The Blues

by | Mar 31, 2015 | Music History

People often wonder where the “Blues” came from and how it came about.  Here’s the story that makes the most sense to me.  It seems a curious blending of Western and African culture.

In Western music the scales within the octave are divided by whole tones and half tones, in African music the scales are divided by whole tones, half tones and quarter tones.  The end result is different levels of tension within the music.  The foundation of Western harmony is the major scale.  There is a similar scale in African music where the 3rd and 7th tones of the scale are a quarter tone flat.  The result is the 3rd and 7th intervals of the scale aren’t major or minor intervals, they are in between.  This scale is not playable on a piano or most Western instruments without the “bent” note.

Eventually some person who was brought over to America as a slave found themselves on a piano.  They knew the scale they wanted to play but it wasn’t on the instrument.  The closest they could come was playing a major chord in the left hand and playing a minor third in the melody with the right.  The missing note still was not there, it was implied.  This is the essence of the blues sound.  The African 7th was implied by playing the 1st chord of the key as a Dominant 7 and not the Major 7th chord of classical harmony.  This is also the essence of the blues sound.  The musical style would not have occurred without the crossing of the cultures.

The first use of the word blue in describing a feeling in song lyrics happened in England in about 1720.  The first time a blues was written down on staff paper happened in New Orleans in about 1910.  The person who did the transcription was a Neapolitan who had been in the country about 6 weeks.

Elvis and the Guitar

Elvis and the Guitar

by | Mar 25, 2015 | Music History

Elvis Presley, American Roll & Roll icon, began playing guitar at a young age.  It is said that he was taught by Brother Frank Smith, a young black minister at the First Assembly of God Church in Tupelo, though Brother Frank notes that Elvis already had a guitar method book when he first came in contact with him.  It is also said that Brother Frank taught Elvis the A,D and E chords which were needed to play “Old Shep”, a tune that a very young Elvis learned and eventually sang at his first public performance, a Mississippi State Fair talent show.  Elvis had relatives who played and undoubtedly he was shown things about playing by them.

Elvis musicAs a player Elvis was not a guitar player’s player.  At least publically he played simple chords and that’s about it.  Elvis was a huge influence on the world of guitars by being such a great performer with a guitar in his hands.  The popularity of the instrument skyrocketed with his rise to fame.

In 1958 my parents told me that I was going to take music lessons and that I could pick any instrument aside from the drums.  I narrowed it down to the trumpet or the guitar and Elvis tipped the scale.  It was the case for so many kids of my generation. 

In 1993, in Detroit, I got a new student who happened to be an 8 year old black child.  His name was Michael Bembury and he turned out to be a guitar prodigy.  Michael played his first show after 5 lessons and continued to bring the house down thru my long association with him.  At his first lesson I asked him why he wanted to play the guitar and he told me Elvis Presley.

 

The Importance Of Proper Technique

The Importance Of Proper Technique

by | Mar 11, 2015 | Music Teacher, Robert Abate Music News, Services

It goes without saying that practice makes perfect.  Practice will even improve natural talent and when it is coupled with consistent lessons with a knowledgeable teacher the only limit is the inherent ability of the student.

It is important when learning an instrument and how to play that the student comes in contact with the best teacher available as soon as possible.  One should not think that it is a good idea to get comfortable with the instrument and learn a few things on their own and then get an instructor.  Unless you are one of those very few people, people who are born with the ability to play as in being a savant, you end up doing more damage to your playing then you realize.  First impressions are very strong both physically and mentally, especially in matters of technique.  It can take the student six months to correct an incorrect first impression experience on an instrument.

Even savants would benefit from being shown how to properly physically approach an instrument as far as hand and body position.  What feels naturally comfortable is not always the best way.  In your everyday life you don’t hold your hands and body in a manner conducive for playing. You need to be shown and allow your hands and body to open up to the correct physical positions.  Eventually you will adopt your own particular playing style though it is really best to wait until you have mastered the “proper” way to play before you start making personal technique decisions.

The Old Man

Remembering Robert Lowe

by | Mar 5, 2015 | Robert Abate Music News

I would like to take a minute and remember and tell a story about Detroit jazz guitarist Robert Lowe. If I’m recalling correctly the first time I saw Robert play was at the Pretzel Bowl in Highland Park in the Lyman Woodard band in the early 70’s.

A few years later I went into the Detroit Community Music School to teach and was informed that I had a new student at 2 o’clock that afternoon. You can just imagine my surprise when at 2 o’clock Robert Lowe walked into my lesson room and told me he had come to learn how to read music.

I asked him where he needed to start and he told me at the very beginning, he couldn’t read a single note. So I got him a copy of the Joe Fava Guitar Method Vol.1 and we started on the 1st string with the notes E, F and G, whole notes, half notes and quarter notes. He had always played everything by ear.

Needless to say it became immediately apparent at the beginning of his 2nd lesson that he had spent absolutely no time practicing his reading. I made sure he understood the material and then we jammed for the remainder of the lesson. This pattern continued until his 4th lesson.

He walked into the room with a big black book of hand written charts and told me that the real reason he was in my room was that he had gotten a gig backing up Nancy Wilson and couldn’t read the material. He asked me if I would help him by reading and playing the music which he planned to memorize the sound of as I played it. So that is what we did. I never asked him how the gig went.

I was deeply affected by Robert’s passing and still remember his amazing thumb and ever present smile.

Robert Abate, Ron English, Robert Lowe – Recorded at the Guitar Summit 2004