Jake Baynes Quarter One Literature Blog

264-320 As I am coming towards the end of my BB King autobiography titled Blues All Around Me,  I have begun to think about the differences in phrasing between Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and BB King. What I have noticed after reading about their approaches as well as listening to their music is that they are all so different. Not only in their lifestyles, but in the way that they produce music. Each musician seems to have a completely different idea on how music should be created and what it should sound like. In my opinion, this has to do with their backgrounds as well as who they are in general. Clapton was raised well through a good school system with a lot of family tension. Clapton did not experience many limitations in what he was trying to do, other than those created by his relationships with people. Mainly, Clapton was a musician with an idea that began his own career and  did his own thing. Jimi on the other hand had a lot of limitations since he was a black man in...

I recently watched this video of BB King talking about his phrasing over a slow blues. I will definitely be applying what he is playing here in a later video! I think that this video is great because BB actually talks about how what he is playing sounds like talking. 

211-234  Leading up to this point in the book, BB has talked about his rise to fame and all of the gigs that he had played throughout this time. Through the huge amount of playing that BB did through 1956 and 1957, he created his own style. (According to BB, in 56' he played 342 one night stands!) Style is something that BB has talked a lot about since the beginning of this book. The way that BB played the guitar and sang meant a lot to him. According to BB, the guitar is like an extension of the human voice. He said that blues is a call and response type of music. This means that one part of the music is creating a call. That is then responded too melodically or rhythmically by another part of the music. To BB, his voice was the call and his guitar was the response. You can see this in the quote that I chose for this blog. BB talks about connecting his singing to his guitar playing as if the two were talking to one another. To further this, BB also has talked a lot about the way ...

128-211 Lucille (111) - The name that BB King gave numerous of his guitars that he felt as though fit the name. Work song (113) - The songs that would be sung during work on plantations. Blue note (130) - The note that makes the blues the blues according to BB King. This note is the Flatted seventh. Blues (130) - A style of music that is purely based from the soul. Delta (131) One of the three most popular styles of blues. Transition (133) WWII marked the transition from acoustic blues to electric blues Chant (114) - A style of singing that was found on the fields of plantations Chicago (132) - The second of the three popular styles/ origins of the blues. Bend (158) - A technique BB King used on the guitar to sound like he was singing through his guitar Vibrato (158) - Another technique that BB used to sound like he was singing on the guitar. Diminished (160) A common sound that BB enjoyed plugging into his solo ideas. He got this idea from Charlie Christian. Charlie Chris...

120-128 Something that I have noticed from reading these three books on famous blues musicians is that they all had very unique past lives that heavily affected their careers in many ways. Clapton, for example, had an extremely complicated childhood with the relationships that he had with his guardians. The examples that he had of a true relationship were tainted and his ability to trust people was damaged. This carried on over into his adult life as he had many relationship problems all the way up to his current relationship. As far as trust issues go, Clapton went through a lot of friends and managers due to his lack of trust in them. Jimi's childhood was full of music and encouragement to be different from his father. Thanks to this, Jimi grew up trying to be unique. This uniqueness is a big factor of his success as he did many things that no other musician would even think about doing. Moving onto BB King, King grew up with divorced parents. At the age of 9 he lost his mother...

113-120 Here is a video of all my favorite musicians playing together. My number one favorite is Derek Trucks. Derek is the one with the long blond hair playing the red guitar in the beginning. The reason that all of these musicians are on stage with BB King is because BB felt as though they represented the blues the best and had the best feel. For me, seeing this video gave me large gratification in the sense that my favorite musicians are phenomenal musicians! Their feel moves me every time I listen to them!

1-113 So far in BB Kings biography, I have learned about the early life of BB King. King was born in Mississippi, September 16th 1925. Kings parents split when he was young, leaving him to live with his mother. She then died when King turned nine, resulting in him being found by his father, Albert King. King then spent his time working at different cotton plantations where he first began to hear the blues. He stated that when working on the fields, people would sing and dance the blues. The blues was something that was deeply ground into BB Kings head. In a Living Blues interview, King stated that when he played the blues, he could hear those sounds and songs that he had heard when he was a kid. King explained what the blues does for the mind and soul. Everything that he mentioned related right back to the body and the soul. Nothing in relation to the mind or education like that of music styles such as jazz. He talked a lot about how he used the blues to get through struggling poin...

Inversion (345) - A chord where the notes are re arranged to have either the 3 or 5 in the base Scaleular (347) - an approach used in music where you think specifically scales Chordal knowlege (347) - knowlege that hendrix applied when creating his music Morgue (350) - A place where dead people are kept before being burried Vesparax (340) a german brand of sleeping pills that are a lot stronger than american sleeping pills Aspirated (345)- an exhailation of breath Hashish (344) cannibis Sedative. (344) a drug that relaxes a person Exacerbated (343) to make a problem worse Fatigue (343)exausted Fond (341)a strong liking of Awning (341)a sheet of canvas Meteoric (339)very rapid growth Incendiary (337)designed to cause fires Rabid (330) Coning from extreme belief in something

330-356 (finished) Leading up to the end of the book, Jimi's life and career caught one final wind before ending. Jimi was struggling with the constant touring and drug abuse. Part of this, the drug abuse, was something that he could avoid. The lack of sleep was not something avoidable due to his constantly busy life. Due to this, he gradually burnt himself out. It was stated that there was many reports of Jimi attempting to stop playing shows and have a private life. In an interview with Keith Altham, Hendrix stated, "I wanted to just lay back and predominantly write songs when I can't go on a stage anymore." (Cross 326) Leading up to when Hendrix stated this, Altham had asked what Hendrix had wanted his life to become and what he wanted to do for the rest of it. His response was to basically just write songs outside of his career. However, with his fame still growing, this was not possible. Jimi had stated many times, as well as whitenesses had stated, that he had...

210-330 Taking Jimi's focus on the roots of music as well as Tomo's ideas on knowing the roots of specific genres, I have spent a lot of time working on my traditional phrasing. The other day, I plugged in and turned my amp up allowing for tube distortion. I then used an overdrive pedal just as Jimi would have in order to achieve a very distorted guitar tone. From there I worked on playing blues with Jimi and traditional blues artists in mind. Here is what that sounded like! I posted this video to Instagram, and my idol  Matt Schofield  commented some pointers on the video!!! Below that is the video!

210-330 since friday Leading up to this event, Hendrix had encouraged bassist, Noel Redding, to quit his band, Jimi Hendrix The Experience. This was the end of Hendrix's trio which had brought him all the way to the Woodstock Festival of 1969. After the destruction of The Experience, Hendrix attempted to put together a few different bands as well as record a new album. It was stated that Hendrix complied about every group he had put together stating that, "they are the only band that does not get better after rehearsal" (255).  Hendrix played a total of one festival and one street concert throughout the year of 1969. Experiencing a drought, Hendrix became depressed. To add onto his depression, Hendrix felt rushed to start producing more music. Earlier in the year, he and the Experience traveled to Africa where Hendrix's forehead had been read. The reading stated that Hendrix was a well loved person surrounded by many people, and that he was to die soon. He became d...

200-210 Wah Pedal (160) - pedal used by Hendrix to achieve voice like sounds Stack (160) - short for Marshal stack.. a amp and cabinet set up The Experience (170) - the name of Hendrix’s band that he frontlined around Europe Subterfuge (196) - deciet used in order to achieve ones goal Wild Thing (194) - the song that Jimi played where he sacrificed his guitar by burning it on stage. Monterey Country Fairgrounds (191) - where Jimi made some of his most famous performances Acid (191) - a very common psychedelic drug used during Hendrix’s career. Kismet (187) - destiny/fate Pink Floyd (187) - a band that pushed hendrix’s creativity Sargent peppers lonely hearts club band (186) - an album that hendrix made many covers off not even three days after it was released. The album was by the Beatles. Speakeasy (178) - a type of small club Speed (178) - a drug that Hendrix and the band used to stay awake and record with LSD (178) - another psychedelic drug that was very popular in lo...

150-200 Variety is something that was a large component in Hendrix's life. It was the source for his booming career. It was what set him apart from the other musicians around him. So far in the book, Jimi has now made it to England where he began playing in as many blues clubs that he could get his hands on in London. In the 60s, the music scene in London was at an all time high. Back in the US, Jimi was playing wild psychedelic music that specifically had a huge impact on those in the northern parts of the United States, populated with acid influenced hippies. Once over in the UK, Jimi began to play the blues, a style that the audience in the UK was ready for. However, Jimi played this style with the same intensity and insanity that he did over in the US. One of the many listeners in his audience was blues musician Eric Clapton. Clapton was recorded saying that Jimi was like Buddy Guy on acid. From there, Jimi began to open up to his audiences, leading them towards the more psy...

I got inspired by what Hendrix was going for with his idea of variety. So I went onto Instagram and decided to learn this short song that is played on acoustic using fingerstyle technique. It was fun and inspiring to do something new! After posting the video, I got lots of positive feedback and a shoutout from the origional writer! Here is the video!

134- 150 Leading up to this point, I have been learning about the creation of Jimi Hendrix and how be slowly began to become famous. Coming up to this, Hendrix was playing at clubs like the Wha. This club was based in the north around 1966 at the beginning of Hendrix's career around the time when he really began to experiment with large Marshall stacks and fuzz pedals. It was also around this time that Hendrix was staying in Greenwich Village, NY. It was during this time that Hendrix was troubled with the direction of his music. He spent a lot of time hanging out with a lot of the people in Harlem, experiencing the structured music of Harlem R&B which was classed as the popular music at the time. The music that Hendrix was creating was extremely experimental for the time. It was categorized as "Psychedelic rock" which is not something that many peoples ears were ready for at the time. Hendrix was quoted talking to a friend of his, Youngblood, about how if he balance...

112-134 Duckwalk (62) - The dance that Chuck Berry made famous. Pentecostal (58) - Relating to a Pentecost. Pentecost (58) - A Christian festival. hypertension (58) - One of the issues that lead to the death of Hendrix's mother, Lucille's, death. High blood pressure. Cirrhosis (58) - Scarring of the liver that is caused from many different liver issues and diseases. Transfixed (54) - Motionless with horror. Sermon (54) - A talk on a religious subject. itinerant (50) - Traveling from place to place. matriarchal (51) - relating to a form of social organization debonair (97) - Confident and stylish enigmatic (119) - Difficult to interpret and understand. prescient (121) - Knowing about events before they happen somnambulistic (121) - Sleepwalking parameter (113) - defining characteristic of a particular system. contradictory (111) - mutually opposed insatiable (109) - impossible to satisfy motown (105) - style of music recorded by a studio titled motown. ampheta...

96-112 Jimi Hendrix So far, up to the point that I am at in Hendrix's biography, I have seen a lot of influence from Clapton. Both Hendrix and Clapton had their moments of fame around the same time. However, Clapton's career outlasted Hendrix's. A large part of Hendrix's playing was that he pulled from the old and the new influences around him. A lot of people from this time did not typically do such a thing. Clapton for instance, grew up listening to older musicians like Muddy Waters as well as the old time classics that were played on the radio. It was not until later on in his career that Clapton started branching out and creating music that was slightly more modern than that of his influences. Hendrix, on the other hand, seemed to take a different approach. With what I had said about Hendrix being highly motivated to be unique with the music that he produced, he took the old and mixed it strongly with the new with influences from the societal traits of the time. T...

96-112 A lot of Jimi Hendrix’s fame lasted through the Vietnam War, this recording of Hendrix with the Band Of Gypsies playing “Machine Gun” was taken during this timespan. It happens to be one of my favorite Hendrix recordings! I have been listening to this album before I began playing the guitar.

New book started: Jimi Hendrix - The Room Full Of Mirrors By Charles R. Cross. Pages read since finishing Clapton book last week: 0-96 So far in this book, I have learned about the early life of Hendrix leading up to his first days of playing the guitar. Jimi was born in Seattle, Washington. His mother birthed Jimi at the age of 17 and unfortunately had many relationship issues with Hendrix's father, Al. He soon gained two more siblings, Leon and Joseph before his mother left the family. Jimi's mother left the family when he turned 6. He only saw his mother sporadically before she died a few years later. Growing up, Jimi appeared to have a strong interest in the blues music. Jimi listened to artists like Albert King, Robert Johnson and BB King. He also took interest in artists like Miles Davis. It was not until he was sixteen years old that his father encouraged him to learn how to play the guitar. Jimi was gifted a right handed Supra Ozark guitar and began to play. However, ...