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Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies
by Bill EvansStart picking the five-string banjo like a pro with this definitive guide to bluegrass banjo! Whether you re an absolute beginner or an experienced player, Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies gets you started off the right way and is your road map for mastering today s most popular traditional and contemporary banjo picking styles. Online audio and video clips combine with the book s clear step-by-step instructions to provide the most complete and fun - banjo instruction experience available anywhere! Bluegrass banjo has never been more popular and is heard today not only in country and folk music, but in jazz, rock and country styles. Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies provides everything you need to know to play just about any kind of music on the five-string banjo by getting you started with the roll patterns essential to Scruggs style picking. You ll then add left-hand techniques such as slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, play great sounding licks and perform classic tunes like Cripple Creek and Old Joe Clark. You ll navigate up the neck on the instrument as well as learn the essential skills you need to play with others in jam sessions and in bands. You ll even tackle contemporary banjo styles using melodic and single-string scales and picking techniques. Choose a banjo and accessories that are just right for you and your budget. Put on your fingerpicks, find your optimal hand position and start playing with the help of online audio and video. Explore the fingerboard using melodic and single-string playing styles. Accompany others in different keys with roll patterns and chord vamping techniques. Keep your banjo sounding its best with practical and easy set up tips. Bill Evans is one of the world s most popular banjo players and teachers, with over forty years of professional experience. In Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies, he shares the tips, secrets and shortcuts that have helped thousands of musicians, including many of today s top young professionals, to become great banjo players.
Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies: Book + Online Video & Audio Instruction
by Bill EvansPick and roll your way through bluegrass banjo basics The banjo nearly defines the bluegrass sound, and you&’ll be playing your own favorite tunes—or maybe writing some new ones—with the help of this book. Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies is the place to start if you&’re ready to start learning banjo or upgrade your skills to play in the bluegrass style. Written by an expert musician and educator, this book makes it easy to start plucking your 5-string banjo using common bluegrass techniques. You&’ll also have access to over 100 online audio files, and 35 video lessons, so you can see and hear the techniques in practice. This book serves as your first step to becoming a bluegrass banjo player, even if you&’re completely new to playing musical instruments. Choose the right banjo, pick up the basics, learn classic banjo licks, and more—the easy way. Learn how to read banjo tablature and perform on a five-string banjo Get insight on playing as part of a bluegrass combo band Practice with classic bluegrass tunes and banjo licks Create banjo solos that will wow your audiencesThis friendly For Dummies guide is great for fledgling banjo players interested in the bluegrass style. Whether or not you already play another instrument, you&’ll pick up the banjo basics you can show off at your next local bluegrass festival.
Bluegrass Bluesman: A Memoir (Music in American Life)
by Fred Bartenstein Neil V. Rosenberg Josh GravesA pivotal member of the hugely successful bluegrass band Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Dobro pioneer Josh Graves (1927-2006) was a living link between bluegrass music and the blues. In Bluegrass Bluesman, this influential performer shares the story of his lifelong career in music. In lively anecdotes, Graves describes his upbringing in East Tennessee and the climate in which bluegrass music emerged during the 1940s. Deeply influenced by the blues, he adapted Earl Scruggs's revolutionary banjo style to the Dobro resonator slide guitar and gave the Foggy Mountain Boys their distinctive sound. Graves' accounts of daily life on the road through the 1950s and 1960s reveal the band's dedication to musical excellence, Scruggs' leadership, and an often grueling life on the road. He also comments on his later career when he played in Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass and the Earl Scruggs Revue and collaborated with the likes of Boz Scaggs, Charlie McCoy, Kenny Baker, Eddie Adcock, Jesse McReynolds, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, and his three musical sons. A colorful storyteller, Graves brings to life the world of an American troubadour and the mountain culture that he never left behind. Born in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, Josh Graves (1927-2006) is universally acknowledged as the father of the bluegrass Dobro. In 1997 he was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
Bluegrass Generation: A Memoir (Music in American Life)
by Neil V RosenbergNeil V. Rosenberg met the legendary Bill Monroe at the Brown County Jamboree. Rosenberg's subsequent experiences in Bean Blossom put his feet on the intertwined musical and scholarly paths that made him a preeminent scholar of bluegrass music. Rosenberg's memoir shines a light on the changing bluegrass scene of the early 1960s. Already a fan and aspiring musician, his appetite for banjo music quickly put him on the Jamboree stage. Rosenberg eventually played with Monroe and spent four months managing the Jamboree. Those heights gave him an eyewitness view of nothing less than bluegrass's emergence from the shadow of country music into its own distinct art form. As the likes of Bill Keith and Del McCoury played, Rosenberg watched Monroe begin to share a personal link to the music that tied audiences to its history and his life--and helped turn him into bluegrass's foundational figure. An intimate look at a transformative time, Bluegrass Generation tells the inside story of how an American musical tradition came to be.
Bluegrass, Newgrass, Old-Time, and Americana Music
by Craig HarrisA colorful and comprehensive history of bluegrass and old-time Appalachian music from its legendary roots to today’s Grammy-winning stars.With simple instrumentation—banjo, guitar, and base—a great variety of musical traditions converged to create the “old-timey” music of Appalachia. Over time, that mountain sound evolved into numerous genres and subgenres that continue to thrive today. Now musician and roots music historian Craig Harris takes readers on an anecdotal journey through this distinctly American music.From the Grand Ole Opry and the historic Bristol Sessions to contemporary festivals and the reemergence of Bluegrass in popular culture, Harris combines extensive research and never-before-seen photographs with more than ninety exclusive interviews. Bluegrass, Newgrass, Old-Time, and Americana Music is chock full of anecdotes about Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Del McCoury, Doc Watson, Alison Kraus, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and more.
Bluegrass Odyssey: A Documentary in Pictures and Words, 1966-86 (Music in American Life)
by Neil V RosenbergThe fruit of four decades of collaboration between bluegrass music’s premier photographer and premier historian, Bluegrass Odyssey is a satisfying and visually alluring journey into the heart of a truly American music. Combining more than two hundred of Carl Fleischhauer’s photographs with Neil V. Rosenberg’s expert commentary, this elegant visual documentary captures the music-making with the culture and community that foster it.
The Bluegrass Reader
by Thomas GoldsmithLike rock 'n' roll, bluegrass exploded out of a post-World War II atmosphere in which more Americans opened their ears to more different kinds of music than ever before. All around the country musicians were searching for new sounds and approaches: country blues went fully electric in Chicago, bebop boiled over as jazz hit the hippest notes yet, and country music followed Hank Williams into new, sexier, harder-hitting territory. The developments in bluegrass proved every bit as galvanic. In The Bluegrass Reader, Thomas Goldsmith joins his insights as a journalist with a lifetime of experience in bluegrass to capture the full story of this dynamic and beloved music. Inspired by the question, what articles about bluegrass would you want to have with you on a desert island? he has assembled a captivating, fun-to-read collection that brings together a wide range of the very best in bluegrass writing.
The Blues: The Authentic Narrative of My Music and Culture
by Chris Thomas King"A fresh new perspective that will be a true revolution to readers and will open new lines of discussion on . . . the importance of the city of New Orleans for generations to come." —Dr. Michael White, jazz clarinetist, composer, and Keller Endowed Chair at Xavier University of LA An untold authentic counter-narrative blues history and the first written by an African American blues artist All prior histories on the blues have alleged it originated on plantations in the Mississippi Delta. Not true, says author Chris Thomas King. In The Blues, King present facts to disprove such myths. This book is the first to argue the blues began as a cosmopolitan art form, not a rural one. As early as 1900, the sound of the blues was ubiquitous in New Orleans. The Mississippi Delta, meanwhile, was an unpopulated sportsman's paradise—the frontier was still in the process of being cleared and drained for cultivation.? Expecting these findings to be controversial in some circles, King has buttressed his conclusions with primary sources and years of extensive research, including a sojourn to West Africa and interviews with surviving folklorists and blues researchers from the 1960s folk-rediscovery epoch.? New Orleans, King states, was the only place in the Deep South where the sacred and profane could party together without fear of persecution, creating the blues.
Blues All Day Long: The Jimmy Rogers Story (Music in American Life)
by Wayne Everett Goins Kim WilsonA member of Muddy Waters' legendary late 1940s-1950s band, Jimmy Rogers pioneered a blues guitar style that made him one of the most revered sidemen of all time. Rogers also had a significant if star-crossed career as a singer and solo artist for Chess Records, releasing the classic singles "That's All Right" and "Walking By Myself." In Blues All Day Long, Wayne Everett Goins mines seventy-five hours of interviews with Rogers' family, collaborators, and peers to follow a life spent in the blues. Goins' account takes Rogers from recording Chess classics and barnstorming across the South to a late-in-life renaissance that included new music, entry into the Blues Hall of Fame, and high profile tours with Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. Informed and definitive, Blues All Day Long fills a gap in twentieth century music history with the story of one of the blues' eminent figures and one of the genre's seminal bands.
Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories (Banner Books)
by Tom PiazzaExploring the diverse landscape of American life, the stories in Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories capture the lives of people caught between circumstance and their own natures or on the run from fate, from a Jewish couple encountering a dealer in Nazi memorabilia to the troubled family of a Gulf Coast fisherman awaiting a hurricane. Tom Piazza’s debut short story collection, originally published in 1996, heralded the arrival of a startlingly original and vital presence in American fiction and letters. Set in Memphis, New Orleans, Florida, Texas, New York City, and elsewhere, the stories echo voices from Ernest Hemingway to Robert Johnson in their sharp eye for detail and their emotional impact. New to this volume is an introduction written by the author. Drawing themes, forms, and stylistic approaches from blues and country music, these stories present a tough, haunting vision of a landscape where the social and spiritual ground shifts constantly underfoot.
Blues: The Basics (The Basics)
by Dick WeissmanBlues: The Basics offers a concise introduction to a century of the blues. Organized chronologically, it focuses on the major eras in the growth and development of this popular musical style. Material includes: a definition of the blues and the major genres within it key artists such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson key recordings Complete with timelines and suggestions for further investigation, this fascinating overview is ideal for students and interested listeners.
Blues Before Sunrise: The Radio Interviews
by Jim O'Neal Steve CushingThis collection assembles the best interviews from Steve Cushing's long-running radio program Blues Before Sunrise, the nationally syndicated, award-winning program focusing on vintage blues and R&B. As both an observer and performer, Cushing has been involved with the blues scene in Chicago for decades. His candid, colorful interviews with prominent blues players, producers, and deejays reveal the behind-the-scenes world of the formative years of recorded blues. Many of these oral histories detail the careers of lesser-known but greatly influential blues performers and promoters. The book focuses in particular on pre-World War II blues singers, performers active in 1950s Chicago, and nonperformers who contributed to the early blues world. Interviewees include Alberta Hunter, one of the earliest African American singers to transition from Chicago's Bronzeville nightlife to the international spotlight, and Ralph Bass, one of the greatest R&B producers of his era. Blues expert, writer, record producer, and cofounder of Living Blues Magazine Jim O'Neal provides the book's foreword.
Blues Before Sunrise 2: Interviews from the Chicago Scene (Music in American Life)
by Steve CushingIn this new collection of interviews, Steve Cushing once again invites readers into the vaults of Blues Before Sunrise, his acclaimed nationally syndicated public radio show. Icons from Memphis Minnie to the Gay Sisters stand alongside figures like schoolteacher Flossie Franklin, who helped Leroy Carr pen some of his most famous tunes; saxman Abb Locke and his buddy Two-Gun Pete, a Chicago cop notorious for killing people in the line of duty; and Scotty "The Dancing Tailor" Piper, a font of knowledge on the black entertainment scene of his day. Cushing also devotes a section to religious artists, including the world-famous choir Wings Over Jordan and their travails touring and performing in the era of segregation. Another section focuses on the jazz-influenced Bronzeville scene that gave rise to Marl Young, Andrew Tibbs, and many others while a handful of Cushing's early brushes with the likes of Little Brother Montgomery, Sippi Wallace, and Blind John Davis round out the volume.Diverse and entertaining, Blues Before Sunrise 2 adds a chorus of new voices to the fascinating history of Chicago blues.
A Blues Bibliography: Second Edition: Volume 2
by Robert FordThis book provides a sequel to Robert Ford's comprehensive reference work A Blues Bibliography, the second edition of which was published in 2007. Bringing Ford's bibliography of resources up to date, this volume covers works published since 2005, complementing the first volume by extending coverage through twelve years of new publications. As in the previous volume, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations, and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. With extensive listings of print and online articles in scholarly and trade journals, books, and recordings, this bibliography offers the most thorough resource for all researchers studying the blues.
A Blues Bibliography: Second Edition: Volume 2
by Robert FordA Blues Bibliography, Second Edition is a revised and enlarged version of the definitive blues bibliography first published in 1999. Material previously omitted from the first edition has now been included, and the bibliography has been expanded to include works published since then. In addition to biographical references, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. The Blues Bibliography is an invaluable guide to the enthusiastic market among libraries specializing in music and African-American culture and among individual blues scholars.
Blues Empress in Black Chattanooga: Bessie Smith and the Emerging Urban South
by Michelle R. ScottAs one of the first African American vocalists to be recorded, Bessie Smith is a prominent figure in American popular culture and African American history. Michelle R. Scott uses Smith's life as a lens to investigate broad issues in history, including industrialization, Southern rural to urban migration, black community development in the post-emancipation era, and black working-class gender conventions. Arguing that the rise of blues culture and the success of female blues artists like Bessie Smith are connected to the rapid migration and industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Scott focuses her analysis on Chattanooga, Tennessee, the large industrial and transportation center where Smith was born. This study explores how the expansion of the Southern railroads and the development of iron foundries, steel mills, and sawmills created vast employment opportunities in the postbellum era. Chronicling the growth and development of the African American Chattanooga community, Scott examines the Smith family's migration to Chattanooga and the popular music of black Chattanooga during the first decade of the twentieth century, and culminates by delving into Smith's early years on the vaudeville circuit.
The Blues Encyclopedia
by Edward KomaraThe Blues Encyclopedia is the first full-length authoritative Encyclopedia on the Blues as a musical form. While other books have collected biographies of blues performers, none have taken a scholarly approach. A to Z in format, this Encyclopedia covers not only the performers, but also musical styles, regions, record labels and cultural aspects of the blues, including race and gender issues. Special attention is paid to discographies and bibliographies.
Blues, Funk, Rhythm and Blues, Soul, Hip Hop, and Rap: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge Music Bibliographies)
by Eddie S. MeadowsDespite the influence of African American music and study as a worldwide phenomenon, no comprehensive and fully annotated reference tool currently exists that covers the wide range of genres. This much needed bibliography fills an important gap in this research area and will prove an indispensable resource for librarians and scholars studying African American music and culture.
Blues Guitar For Dummies
by Jon ChappellSelect the right guitar and accessories Learn the riffs and scales that define the blues Play solid blues rhythm or step out for a solo Recreate the sounds of the blues masters Want to play the blues? Can't read music? No problem! This fun, accessible guide shows you how to play blues scales, chords, progressions, riffs, and solos. Learn about the structure of a blues song, including intros, turnarounds, and endings. Master the art of articulation, dynamics, and phrasing. From Delta blues and modern blues to blues rock, you'll see how to use today's guitars, amplifiers, and effects to play a wide variety of styles, with hands-on guidance on changing strings for when you really boogie down. Inside Explore acoustic and electric styles Perform common blues scales Learn song structures and improvise leads Follow the history of the blues Choose the best equipment to accentuate your sound Get to know legendary blues artists and albums
Blues Guitar For Dummies
by Jon ChappellDo you wish you could play your favorite blues music on guitar? Even if you don’t read music, it’s not difficult with Blues Guitar for Dummies. With this hands-on guide, you’ll pick up the fundamentals instantly and start jamming like your favorite blues artists! Blues Guitar for Dummies covers all aspects of blues guitar, showing you how to play scales, chords, progressions, riffs, solos, and more! It’s packed with musical examples, chords charts, and photos that let you explore the genre and play the songs of the great blues musicians. This accessible guide will give you the skills you need to: Choose the right guitar, equipment, and strings Hold, tune, and get situated with your guitar Play barre chords and strum to the rhythm Recognize the structure of a blues song Tackle musical riffs Master melodies and solos Make your guitar sing, cry, and wail Jam to any type of blues In addition to this must-have book, a bonus CD is included so that you can listen to famous songs, practice your riffs and chords, and develop your style as a blues musician. It also features a quick guide to musical notation and suggestions on albums, artists, and guitars for further enjoyment. With Blues Guitar for Dummies, you can re-create the masterpieces of the blues legend without the expensive lessons!
Blues Guitar For Dummies
by Jon ChappellSelect the right guitar and accessories Learn the riffs and scales that define the blues Play solid blues rhythm or step out for a solo Recreate the sounds of the blues masters Want to play the blues? Can't read music? No problem! This fun, accessible guide shows you how to play blues scales, chords, progressions, riffs, and solos. Learn about the structure of a blues song, including intros, turnarounds, and endings. Master the art of articulation, dynamics, and phrasing. From Delta blues and modern blues to blues rock, you'll see how to use today's guitars, amplifiers, and effects to play a wide variety of styles, with hands-on guidance on changing strings for when you really boogie down. Inside Explore acoustic and electric styles Perform common blues scales Learn song structures and improvise leads Follow the history of the blues Choose the best equipment to accentuate your sound Get to know legendary blues artists and albums
Blues Harmonica For Dummies
by Winslow YerxaBlues Harmonica For Dummies (9781119694519) was previously published as Blues Harmonica For Dummies (9781118252697). While this version features a new Dummies cover and design, the content is the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.
Blues Harmonica For Dummies
by Winslow YerxaBreathe the blues into your harmonica Learn about bending, tongue blocking, and chordal rhythm Connect with blues history and the major players The fun and easy way to play blues harmonica Blues Harmonica For Dummies gives you a wealth of guidance on playing harmonica in the style of the blues masters. Learn how to go from playing easy chords to strong single notes — and then to 12-bar blues. Develop your personal style and put together a repertoire of tunes to play for an audience. Explore specific techniques and applications, including bending and making your notes sound richer and fuller; using amplification; developing blues licks and riffs; performing a blues harmonica solo like a pro; and much more. Inside... A review of the blues as a musical style What it takes to get started A blues guide to music symbols Ways to shape, color, and punctuate your blues sound How to amplify your playing Important blues players and recordings
Blues Harmonica For Dummies
by Winslow YerxaThe fun and easy way to play blues on the harmonica Blues harmonica is the most popular and influential style of harmonica playing, and it forms the basis for playing harmonica in other styles such as rock and country. Blues Harmonica for Dummies gives you a wealth of content devoted to the blues approach--specific techniques and applications, including bending and making your notes sound richer and fuller with tongue-blocked enhancements; use of amplification to develop a blues sound; blues licks and riffs; constructing a blues harmonica solo; accompanying singers; historical development of blues styles; and important blues players and recordings. The accompanying audio CD features all the musical examples from the book, plus play-along exercises and songs that let you hear the sound you're striving for. In-depth coverage of major blues harmonica techniques Blues song forms, improvisation, and accompanying singers Information on blues history and personalities If you're intrigued by the idea of understanding and mastering the compelling (yet mysterious) art of playing blues on the harmonica, Blues Harmonica For Dummies has you covered. CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase
Blues, How Do You Do?: Paul Oliver and the Transatlantic Story of the Blues
by Christian O'ConnellRecent revisionist scholarship has argued that representations by white "outsider" observers of black American music have distorted historical truths about how the blues came to be. While these scholarly arguments have generated an interesting debate concerning how the music has been framed and disseminated, they have so far only told an American story, failing to acknowledge that in the post-war era the blues had spread far beyond the borders of the United States. As Christian O'Connell shows in Blues, How Do You Do? Paul Oliver's largely neglected scholarship--and the unique transatlantic cultural context it provides--is vital to understanding the blues. O'Connell's study begins with Oliver's scholarship in his early days in London as a writer for the British jazz press and goes on to examine Oliver's encounters with visiting blues musicians, his State Department-supported field trip to the US in 1960, and the resulting photographs and oral history he produced, including his epic "blues narrative," The Story of the Blues (1969). Blues, How Do You Do? thus aims to move away from debates that have been confined within the limits of national borders--or relied on clichés of British bands popularizing American music in America--to explore how Oliver's work demonstrates that the blues became a reified ideal, constructed in opposition to the forces of modernity.