

When CAD/CAM came out, I was sure it was going to put all us working stiffs out of our jobs. After opposing it for a few years, I realized it was only a tool for us to use to make our work easier. I could now run several machines at a time. That encouraged the company I worked for to buy more machines, allowing them to service more customers, and hire more people. I made a good bit more money, and everyone gained in the end. I think it will be the same with AI. But we do need guardrails to make sure the programs can not become self replicating or take over our control of our support systems. I see that if something goes haywire, it will most likely be some terrorist group or some lunatic with bad intentions that has access to the AI systems. 

 

Consider where we are with all this:

 

[Jim Difalco]

The problem I have is that these 'doom and gloomers' are the CEO of these companies. So when a CEO, who's job it is to make as much money for his company and stockholders as possible, sounds the alarm that their company needs the government to throttle back their progress I think everyone needs to take this serious, unlike you know who at the top.
 
Before I get a warning I better get off this topic. And yes, Dave, I will probably be gone by then as well.

[Cheater]

Remember OCR, optical character recognition? There are similarities between OCR and AI, if you think about it.

The hype about AI is that it will replace humans, just like OCR was going to replace typing. When OCR first came out, it was not very accurate and you had to spend a lot of time proofing its output. Years down the road, OCR is a lot better but even after all this time, it isn't 100% accurate. And probably never will be.

 

As Dave said, "After opposing it for a few years, I realized it was only a tool for us to use to make our work easier." I see AI as being the same way.

 

The danger is in letting AI replace human decisionmaking completely. I'm already seeing that happen with big companies like Facebook, who seemingly now let AI systems totally control parts of their interactions with their customer base. Ask me how I know.

[Bill from NH]

Facebook has been running a lot of mathematical "do-it-yourself" problems, as well as anti-Trump and "I'll go home to..., if the Republicans win the mid-term elections." This has been happening for a few months, I suspect most of it is AI generated.