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Does playing the blues ever help you get over the blues?


StaffyDaddy

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I would like to say that when I've been feeling down or going through a rough patch, playing the blues has really helped me out, but I can't. At those times, I find that just playing the guitar helps because it takes my mind off things, or evokes other emotions beyond just being bummed. But I never pour all my troubles into the blues, play my pain, and feel comforted.

Anyone else?

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YES On one particular occasion I was so down that there was just no point to anything. So I picked up a guitar to express my feelings with a stupid song . Soon I was laughing and having a good time with this stupid song. It went something like this
My life story
All that I've done
All that I've worked for
Is a stinking pile of {censored}
Just a stinking pile of {censored}
( I don't remember the rest of it)

I've learned not to take myself so seriuosly that I can't laugh at myself.

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Playing guitar in general has always been a great release of tension for me but more in the same way that someone might go to the gym and workout on the heavy bag or some weights. Playing the blues, well I get into it but it does nothing for me in a therapeutic sense. Then again I'm not really a blues guy either so maybe I'm not the right guy to ask. idn_smilie.gif

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Playing often helps me get my mood back on track. It gives me a chance to sit and focus on something while pushing everything else away and thinking about things from a more detached yet more balanced philosophical perspective. I've never experimented with meditation, but I'm guessing the two have a lot in common. In today's world where we are constantly bombarded with stimulation from technology, I think those moments take on greater importance.

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Quote Originally Posted by OldGuitarPlayer View Post
The guy already has the IQ of a shoe box. He is a bass player in a {censored}ty country band...rolleyes.gif
Awe.. There there little man. Did someone get their wittle {censored} hurted by the mean non talented IQ of a shoebox man on teh internets?

*pats head*

It'll be ok little man. Mama will kiss your boo boo and put on your wittle bwooze snooze cd so you can take a little nappy poo and cry it off.

Sniff. Sniff.
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Quote Originally Posted by goosefartfan View Post
It depends....if you play as badly as I do, you just feel worse
I feel you bro'
That being said, I enjoy banging on my guitars no matter how bad (or good) I'm feeling but generally a session where I sit down and strum a bit does make me feel better most all of the time.
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Totally! Yes! Of course! When I was single, whenever I broke up with a girl (all right whenever she or they broke up with me) I would write a song about it, and get through a month of grieving in about 2 days. Boy, I wish had had the recording equipment at the time to record those first takes. I do have cassettes of the old songs, but it was all just one shot recording back then, and the recorded takes were after playing the song 1,000 times and getting all the parts figured out. Pale performance by then.

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Yes. I can play quite a few styles of music but nothing gets me like playing the Blues and really ringing out those strings as you can just feel it going through you. To be honest I think it helps if you seriously get into the blues and go down that path a few years.If you just play the blues every so often and just run up and down the minor pentatonic it will get stale real fast. As far as musical IQ the Blues can be as simple or difficult as your knowledge and talent on the fretboard wants to go! Look at players like Robben Ford and Larry Carlton to just name two who know the fretboard as well as possibly human - both are huge blues fanatics.When I was a teenager I used to think that BB King was a joke until I got older a heavily into the blues in my 20's and then-I got what the fuss was about. The guy comes across as if he does not know the fretboard well but believe me he knows it better then he leads on. Listen to him outline the changes in an 8 Bar Blues which he will never play the sameway twice yet kill it everytime. I am sure a lot of guys who do not play the blues would stumble when that diminished chord appears lol. I have seen G-3 three times including with Yngwie and it was jaw dropping everytime, but when they jam at the end on say Redhouse or Voodoo Child it lacks something as sweeps, 3 note per string scales, or in Yngwies case harmonic minor runs dont mesh well and it sounds forced. I remember reading an interview with Paul Gilbert who I love and he was talking about a period where he had to cut back on the shred as it was killing his blues chops.

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