I Got The Blues...
I Got The Blues... |
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Instruments "The music you make is shaped by what you play it on...if you feel that you're not getting enough out of a song, change the instrument-go from acoustic to an electric or vice versa, or try an open tuning...do something to shake it up." -Mark Knopfler |
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In southern areas such as Mississippi, composers used a homemade instrument called a diddly-bow. A diddly-bow is either a very thick broom straw or a piece of baling wire that has a small rock which serves the purpose of being the bridge to the instrument. This device makes noise by striking it up and down its body or in other words snapping it in different places with your fingers. Some people who are familiar with this technique, will rub the instrument with a bottleneck that has been customly-shaped over a flame and into what is known as a"slide." People who are acustomed to the slide and bottleneck technique tend to be good at playing the diddly-bow.
Many blues performers are part of a popular group called a jug band. This type of music is a mixture between the blues and music from West Africa. Each jug band varies in size and with what instruments they use, but most include a harmonica (kazoo), a variety of string instruments and at least one band member controlling the bass. The bass is controlled by blowing across the top of a jub (AKA a poor man's tuba). Jug bands were developed by poor rural blacks who wanted to express themselves by playing music with anything that they could find. Along with jug bands there were washboard bands, which developed its name by band members using laundry devices and converting them into percussion instruments. Jesse Fuller was a popular one-man jug band and he played several instruments including the harmonica, washboard, kazoo and a twelve-string guitar. Another musical creation was the common "banjo" which was made out of a broom handle and a bread pan.
The blues would not be the same without the use of the guitar. There were many different forms of guitars used in blues music. The electric guitar was used to amplify the music of more powerful and upbeat songs. The acoustic guitar was used in the older, more expressive blues music. Other guitar-types include bottleneck, Hawaiian, hornlike lines and slide guitars.
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