DISQUS

Well, obviously, nothing is forcing you to stay within the formulas. Plenty of people break them in little ways. Plenty of people break them in big ways (i.e. not playing the blues).

In fact, I think Shakespeare's most genius moments were often when he broke the structure he was working within. Because he didn't do it arbitrarily. He did it for specific effect. Without the rule to break, the effect wouldn't be possible.

I think creativity thrives on structure. Even when you aren't playing the blues, you are likely still working within the constraints of a musical tradition. Music that attempts to evade all constraints (which is actually a constraint itself!) tends to be...well... Do you see what I mean?

Bo Diddly took a very specific rhythm, constantly repeated, and found ways to be creative around it. High gain heavy metal lost--to an extent--some elements of traditional Western harmony, and they made up for it by being creative in other aspects.

With the blues, look to the aspects that are NOT prescribed by the formulas. They may be subtle, but formulizing the less subtle aspects is what allows the subtle to really shine. Listen to a Hendrix tune and then listen to SRV cover it. SRV often plays it very close to Hendrix, yet the differences--subtle though they may be--make it clear who is playing.

And I'm sorry, but I am really sick of originality for originality's sake. If you HAVE something new to say, then say it. Yes! And don't obscure it by surrounding it with a lot of contrived attempts at more originality. Progress is made by understanding what came before and building incrementally upon it. And, even so, there's more to life than progress.

Blues is very formulaic.

Yeah, there are plenty of examples of breaking out of the formulas, but I want to talk about the formulas.

Being formulaic, to me, intentionally shifts the focus away from those formulated aspects: The chord progression, the turn-around, the scale, the licks, the intro, the rhythm, &c. It shifts the focus onto more subtle aspects of the performance. BB King's vibrato. SRV's attack. It's not about coming up with an interesting chord progression, it's about being interesting within the framework of one of the standard progressions.

Although, personally, I get annoyed by the way we (& I definitely include myself) sometimes become "originality snobs". Shouldn't it just be enough to enjoy a performance without analyzing how original it is or isn't?

Cool.

Just needs non-parallel walls to break up the standing waves.

Interesting timing for me considering, just this week, I’ve started learning some SRV riffs and finally enjoying the SRV setting on my Digitech RP350.

I think when someone says something like that, they’re usually just trying to be complimentary and don’t really know how to put their appreciation of your playing into words. It can be hard for someone trained in music and writing to put appreciation into words.

I wonder how many times people told SRV he sounded like Clapton or Hendrix or Albert King. Or even guys farther afield.

As a player, sometimes I like to do an “impression” (if I was better, you’d call it a “tribute”) of another guitarist, but I like to mix it up. Once I’m comfortable with my take on SRV’s style and tried to tweak it for myself, I’ll probably try to find another tone to play that style with. Then try to find another style that fits the SRV tone. Well, that’s kind of simplistic, but you get the idea. As fun as it can be to try to emulate our heroes, sometimes you’ve got to push yourself a little to combine all your influences and synthesize something your own.

"FSF said: 'iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.'

"BULLSHIT. When any app wants to use CoreLocation on the iPhone, you are presented with a big fat Do Not Allow button, and you can push it if you want. Does that sound like it’s accessing your location without your knowledge?"

The fact that you see that dialog does not mean that what the FSF said was wrong. The iPhone won't give you that dialog when you dial 911. (Their problem here is that any other phone would be required to do that as well.)

"They’re also guilty of lies by omission. The FSF said: 'iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.'

"But the iPhone DOES play DRM-free formats like MP3, MP4, WAV, AIFF, Lossless, etc. Why do you suppose they left that out? Could it be because that would kind of derail their entire idiotic, oh I’m sorry 'logical' proposition?"

All formats that are encumbered by software patents. So, where is the lie again?