The Worst Blues Podcast Ever

We're all about giving a voice to many different viewpoints on the You'll Hear It podcast, and in the spirit of healthy debate, we respond to an op-ed sent in to us by a listener about a recent episode - read the full email below:

Hi Peter and Adam, 

Big fan of the podcast and you guys in general, but in my opinion this last episode on the blues was not cool/lame for a bunch of different reasons. 

Begin rant:

1. You called this a blues episode, but really didn't give any background on the different styles of actual blues piano that are out there and who to listen to. (Chicago style - Otis Spann / New Orleans - Dr. John / Texas - Pinetop Perkins and so on) The episode seemed to focus on jazz blues only which to me seems weird given the title. 

2. Oscar Peterson is not the end all/be all of jazz blues. You can make a very strong argument that Wynton Kelly, Cedar Walton, or Mary Lou Williams have much tastier licks and sound more authentic. Oscar is great obviously, but not all there is out there by any means. I love Oscar, but he also got a lotta criticism in his day for overplaying and being too polished and to hold him up as the epitome of blues piano seems strange.  

3. You cannot, cannot, cannot just run up and down blues scales and throw in some double stops and call it the blues. There is a language and vocabulary with many years of tradition. I am looking at you Adam. You had an episode a while back where you gave this formula on which blues scales to use in which part of the blues form and it made me puke in my mouth a little. The fact that you actually said this while shitting on the boogie woogie tradition and those licks makes my head explode. (I do agree with what you said about blues method books though)

4. Peter, sloppy rolls are part and parcel of the blues tradition. (See Dr. John and Otis Spann) Your whole take on this conjured up my worst memories of hanging out with jazz piano majors in my twenties and some of the nonsense I read on keyboard forums these days. I get where you are coming from, but this sounded way elitist to my ears. You could have just said tighten that shit up and/or don't overuse it in a jazz setting. 

5. You guys spend a lot of time talking about the major and minor blues scales instead of actually dissecting the blue vocabulary. For example, Chicago players like Otis Spann emphasize the b3, b5 and b7 while New Orleans players like Dr. John/Professor Longhair use more of the major sound (emphasizing the b3, 3 and 6) as well as some chord based patterns. Why not talk about these different approaches and play some examples instead of just running up and down "scales" ? 

6. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate what students sound like when they are learning blues scales, it eats away at my soul every time I hear it. Stop telling people to learn scales, blues piano is based on licks and a shared vocabulary. Show people the licks, and introduce them to the players, and tell them to use the notes in the lick as a starting point for improvising. If you show someone a scale they are forever going to be locked into that pattern, show them a lick and it is the beginning of a musical journey. You guys didn't get to where you are by playing scales when you improvise, why would it work for anyone else? 

To sum up: Blues piano has a rich tradition which most modern advanced players basically ignore in favor of generic pentatonic blues scale patterns. This results in watering down the tradition when these players (very technically proficient but usually focused on other styles of music ) attempt to pass on their lack of knowledge to beginner or intermediate players. 

End rant:

I have a jazz background, but when I am playing a blues gig (or a rock gig for that matter) I take off my jazz hat and listen to my favorite blues players and shed their licks in all keys, much like you guys. One of my all-time favorites is Chuck Leavell who toured with Dr. John and grew up listening to real blues in Georgia in the 1960s. I am attaching an arrangement I did of his licks/solos (me playing them with a logic loop) that I practice in all keys. You'll hear a lot of the things I am talking about, he draws on guys like Otis Spann, Dr. John, and Pinetop Perkins and melds their language into his own style. I use it as a warm-up to keep my blues/rock chops up, but you get the idea. 

Love you dudes!!

~Benny

Links From This Episode:

• There's a new course coming to Open Studio - Your Sound Is Your Signature! Join jazz bass extraordinaire Christian McBride as he teaches you how to play ballads, odd time signatures, fast tempos, and more! Featuring our beloved Guided Practice Sessions to help refine the concepts of this course. For updates, just follow this link.

Monday's Open Studio Live Events (All times in EDT):

• 1:00 PM - Adam's Daily Guided Practice Session (for Members Only)
• 6:00 PM - Bass Guided Practice Session with Bob DeBoo on YouTube

Tuesday's Open Studio Live Events:

• 8:00 PM - Live Listening Sesh with Peter Martin and Adam Maness on YouTube
• For the rest of this week's calendar, follow this link

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