|
Delta
Blues 101
Q What exactly
is the relationship between the Mississippi Delta and the Delta
blues, and how have they impacted other styles of music?
Fern Thorp
Athol, Massachusetts
A The Mississippi
River and its tributaries created a broad floodplain covering northwestern
Mississippi and contiguous eastern Arkansas. This is the Delta—board
flat from the river east to the Tallahatchie Ridge and south to
the bluffs at Vicksburg.
In the 19th century, as this fertile land was cleared for cultivation,
the owners of what were to become giant cotton plantations began
building earthen levees to control the Mississippi’s savage seasonal
floods. By 1900, the plantations were multithousand-acre fiefdoms
with their own stores, post offices, and cotton gins. The land was
worked by black laborers who farmed parcels in return for housing
and credit against a share of what they grew. The levees, now bigger
than the Great Wall of China, were maintained by contractors who
housed their "skinners"—men renowned for their skill handling teams
of draft mules—in remote tent villages called levee camps. It was
among these sharecroppers and muleskinners that some of the first
blues was played and sung.
In the late 1920s, when record company scouts first turned their
attention to the Delta, they found some of the greatest talents
in early recorded blues. There were originators like Tommy Johnson
and the astounding Charley Patton. Patton was kingpin of a group
of bluesmen including brilliant guitarist Willie Brown and Son House,
whose explosive intensity set a mark for younger players like Robert
Johnson and Muddy Waters. The core Delta repertoire included variations
on themes like "Roll and Tumble" and "Pony Blues," shaped by each
artist into a unique statement. The guitar playing was distinguished
by strong picked and slapped bass figures underpinning bluesy modal
riffs; Delta players also made frequent use of open tunings and
bottleneck slide guitar.
Although the early Delta bluesmen generally stuck close to home,
their creative progeny certainly didn’t; and here lies much of the
importance of the Delta sound in modern music. Robert Johnson died
before his talents were widely recognized, but his Delta contemporaries—Elmore
James, Howlin’ Wolf, and Muddy Waters—lived to shape the music of
the Delta into a new sound that ultimately entered the realm of
popular music.
—Steve James
Return to Top
Beginning
to Gig
Q I’m
kicking around the idea of trying to get some gigs, maybe at nearby
coffeehouses. How much material would I need to play a standard
gig?
Anton Emery
Tallahassee, Florida
A Most typical coffeehouse gigs require
a minimum of two 45-minute sets of music. This may seem like a lot
at first, but there are ways to fill out the time without repeating
any of your repertoire. You might think about splitting a gig with
another guitarist, perhaps someone who plays in a different style,
so that the audience will find the show more varied and interesting.
Also, if you read music, it’s not necessary to memorize all your
material. Bring a music stand and some tunes you’re working on.
As long as you can play all the way through the music, nobody will
mind. The best place to get your feet wet, however, is at your local
open mic. You’ll only have to play one or two pieces, and you can
try out different tunes each time you perform to see how they go
over. Another advantage is that open mic performances often lead
to longer shows at the same venue.
—Teja Gerken
Return to Top
Counting
16th Notes
Q I am having trouble
counting 16th notes, especially when they’re mixed with eighth notes
and quarter notes. Are there any exercises that would help?
Dan Collazo
Pflugerville, Texas
A One way
to deal with tricky rhythms in notation is to tap out the rhythms
along with a metronome before you even touch the guitar or worry
about the pitches of the notes. Pick out some notation for a melody
you are familiar with but don’t already play, set your metronome
to a very slow tempo, and "play" the melody by drumming each note
in time with your fingertips. Review any tricky rhythmic passages
until you recognize the rhythms indicated by any combination of
quarter, eighth, and 16th notes. Do this until you can read through
the music fluidly and tap the rhythm of the melody with confidence.
Once the rhythmic framework is solid, the rest falls into place
much more easily.
—Paul Kotapish
Return to Top
Send Questions, tips, or observations to Acoustic
Guitar’s online discussion forums at www.acousticguitar.com
or write to Dear A.G., Acoustic Guitar, PO Box 767, San Anselmo,
CA 94979-0767.
Excerpted
from
Acoustic Guitar magazine,
February
2002, No. 110.
|
