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Chapter 12: The Birth and Growth of Classic Electric Blues
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Although the sounds of electric and acoustic differ, electric guitar is similar
to the acoustic in that it has six strings and frets, so any acoustic guitarist
can play an electric right off the bat. And if they could afford it, virtually
everyone did. Manufacturers like Gibson began selling electric guitars like
hotcakes in the mid ’30s, and it was soon clear that electric guitars were
going to be big. Very big. And sure enough, jazz guitarists snatched them up
as fast as Gibson and others could crank them out.
Increased sustain is probably the number-one advantage of electric guitars,
allowing long, fluid, horn-like melodic lines. Overdriving an amp into distortion
creates the illusion of even longer sustain because the signal is clipped
and compressed, which keeps a steady volume level until it abruptly decays.
Other benefits of the electric’s sound include
A smoother tone
Less drastic envelope — a graphic description of the behavior of a
plucked note’s attack, decay, sustain, and release
When creatively controlled, these effects allowed electric guitars to compete
on equal footing with saxes and other horns for solo supremacy.
Giving Props to the Earliest
Electric Pioneer
Although electric guitarists became a dime a dozen after electrics became
affordable, one name stands alone as the early voice of electric blues guitar:
T-Bone Walker.
Aaron Thibeaux Walker is one of the most influential blues guitarists of all
time because he bridged the gap from acoustic country blues into the urbanized,
electric sound of Memphis, Kansas City, and Chicago. Walker’s style and
musical sensibilities were sophisticated and jazzy, and he was a versatile and
skilled musician who worked a lot. He incorporated jazz-type harmony and
phrasing in his playing, using ninth chords in his rhythm playing and crafting
lead lines that were melodically and rhythmically complex.
Figure 12-1 shows a passage in the style of Walker’s “Call It Stormy Monday” —
his own tune and one where he really stretched out, taking the blues to places
other melodic players of the day had never been. He achieved this end by
throwing in unusual (for the time) string bends, jazzy phrases, and a harmonic
sophistication his Delta counterparts would hardly recognize. But it was all
grounded in the blues vocabulary.
TEAM LinG