Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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True vibrato requires significant hand strength. Listen to the opening lick from Stevie
whole step, he then moves it back and forth an entire half step to create vibrato at the top
of the bend. This takes enough hand strength to crush a Volkswagen, as well as a finely
attenuated sense of pitch.
exactly like B.B. King. I'm pretty good at imitating him. But one day I realized that if I
got in a room with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, and Buddy Guy and each guy played a solo,
well, when they got to me what the hell was I gonna do? You get on the stage with B.B.
King, Buddy Guy, and Eric Clapton a
365
Vaughan distinguished himself by developing a clean spare style that uses minimal
you want
to do. They're playing what they wanna hear and what they feel. What do you feel? What
Sometimes a guitarist makes a conscious choice to use small or minimal vibrato to
distinguish his
R&B with the Fabulous Thunderbirds; Family Style, recorded with Stevie Ray in 1990;
Strange Pleasure, proved him
worthy of Stevie's oft-
say when complimented.
V O O D O O, V O D O U
Vodou) is a religion that
evolved in the Americas from African Vodun
This West African ancestor~based tradition originated among the Fon-Ewe people of the
former Kingdom of Dahomey, a country known now as Benin. (The Fon term vodu
meant spirit, or deity. Vodun means God or Great Spirit. 366 )
The defining experience of Vodou- possession- is the source for the idea in the blues (and
beyond the body and the mind, and be so possessed by this connection that it animates
The practice of Vodun among African slaves was forcibly and successfully repressed in
the American colonies, yet its essence survived in the spiritual and aesthetic values of its
people, and fueled the creation of the blues. 367
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