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Exploring the Delta Blues
Delta blues also goes by the moniker Mississippi blues, but either term refers to the blues style of playing that came out of the Delta region of Mississippi, the fertile cotton-producing area of the state (not to be confused with the Mississippi River delta). Most Delta blues is played acoustically, in the manner of the original recordings of the 1920s and 1930s, with hollow-bodied guitars that were made before the electric guitar was introduced to the blues in the late 1940s. This brand of blues stands as the first guitar-based blues to be recorded.
In the Delta style, performers typically work solo and are usually self-accompanied on an acoustic six-string guitar. In the Delta style, you can also hear the first flowerings of the small combo format — sometimes called a string band combo — that would reach its zenith with the Chicago and modern electric blues styles.
The Delta blues style features plenty of great guitar playing with elaborate finger-picking, slashing slide work, and deep boogie rhythms, and all of it delivered with an emotional depth that oozes from each recording.
In the slide guitar style of playing, the guitarist depresses the strings of the guitar with a cylindrical slider worn over a finger of the left hand, rather than using his or her fingertips. This style is also called bottleneck guitar because early sliders were fashioned from glass bottlenecks that were fired to create a smooth surface. Slider material has included everything from bones to knives to various metals, such as brass.
Notable early blues artists who played in the Delta style include some of the very greatest:
- Son House
- Robert Johnson
- Mississippi Fred McDowell
- Charlie Patton
Here are a few recordings to check out:
- Various Artists — Deep Blues (Atlantic). This collection contains modern-day Delta blues (recorded in 1992) played with a passion that's seldom heard on today's records. Features great performances by R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Big Jack Johnson, Booba Barnes, and others.
- Various Artists — The Friends of Charlie Patton (Yazoo). This superb collection contains original Delta-Mississippi blues recordings by some of the all-time greats, including performances by Tommy Johnson, Son House, Willie Brown, Kid Bailey, Bukka White, and Ishmon Bracey.
- Searching For Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick (E.P. Dutton). A small (83 pages) biography of the life, times, and music of the most famous (and mysterious) Delta bluesman of all time. While hard-and-fast facts about Robert Johnson are in short supply, Guralnick assembles as many of them as possible, and his quotes from legendary blues players Johnny Shines and Robert Jr. Lockwood are so provocative that they alone are worth the cover price. Guralnick carefully speculates — and sheds new light — on how Johnson created the timeless music he did during his short and tragic life.
- King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton by Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow (Rock Chapel Press). Patton ruled the Delta blues circuit during the 1920s and early 1930s, packing the barrelhouses and selling loads of records to prove it. An essential read in finding out about the early history of the Delta blues, it includes an appendix featuring examples of Patton's songs and a glossary of expressions used in his lyrics.
Guitars GlossaryThe slowest blues pattern in which the bass note plays on beats one and three and the chords play on beats two and four.
Guitars GlossaryBy far the most popular form for the blues, created by following a 12-bar blues pattern of three lines per verse, with the first line repeated.
Guitars GlossaryA chord created from the altered or unaltered first, third, fifth, and seventh notes of a scale; 7th chords have a complex, bluesy sound.
Guitars GlossaryA musical notation (>) indicating that a note should be played louder than the rest of the notes.
Guitars GlossaryA musical notation indicating that a note should be played a half or whole step higher or lower; accidentals include flats (b), double flats (bb), sharps (#), double sharps (x), and naturals.
Guitars GlossaryA type of hybrid guitar that is an acoustic guitar with built-in pickups and electronics.
Guitars GlossaryElectric guitar electronics that have a built-in power source.
Guitars GlossaryA combination of upstrokes and downstrokes that enables the guitarist to play faster and is the key for playing fast leads smoothly.
Guitars GlossaryA musical pattern in which you alternate between playing the melody and bass parts one at a time instead of at the same time.
Guitars GlossaryThe notes of a chord played one after the other instead of simultaneously.
Guitars GlossaryThe way in which a musician plays and connects notes to create a distinct tonal quality, as well as distortion of the tone.
Guitars GlossaryThe initial distinguishing sound of a note.
Guitars GlossaryA rhythmic alteration in which the melody falls behind the beat.
Guitars GlossaryThe thick ring at one end of a guitar's steel string.
Guitars GlossaryThe vertical lines that separate music into measures.
Guitars GlossaryA basic unit of musical time containing a specific number of beats.
Guitars GlossaryThe combination of notes that sound when a guitarist presses down two or more strings at once with a single left-hand finger.
Guitars GlossaryA type of chord that has only fretted notes and is able to move to any position on the neck of your guitar.
Guitars GlossaryThe lower, wider part of the body of a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a beam can be used to connect a group of notes (eighth notes or shorter) that would normally each be flagged.
Guitars GlossaryA guitar effect in which a note's pitch is raised by stretching the ringing string while it is sounding.
Guitars GlossaryA bending effect in which a note is played, then bent without repicking, and then returned to its original tone (unbent) without repicking.
Guitars GlossaryA popular R&B rhythm that uses left-hand muting, syncopated strumming, scratches, and sounded notes to create an implied syncopation effect.
Guitars GlossaryA rhythm pattern created by alternating notes and chords.
Guitars GlossaryAn amplifier control that you can use to create a distorted or lead sound.
Guitars GlossaryA 17th-century French up-tempo dance.
Guitars GlossaryThe angle that is created by the string and the tuning post when a string winds down the tuning post; the sharper the angle, the more sustain is produced.
Guitars Glossary1. A contrasting section of music that is used to separate similar sections. 2. The plate that anchors the strings to the body of a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA set of metal springs that pull a floating bridge in the opposite direction of the strings, thereby holding the bridge in balance.
Guitars GlossaryThe clarity of sound produced.
Guitars GlossaryA usually unwanted distortion of a guitar sound created when a string vibrates against the fret wire.
Guitars GlossaryA device that clamps down across the fingerboard of a guitar at a particular fret to shorten the length of all the strings at the same time, forcing the strings to play in higher pitches than they normally do.
Guitars GlossaryA popular folk guitar picking style — named after the famous Carter family — in which the melody is played on the low strings with the thumb while the fingers provide an accompaniment in the form of brushes.
Guitars GlossaryA chord is produced when three or more notes are played simultaneously.
Guitars GlossaryA string of changing chords.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style — frequently used in jazz solos — that incorporates both the melody and chords of a song.
Guitars GlossaryAn amplifier effect that makes your guitar sound like two guitars being played together.
Guitars GlossaryA tool used by musicians to determine the relationship between major and minor keys.
Guitars GlossaryA specific time signature (4/4 time) that indicates four beats in each measure, with the quarter note equalling one beat.
Guitars GlossaryNotes that appear in two or more consecutive chords.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style — used frequently in classical guitar music — in which you play two or more simultaneously.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, when one musical line ascends while the other descends.
Guitars GlossaryA rhythm pattern created by alternating notes and chords.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a symbol —a C with a vertical line “cutting” it in half — that tells you to count the half note as one beat instead of the usual quarter note.
Guitars GlossaryA silencing effect created by touching strings to prevent them from ringing out clearly.
Guitars GlossaryPart of an instrument's tone color that is heard in the final part of the played note.
Guitars GlossaryA powder or crystal substance that draws humidity out of the air, lowering the local relative humidity level.
Guitars GlossaryA guitar effect that produces a fuzzy sound, as if the signal was too powerful for the amp.
Guitars GlossaryA chord built from the first, third, fifth, and flatted seventh note of a scale. In a major scale, a seventh chord built from the fifth note of the scale is naturally a dominant seventh chord.
Guitars GlossaryThe fretting and playing of two strings simultaneously.
Guitars GlossaryA technique for creating power chords by playing the same notes in different octaves on different strings.
Guitars Glossary1. A musical notation often shaped like an open-bottomed box that indicates that the note or chord should be played with a downward motion of the pick. 2. Dragging your pick (or thumb) across the strings toward the floor as you play.
Guitars GlossaryThe volume at which notes are played.
Guitars GlossaryA musical notation (a solid oval head with a stem and a flag or beam) indication a note that is half as long as a quarter note.
Guitars GlossaryA battery-powered device used to tune instruments.
Guitars GlossaryThe metal post where the back end of the strap connects. On acoustic-electric guitars, the pin often doubles as the output jack.
Guitars GlossaryA method of relative tuning whereby you tune a guitar based on the pitch of a single string, usually the lowest one.
Guitars GlossaryAn exercise used to train the left hand for fingering and to build up finger independence.
Guitars GlossaryA type of guitar notation that indicates where to place your fingers on the neck of the guitar.
Guitars GlossaryThe flat piece of wood embedded with frets that you position your left-hand fingers on to produce notes and chords.
Guitars GlossaryA type of guitar playing that involves using the individual right-hand fingers in a way in which the thumb plays the bass strings and the fingers play the treble, or high, strings.
Guitars GlossaryA type of guitar playing that involves using the individual right-hand fingers in a way in which the thumb plays the bass strings and the fingers play the treble, or high, strings.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style that originated in Spain and was designed to accompany flamenco dancing.
Guitars Glossary1. When a string sounds out at a lower pitch than it should. 2. A note that is played one fret lower than the note is on the musical staff. 3. An accidental (b) indicating that a note should be played a half-step lower than indicated.
Guitars GlossaryA type of bridge held in place by the string tension (which pulls it one way), and a set of bridge springs.
Guitars GlossaryThe most successful form of floating bridge — a movable bridge system that uses a locking nut to ensure that the bridge returns to its home position — was designed for guitarists who like to use the whammy bar extensively.
Guitars GlossaryA right-hand stroke — used in classical and folk guitar playing — in which you pluck a string at a slightly upward angle so that your finger comes to rest freely in the air.
Guitars Glossary1. The thin metal wire or bar that runs across the fretboard at specific intervals. 2. The place on the fretboard where you position your finger to produce different pitches.
Guitars GlossaryThe flat piece of wood embedded with frets where you position your left-hand fingers to produce notes and chords.
Guitars GlossaryA note produced by pressing your finger over the string at a specific point on the fretboard.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style that is very busy and relies heavily on sixteenth notes.
Guitars GlossaryA musical effect wherein all the notes between two principal notes sound.
Guitars GlossaryA saturated rubber-enclosed sponge that clips onto the inside of the sound hole or is kept inside the case to raise the humidity level.
Guitars GlossaryA form of musical notation that contains the information of most importance to the guitarist: fingerboard diagrams and tablature.
Guitars GlossaryA liquid polish designed specifically for cleaning and polishing a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the half note has a hollow oval head with a stem; it lasts half as long as the whole note, or twice as long as a quatrter note.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the smallest difference between two pitches.
Guitars GlossaryA guitar articulation technique in which you sound a note by fretting a string with enoungh force to make the string vibrate.
Guitars GlossaryA method of finding the same notes in different places on the fretboard of a bass guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA musical scale created by lowering by a half-step the third and sixth notes of a major scale.
Guitars GlossaryNotes that sound naturally on a string when you lightly touch it at certain points and then strike it with your right hand.
Guitars GlossaryThe part of the guitar that holds the tuning machines.
Guitars GlossaryAn inexpensive device that tells you the relative humidity of a room with a good degree of accuracy (close enough to maintain a healthy guitar, anyway).
Guitars GlossaryA bending effect that is caused by playing a note and then immediately bending it up.
Guitars GlossaryA type of note decay in which the tone produced begins to fade as soon as the next note is played.
Guitars GlossaryThe socket used for connecting the guitar cord to the amplifier.
Guitars GlossaryThe gap between musical notes, which are measured in half steps and whole steps.
Guitars GlossaryThe accuracy of the pitches produced by fretting.
Guitars GlossaryThe socket used for connecting the guitar cord to the amplifier.
Guitars GlossaryThe main tonality, or organization of the pitches, of a piece of music.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a grouping of symbols (sharps or flats) that tells you to always play certain notes one semitone higher or lower.
Guitars GlossaryAn articulation designation meaning that notes should be played smoothly and flowingly.
Guitars GlossaryPlaying a note at one fret and then, withoug repicking the string, sliding your finger to a different fret while maintaining pressure on the string.
Guitars GlossaryA short melodic phrase — a solo is a succession of licks.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a ligature can be used to connect a group of notes (eighth notes or shorter) that would normally each be flagged.
Guitars GlossaryA chord built on the unaltered first, third, and fifth notes of a major scale.
Guitars GlossaryA five-note scale based on a major scale, but without the fourth and seventh notes.
Guitars GlossaryA basic unit of musical time containing a specific number of beats.
Guitars GlossaryAs its name suggests, this scale is used for melodic, as opposed to harmonic, content. Ascending, the melodic minor scale is the same as a major scale but with the third note lowered one half-step; descending, it's the same as a natural minor scale with a lowered third, sixth, and seventh scale step.
Guitars GlossaryA mechanical or electronic devices that emits clicks or beeps at regular, precise time intervals; used to help practicing musicians maintain a constant tempo.
Guitars GlossaryReferring to sounds that exist between consecutive half steps.
Guitars GlossaryFretting two or three strings, but not all of them, with a single finger.
Guitars GlossaryA three-note chord in which the second note is three half-steps above the first note (the root of the chord), and the third note is four half-steps above the second note — the unaltered first, third, and fifth notes of a minor scale.
Guitars GlossaryA five-note scale based on a minor key.
Guitars GlossaryA short musical phrase that you repeat.
Guitars GlossaryA way to explain and describe the music we hear.
Guitars GlossaryAn independent and self-contained musical phrase, sort of like a sentence when you’re speaking.
Guitars GlossaryA written form of music used to convey the music we hear in a way that can be repeated by musicians.
Guitars GlossaryA series of notes within a single octave that follows a specific pattern.
Guitars GlossaryA silencing effect created by touching strings to prevent them from ringing out clearly.
Guitars GlossaryA musical scale created either by lowering by a half-step the third, sixth, and seventh notes of a major scale or by playing an octave of a major scale starting on the sixth note (for instance, playing from A to A in the key of C major).
Guitars GlossaryThe long wooden piece that connects the headstock to the body of a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the little line that comes off the top or bottom of the note stem, indicating note lengths shorter than a quarter note.
Guitars GlossaryA note stem is the vertical line attached to the note head.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the round part of a note.
Guitars GlossaryThe grooved section between a guitar's neck and its headstock through which the strings pass.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, when one musical line ascends or descends, while the other continues or repeats the same note.
Guitars GlossaryTwelve half-steps, from one note to the next note of the same name.
Guitars GlossaryTwo dots that appear on many guitars at the twelfth fret used to signify the octave.
Guitars GlossaryA method of finding the same notes in different places on the fretboard.
Guitars GlossaryChords that contain open (non-fretted) strings.
Guitars GlossaryA combination of all the open strings plus the notes in the second position on a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA string that is not fretted.
Guitars GlossaryChords that contain open (non-fretted) strings.
Guitars GlossaryThe insertion point for the cord that connects the guitar to an amplifier or other electronic device.
Guitars GlossaryA dampening technique in which you anchor the heel of your right hand against the strings just above the bridge.
Guitars GlossaryA small triangular piece, about the size of a quarter, used to strum the strings on a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA rhythmic pattern that adds variety to the music by separating the bass and treble lines so that they play independently.
Guitars GlossaryA type of guitar playing that involves dragging a pick across the strings to produce sound.
Guitars GlossaryA switch that determines which pickups are currently active.
Guitars GlossaryBar-like magnets that pick up the vibrations of an electric guitar's strings and transmit those signals to the amplifier.
Guitars GlossaryAn “artificial” harmonic created by simultaneously striking the string with a pick and the tip of your right thumb.
Guitars GlossaryThe specific wavelength frequency of a musical sound indicated as a letter from A to G with or without a sharp (#) or flat (b).
Guitars GlossaryA device that produces a single specific pitch, used as a reference to tune a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA way of playing the guitar in which your left hand remains in a fixed location on the neck of the guitar.
Guitars GlossaryAny artificial device used to pluck or strum the strings of a guitar.
Guitars GlossaryA smooth, continuous change in pitch often created by using a slide.
Guitars GlossaryOn the guitar, a position is a group of four consecutive frets.
Guitars GlossaryThe electronic capacitors connected to the other side of a volume knob.
Guitars GlossaryA chord consisting only of roots and fifths.
Guitars GlossaryA bending effect that is created when you stretch a string before you strike it, then strike the string, and then release the bend.
Guitars GlossaryA guitar articulation technique in which a string is played by a fretting finger as it is released from a fret.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the quarter note has a solid oval head with a stem; it lasts half as long as the half note.
Guitars GlossaryStriking a string with one finger and then striking the next lower string with the same finger.
Guitars GlossaryA way of tuning the guitar to itself so that you don’t need any outside reference pitch.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a combination of one thick and one thin vertical line with two dots that tells you that you repeat some portion of the song.
Guitars GlossaryAny time during a musical piece in which no notes are being sounded.
Guitars GlossaryA right-hand stroke — unique to classical music — in which you pluck straight across (not upward) the strings so that your finger lands, or rests, against the adjacent lower-pitched string.
Guitars GlossaryA regular pattern of beats or pulses in music.
Guitars GlossaryAn indicator in guitar notation that uses slash marks (/) that tell you how to play rhythmically but not what to play.
Guitars GlossaryThe tuning posts on a nylon-string guitar that uses a slotted headstock.
Guitars GlossaryMusical phrasing and timing that is governed by the musician's musical ideas instead of by the strict adherence to a set tempo.
Guitars GlossaryThe moving metal part of the bridge of an electric guitar that have grooves for the strings to lie across.
Guitars GlossaryA series of notes in ascending or descending order that presents the pitches of a key, beginning and ending on the tonic of that key.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the smallest difference between two pitches.
Guitars GlossaryA method of relative tuning whereby you tune the bass guitar using the pitch played on the seventh fret as the comparison note.
Guitars GlossaryAn accidental indicating that a note should be played a half step higher than originally indicated.
Guitars GlossaryThe act of moving your fretting hand's position to reach a note.
Guitars GlossaryAn important rhythm feel that has a lilting eighth-note sound — created by dividing the beat into two unbalanced halves, a long note followed by a short — that is used extensively in rock guitar.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, an indication that you should continue articulating the notes in a similar manner.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the sixteenth note has a solid oval head with a stem and either two flags or two beams; it lasts half as long as the eighth note.
Guitars Glossary1. A tool (often made of glass) that you can use to slide along the strings while strumming to produce a smooth sliding sound. 2. An effects technique in which you slide your fingers (or an actual slide tool) up the strings while you play.
Guitars GlossaryThe tuning machine on a nylon-string guitar in which rollers around which the nylon strings are wound are contained within the headstock, as opposed to sticking out above the headstock.
Guitars GlossarySounding a note by hitting the strings with your open right hand or closed right fist.
Guitars GlossaryThe opening on the top of an acoustic guitar that amplifies the guitar's sound.
Guitars GlossaryA type of short, separated articulation.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, the five horizontal, parallel lines on which notes and rests are written.
Guitars GlossaryAn effects unit that is controlled by a foot pedal.
Guitars GlossaryThe metal post where the front, or top, end of the strap connects.
Guitars GlossaryLittle rollers or channels screwed into the top of the headstock that pull the top two or four strings down low onto the headstock.
Guitars GlossaryDragging a pick or the back of your fingernails across the strings in a single, quick motion.
Guitars Glossary1. (noun) The length of time that a note rings out. 2. (verb) The act of making a note ring out for an extended length of time.
Guitars GlossaryA type of decay in which a note continues to sound steadily as long as the note is still being played.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style based on the triplet feel in which the beat is divided into three equal units.
Guitars GlossaryStriking a note (or chord) at an unexpected time.
Guitars GlossaryA form of guitar notation that shows you which strings to press at which frets for each note.
Guitars GlossaryThe speed at which the beat of piece of music is played.
Guitars GlossaryA string's ability to hold tension and thereby hold a certain pitch.
Guitars GlossaryA plastic or wood bar on a bass guitar on which to rest your thumb.
Guitars GlossaryIn musical notation, a tie tells you not to strike the second note of the two tied notes, but to let the note ring out for the duration specified by the two tied notes.
Guitars GlossaryPart of the tone color of an instrument that distinguishes its sound from that of another instrument.
Guitars GlossaryThe fraction-like figures at the beginning of a piece of music that tell you how many beats are in a measure and which note value gets one beat.
Guitars GlossaryThe character of sound produced by an instrument; made up of three basic components: decay, timbre, and attack.
Guitars GlossaryTo change the key in which a progression is played.
Guitars GlossaryOne of the most popular folk guitar techniques; created by varying the timing that you use to hit the treble strings.
Guitars GlossaryThe metal rod attached to the bridge that can be used to move the bridge back and forth to change the string tension.
Guitars GlossarySimple chords composed of three notes.
Guitars GlossaryA musical pattern wherein the beat is subdivided into three equal units instead of the usual two.
Guitars GlossaryThe adjustable metal rod that runs the length of a guitar’s neck that controls the curvature of the neck and fingerboard.
Guitars GlossaryA tool specifically designed for adjusting a specific truss rod.
Guitars GlossaryA type of guitar amplifier that uses vacuum tube technology.
Guitars GlossaryThe mechanisms in the headstock that raise and lower the tension of the strings, drawing them to different pitches.
Guitars GlossaryA device that produces a single specific reference pitch.
Guitars GlossaryThe round post connected to a tuning head around which the strings are wound and that can be adjusted to define the pitch of the string.
Guitars Glossary1. (noun) In musical notation, upstrokes (often indicated by a V-shaped symbol) indicate that the sound should be made by dragging your pick or your right hand across the string in an upward motion. 2. (verb) Producing sound by dragging your pick or your right hand across the string in an upward motion.
Guitars GlossaryA fluctuation in the pitch of a note that can be created on guitar by repeatedly bending and unbending a note.
Guitars GlossaryA pedal inserted between the electric guitar and the amp that lets you control how loud your electric guitar sounds.
Guitars GlossaryA bass guitar technique in which a new note is played on every beat of music.
Guitars GlossaryA musical style that uses rhythms that are relatively common to South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.
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