I want to play Blues

[mujo]

I have a blues fakebook, can I play straight from this book? Does anyone else play Blues on the whistle?

Thanks

[jim stone]

I do, works great--can't tell you how I do it but
lot's of B and Bb. I just do it.

I think blues whistle is a great mostly undiscovered
blues instrument. But you gotta wail on the thing...

My baby got run over by a steam roller,
She don't come round my bed no mo.
My baby got run over by a steam roller,
She don't come round my bed no mo.
Every time I try to put my arms around her
She slithers out under the door.


Used to be when I'd look at you, baby,
I'd get feelings like a beast!
Now when you wrap yourself around me
You go round twenty-seven times at least...
Woo Woo...
Whyyyyyy didn't you watch that roller ride?
You know I keep trying to talk it over
But your face is always somewhere
Round the other side.

I took my baby down to the service station,
I tried to pump her up with air.
I took my baby down to the service station,
Great God I tried to pump her up with air.
Now she looks like a white wall tire
With long red silky hair.

[talasiga]

I have a blues fakebook, can I play straight from this book? Does anyone else play Blues on the whistle?

Thanks

The blues mode is basically Raag Dhani scale with addition of augmented 4th. It is a gapped mode which skips 2nd and 6th intervals and the 3rd and 7th are minor (3:2:1:1:3:2) or SgmMPnS+.

You can choose the tonic at any of these
XOO OOO
or
XXO OOO
or
XXX XXO

The latter is the easiest becuase the x-fingering for the
augmented (sharpened) 4th is easiest.
This is how I play
XXX XXO tonic
XXX OOO minor 3rd
XXO OOO 4th
XOX XXX sharp 4th
XOO OOO perfect 5th
XXX XXX minor 7th
XXX XXO+ octave

There is a lot of sliding in blues and esp from augmented 4th to the 5th. So if youre using a D tube, this is the Bb and B that Jim is talking about.

I can talk about alternative tonics if you like but you should be able to work it out with the template I've given you already.

Enjoy.

[mujo]

Way,way over me head,but thank you just the same

[talasiga]

Mujo I a described the scale from two angles
1. the way I understand it (my own culttural/theoretical) background
2. the practical way it can played on your whistle (the tablature I provided)

In whistle tablature X = close hole
O = open hole

Good Luck

[mujo]

from looking at the sheet music it seems as if I could lay on a C whistle, and the Walton C would rank in my top three whistles.

[Doc Jones]

I play blues all the time. Just do some half-holing and cross-fingering for those weird, bluesy accidentals and you'll be fine.

Playing the blues from a book is just wrong. 'Course, I can't play anything from a book so what do I know?



Doc

[swizzlestick]

This link was posted on the board some time ago:

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Blues-on-an-Irish-Whistle

It seems to be a dumbed down version of what Talasiga said so elegantly.

[Loren]

I have a blues fakebook, can I play straight from this book? Does anyone else play Blues on the whistle?

Thanks

Man, first you gotta Live the Blues.......



Loren

[Denny]

just another honkey blues whistler in the city... :banished eye-roll smiley:

I'm gonna move out to the country and paint my mailbox blue.

[picardy third]

HOW TO PLAY AND SING THE BLUES

1. Most Blues begin with: "Woke up this morning..."

2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues unless you stick
something nasty in the next line like "I got a good woman with the
meanest face in town."

3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it.
Then find something that rhymes, sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest
face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got
teeth like Margaret Thatcher, and she weigh 500 pound."

4. The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch. There ain't no way out.

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues
don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or SUVs. Most Blues transportation is a
Greyhound bus or a southbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools
ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues
lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.

6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults
sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the
electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or anyplace
in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical
depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still great places
to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues anyplace that don't get rain.

8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the Blues. A woman with male
pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg 'cause you were skiing is not the
blues. Breaking your leg 'cause a alligator be chomping on it is.

9. You can't have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting
is wrong. Go out to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10. Good places for the Blues:
a. highway
b. jailhouse
c. empty bed
d. bottom of a whiskey glass

Bad places for the Blues:
a. Nordstrom's
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League colleges
d. golf courses

11. No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you
happen to be an old ethnic person, and you slept in it.

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?

Yes, if:
a. you older than dirt
b. you blind
c. you shot a man in Memphis
d. you can't be satisfied

No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. you were once blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a 401K or trust fund

13. Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got a
leg up on the blues.

14. If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues.
Other acceptable Blues beverages are:
a. cheap wine
b. whiskey or bourbon
c. muddy water
d. nasty black coffee

The following are NOT Blues beverages:
a. Perrier
b. Chardonnay
c. Snapple
d. Slim Fast

15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues
death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So
are the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken-down cot.
You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while
getting liposuction.

16. Some Blues names for women:
a. Sadie
b. Big Mama
c. Bessie
d. Fat River Dumpling

17. Some Blues names for men:
a. Joe
b. Willie
c. Little Willie
d. Big Willie

18. Persons with names like Amber, Jennifer, Tiffany, Debbie, and
Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

19. Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:
a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, etc..)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jackleg Lemon Johnson.

20. No matter how tragic your life, if you own a computer you cannot sing the blues

[Chiffed]

The 'blue notes' in blues are inflections, not discrete notatable pitches. Half-holing and sliding are a far more appropriate way to 'squeeze the juice out'it' than cross-fingering, especially for that flat fifth.

And make sure to mention Mama, trains, prison, gettin drunk, and fishin' poles.

And if you start sounding like Frank Wess, start again. That's jazz, not blues.

And ignore me - I'm way too good looking to sing the blues.

[jim stone]

I be behind in my studies baby
An my Volkswagen bug won't go....

[Denny]

7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or anyplace
in Canada.

unles you are Taj Mahal then Hawaii is okay.

[Rod Sprague]

HOW TO PLAY AND SING THE BLUES
19. Make your own Blues name Starter Kit:
a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.)
b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, etc..)
c. last name of President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.)
Examples: Blind Lime Jefferson, Jackleg Lemon Johnson.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Chokecherry Big Rod Fillmore?