Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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Songs in Vestapol:
Many fine examples of acoustic blues in Vestapol are on Elizabeth Cotton: Freight Train
and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes, Smithsonian Folkways, and Furry
Lewis in His Prime 1927~1928, Yazoo.
- Elmore James
V IBR A T O
that only men play electric guitar, he makes an excellent point. Vibrato, which is the
and musicality.
at some of the widest and strongest vibratos among guitar players
belong to blues guitarists. Blues guitar, like blues singing, was influenced by the fact that
African slaves spoke tonal languages. When singing, they used variations of pitch and
timbre to convey many shades of meaning, resulting in vibrato, tremolo, overtones, and
hoarse-voiced and shouting techniques.
Although vibrato is a prominent feature of European classical music performances today,
this was not always the case. Prior to the 19th century, vibrato was used sparingly, as
vibrato only on sustained notes and at the end of phrases.
Early blues guitarists, in contrast, developed an unusually expressive, improvisational use
of vibrato, not only in order to sustain notes on acoustic guitars, but also to mimic the
qualities of African singing.
Listen to the slow back-and-fo
guitarists to duplicate properly. King steadily bends the string back and forth an entire
shakes his entire ha
note are relaxed, and his hand flutters like a butterfly. This technique is called
Electric rock guitarists, blessed with loads of sustain from distortion and dense heavy
underdeveloped among guitarists who have not studied blues players. Many electric
guitarists acquire a rather squirrely-sounding quasi-vibrato simply because
thought about putting the effort into acquiring a more defined one.
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