"Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)"

[Will Fly]

I've arranged this Jimmie Rogers song for guitar, with the melody line following Jimmie's vocal line. The original song is in G, and I've voiced it in C for ease of fingerpicking. I've capo'ed up on to the 2nd fret to add a little brightness - if you want to play along with this from the tab - capo on the 2nd. Note the irregular nature of the chord structure - it's based on a 12-bar blues sequence, but there are extra chords and single runs put in as Jimmie put them in. A lot of early country and country blues singers, including Jimmie, the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers and many others played a lot more loosely than today's equivalents - and their music sounds freer and less ordinary.

Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)

You can get the music, tab & chords for this - OR just tab & chords from my website at:

My tabs page

Cheers,

Will

[flatlander]

It great as always Will. but come on. Where's the Yodel?

[Will Fly]

It great as always Will. but come on. Where's the Yodel?

Ermm... bars 15 and 16... 

Cheers!

Will

[lw216316]

   A lot of early country and country blues singers, including Jimmie, the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers and many others played a lot more loosely than today's equivalents - and their music sounds freer and less ordinary.

Thanks for the song Will.

A few months ago I set out on an adventure to learn to play the alternating bass style,
commonly called the Travis style.
I soon discovered others before him played it.....
for example...There were black blues players in the south.
 The best I can tell, Travis indirectly learned it from them.
I think I read somewhere that a southern black blues player moved to
Kentucky and taught it to some white guy who taught it to Travis......makes sense to me.

So I spent some time listening to Cotton, Johnson and others.
There were some techniques of interest to me...I want to incorporate into 'my style'.
but to be honest...
I felt like the same old 12 bars played in a predefined chord sequence
quickly became too confining.

The Carter family and others provided a nice variety and added interest as you mentioned, Will.

Maybe we could call it the 'modified blues'.
...think I'll work on my first blues song and call it
I got the modified blues - in E sharp   

...before someone fires back an email to slap my chording left hand about that E sharp...
relax, its a play on words -  sharp - as in keen, cool....you're lookin' sharp today...etc
as in - The Carter's and others who modified the basic blues pattern....had a SHARP idea 

- Larry

[flatlander]

ce, but there are extra chords and single runs put in as Jimmie put them in. A lot of early country and country blues singers, including Jimmie, the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers and many others played a lot more loosely than today's equivalents - and their music sounds freer and less ordinary.

Yea and if you incorperate that into your style you can always have an excuse when you space out and just vamp or play around while you regroup.
I had a friend who was a very good player and indeed syncopated and played with time. But also sometimes he well, had a couple too many. When we 'd look at him a little funny it was "I'm just playing with timing man!"
But seriously that is cool and we were talking about that just yesterday and how most stuff was more predictable now.

[Will Fly]

John Lee Hooker was notoriously unpredictable and often difficult to play with, stepping out of the 12-bar convention quite a lot. He used to say that it was his blues and he'd play it any way he wanted to. Fair comment!

When I'm playing solo and not jamming with other people, there's a great freedom in getting into that frame of mind - it makes the performance less predictable, and you're able to express yourself as you want to. Here's an example of what I mean - a blues improv I did some time ago - just rambling on as the mood took me:

Blues For No Man