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Level-Up Your Blues Phrasing

Level-Up Your Blues Phrasing

Learn to focus your accents and make your lines more listenable.



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Ethnomusicologist Frances Densmore records the song of Mountain Chief, head of the Blackfeet Tribe, on a phonograph for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1916.

Once used as a way to preserve American indigenous culture, field recording isnā€™t just for seasoned pros. Here, our columnist breaks down a few methods for you to try it yourself.

The picture associated with this monthā€™s Dojo is one of my all-time favorites. Taken in 1916, it marks the collision of two diverging cultural epochs. Mountain Chief, the head of the Piegan Blackfeet Tribe, sings into a phonograph powered solely by spring-loaded tension outside the Smithsonian. Across from him sits whom I consider the patron saint of American ethnomusicologistsā€”the great Frances Densmore.

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Need more firepower? Hereā€™s a collection of high-powered stomps that pack plenty of torque.

Thereā€™s a visceral feeling that goes along with really cranking the gain. Whether youā€™re using a clean amp or an already dirty setup, adding more gain can inspire you to play in an entirely different way. Below are a handful of pedals that can take you from classic crunch to death metal doomā€”and beyond.

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We chat with Molly about Sister Rosettaā€™s ā€œimmediately impressiveā€ playing, which blends jazz, gospel, chromaticism, and blues into an early rock ā€˜nā€™ roll style that was not only way ahead of its time but was also truly rockinā€™.

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Paul Reed Smith shows John Bohlinger how to detect the grain in a guitar-body blank, in a scene from PGā€™s PRS Factory Tour video.

Paul Reed Smith says being a guitar builder requires code-cracking, historical perspective, and an eclectic knowledge base. Mostly, it asks that we remain perpetual students and remain willing to become teachers.

I love to learn, and I donā€™t enjoy history kicking my ass. In other words, if my instrument-making predecessorsā€”Ted McCarty, Leo Fender, Christian Martin, John Heiss, Antonio de Torres, G.B. Guadagnini, and Antonio Stradivari, to name a fewā€”made an instrument that took my breath away when I played it, and it sounded better than what I had made, I wanted to know not just what they had done, but what they understood that I didnā€™t understand yet. And because it was clear to me that these masters understood some things that I didnā€™t, I would go down rabbit holes.

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