when the great blues musician r.l. burnsidewas convicted of murder, he was quoted as saying, "i didn't mean to kill nobody i justmeant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. him dying was between him and the lord." [stinger]hi everyone. my name is david, and this week, we made ablues song. i say we because my brother michael was intown and he got on the mic and sang the lead vocals. his girlfriend, paige was there too. she lent some lyrical assists and drew thisdope picture at the top of the lyric sheet
here’s a picture of her and my dad and mybrother and me at denny’s. it’s america’s diner. and, my buddy cameron, guitarist for my bandydb, link in the description (shameless plug), played some rhythm guitar. that meant that all i had to do was shredsome dope guitar solos. it was pretty pretty fun. [positive blues]when i told my brother that we should make a song and asked him what type of song weshould make he said, “maybe we should make a blues, but make it positive.â€
i thought that the positive blues was a greatidea. so much of the blues is so lugubrious. if that r.l burnside quote from the top ofthe video is any indication. i mean, if you thought r.l. stine was scary,wait ‘til you get a load of r.l. burnside, am i right? and i get it. i understand why the blues is morose. i really know what it’s like to have theblues. [everlast]but, the blues is such an awesome musical
form that it’s a shame that it lends itselfmore readily to woebegone states of mind. sadness, anger, remorse, regret, they’reall strong emotions, but so are joy, excitement, satisfaction and love. and i don’t see anything in the rule bookthat says the blues has to be negative. [air bud]when i was a kid, my parents had this board game called othello. i never played it, but i remembered that onthe box it said, ‘a minute to learn, a lifetime to master’. that’s how i feel about the blues.
the music itself is dead simple. the greatness, the mastery comes from thedepth of feeling you can pour into such a simple form. it also comes from practice and experiencingsome hard knocks, but musically, there are exactly two things you need to know aboutplaying the blues. the first is that it’s all about the i-iv-v. if you think it’s about the i-iv-v and somethingelse, you’re wrong. it’s all about the i-iv-v. you may be asking,“but what about the…†it’s all about the i-iv-v. and, if you don’tknow what the i-iv-v is, i got a pro tip for
you. it’s a website called google, where youtype in a search query and instantly get information on any topic you want. but having such a simplistic form gets thecomplicated compositional bits out of the way and puts the focus on the raw emotion. which leads me to my second thing you needto know about playing the blues. [grip it and rip it]if you’re thinking about the blues, your overthinking it. you seriously just gotta grip it and rip it.
do you think that when stevie ray vaughanwas at a double trouble rehearsal he was like, “okay guys, on the 11th bar of the 4th chorus,i think the bass played the turnaround a little too loudly. let’s focus on dynamics guys. dynamics.†my guess is that it was a little more likethis. “wooo! grip it and rip it boys. well it’s floodin’ downâ€that’s exactly what it was like.
and, here at talking leaf media, music isbae. so everyone was stoked to get together fora couple hours and crank out this song. but, when it came time to make a video, thereception was a bit more, luke warm. it didn’t seem like anybody wanted to dancearound like an idiot on the internet like some people they know. so, this week the positive blues will be accompaniedby a lyric video. one of the first i’ve ever made. so, i hope you enjoy the song. here we go!!!!
[song] grip it and rip itit’s all about the i-iv-v and there’s nothing in the rule book thatsays a dog can’t play basketball.
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