Swung 12 Bar

[JD01]

Fuck. This might sound like the most obvious thing in the world to record if you're from the Southern USA... but I'd never tried it before.

Was just thinking I'd knock up a quick 12 bar backing track to mess about playing some lead over for half and hour.

We'll, I've found out that consistently playing a swung rhythm for 24 bars is actually a bit of a twat when you're not used to it. I've only knocked together a 40 second loop and its taken me about 40 minutes to get a vaguely passable take where I don't start to drift into a straight rhythm and just sound terrible.

Harder than I expected.

[muttley]

Swing is about all I still play theses days... Not sure I could play straight four to the bar anymore. So the other way around for me.

[Bill L]

Swing is about all I still play theses days... Not sure I could play straight four to the bar anymore. So the other way around for me.

Myself as well. I'm almost incapable of playing straight time.

[Greg_L]

It's a feel thing. Get away from all the metal riffing and play along with some oldies. Fats Domino will teach you all you need to know.

[JD01]

It's funny, just just sitting down in the house playing guitar i thought I could do it fine. This was the first time I'd tried.to record along to a beat... I kept losing the 2nd kick and it would end up sounding more Get Back than SRV.

[WhiskeyJack]

I don't know what any of this means.

[Armistice]

I'm never entirely sure what people are talking about with this stuff... I don't have any problem playing blues shapes against a backing - it just bores me, so I don't.

Post your efforts up, or at least your backing track, so I can see what you mean.

[JD01]

I'm never entirely sure what people are talking about with this stuff... I don't have any problem playing blues shapes against a backing - it just bores me, so I don't.

Post your efforts up, or at least your backing track, so I can see what you mean.

Oh, playing the blues scale shapes is easy. Its the backing rhythm that's tricky if you're not practiced.

[Lt. Bob]

I'm never entirely sure what people are talking about with this stuff... I don't have any problem playing blues shapes against a backing - it just bores me, so I don't.

Post your efforts up, or at least your backing track, so I can see what you mean.

lol .... playing good stuff isn't all that easy so count me skeptical

[Armistice]

I'm never entirely sure what people are talking about with this stuff... I don't have any problem playing blues shapes against a backing - it just bores me, so I don't.

Post your efforts up, or at least your backing track, so I can see what you mean.

lol .... playing good stuff isn't all that easy so count me skeptical

Sceptical about what? I'm just curious as to what we're talking about here... what's a "swung 12 bar in people's heads"? Could be all sorts of things...

This? It calls itself a "swung 12 bar" in the description, but it doesn't sound so swingy to me...




Or this? Very jazzy.




This?




This?




I just want to hear the particular thing that @JD01 is struggling with so I can understand it, is all.

[JD01]

Most like the SRV blues shuffle. But higher tempo. I initially kept drifting towards a standard rhythm.

[Greg_L]

Play rockabilly. Good speed, way better than blues.

There, done. Fixed.

[muttley]

Play rockabilly. Good speed, way better than blues.

There, done. Fixed.

Indeed.. Jump Jive would be another option which was kind of the forerunner for Rockabilly. Play along for a while and you soon learn how to sit off the beat.

[Lt. Bob]

Most like the SRV blues shuffle. But higher tempo. I initially kept drifting towards a standard rhythm.

the SRV clip doesn't swing at
all so that sould be easy

[muttley]

Most like the SRV blues shuffle. But higher tempo. I initially kept drifting towards a standard rhythm.

the SRV clip doesn't swing at
all so that sould be easy

I didn't want to be the first to say it but yeh..... That was my thought exactly. No swing no shuffle, no syncopation at all really.

That could be why JD is struggling to hear it in his bones cos it just aint there. Swing is a feel thing as much as anything else. It's about recognising your place in all that noise and filling it..... or not..

[vomitHatSteve]

Play rockabilly. Good speed, way better than blues.

There, done. Fixed.

As a bassist who has spent far too much time bored out of his mind at blues jams, I concur!

[Lt. Bob]

Play rockabilly. Good speed, way better than blues.

There, done. Fixed.

As a bassist who has spent far too much time bored out of his mind at blues jams, I concur!

speaking as a bass player, if you're a good bassist playing with a good drumber there's no kind of music that should be boring .... personally when I hear musicians talk about some kind of music being beneath them first thing I think is they're not very good musicians.

If you're too good to play Brown Eyed Girl then you're actually not very good at all
A good musicians plays what the song needs and plays it well .... musicians that can't do that are the ones that can't make a living at it and are essentially hobbyists rather than musicians

[Armistice]

Hey @vomitHatSteve - I think we need a VHS tune in which aliens land on earth and kill only blues musicians and anyone found to be playing pentatonically... "The Aliens Killed My Blues Blues"... Surely such a concept would work with one of your various musical identities?

[Greg_L]

I definitely would not want to play Brown Eyed Girl.

[Lt. Bob]

Hey @vomitHatSteve - I think we need a VHS tune in which aliens land on earth and kill only blues musicians and anyone found to be playing pentatonically... "The Aliens Killed My Blues Blues"... Surely such a concept would work with one of your various musical identities?

that would be an entire concept album ..... I would love to hear some of that