mars5 yes this is one of the better videos of me playing this song. I am playing it in Db which is the key I recorded it it in with Roomful. I now do it in C because of my vocal range dropping. The chords are quite simple that I am using here. Just 9ths, Db # 5 as a passing chord going to the 4 chord and that's about it. just the blues!

That's Sax Gordon doing the wild tenor solo on my version of Lonesome Road and Bruce Katz smokin' on organ. Snooks Eaglin's was amazing and his version is really cool.........  

Hi Catya .. you're right!  Thank you.  We will update in the next couple days.

mars5, 

Thank you for sharing the written lesson!

I'm definately going to try this out.

Steve

Thanks Mike...this wasn't the first time that I had played with Taj, but to answer your question, I always try to listen to where they are coming from.  If they are a strong player and know where they want to go, then I do my best to back them up by accompanying them with a good beat and a simple bassline.  Sometimes it takes a few tries to come up with something that works.  You also have to identify what you will be playing together and make sure that it is in a key and style that you both are comfortable with.

C H

Thanks for your supporting the music.  Stay tuned to sonic junction...soon we will be learning Blind Blake's CC Pill Blues.  Later we will explore open tunings and slide guitar styles.  Bless.

@mars 5 .. great suggestion.  I really love Duke's version too on A Swingin' Session .. and thanks for introducting me to Snook's version .. it's great!  I really like the chords  and feel of Snook's playing.

A great visual of my personal favorite Roomful of Blues song played by Duke in Ospel, The Netherlands, March, 2010.

My Tears features many of the chords that we've learned here in other songs. Sliding 9th and/or diminished 7th chords Duke?

This is like a live "lesson" in the blues. 

As a change of pace, the acoustic side of jazz & blues is served well by an old standard called "The Lonesome Road".  Duke's version from A Swingin' Session begins with a sweet & lazy intro that finishes in a heat!  A perfect presentation.

Duke's two-part treatment deserves a listen (or many). The horns cook in a loose, almost New Orleans style. . . Is it Doug James or Scott Hamilton and Al Basile?

However, it's Snooks Eaglin's version that delves further into the solo acoustic possibilities of such a great standard.

The folk blues styled album that this session is from was recorded after Harry Oster, a folklorist from Louisiana State University, found Eaglin playing in the streets of New Orleans in 1958.

This would make for an interesting departure in lesson material.

As long as the discussion involves Snooks, his version of Saint James Infirmary features some fine guitar breaks as well. . .

I have to say that I am not a gear head at all.  Maybe one day I will get there.  Too much technology spoils it for me....

I just got an Apogee Jam for X Mas to plug my guitar into my MacBook (laptop).  It's pretty cool.  

I then opened Garage Band and looped a drum track and selected the Fender Super Reverb simulator and dialed up all the knobs to full, added an overdrive pedal .. and recorded this little 90 sec power chord thing.

Here's the audio

It was pretty fun .. although there is some latency (delay between when you hit the chord on the guitar and hear it in the headphones).   Next step is to test some more subtle playing .. which is probably harder for the emulator (i.e. it's usually easier to simulate distortion than a warm, responsive tube overdrive).  

Maybe How Long Blues with Duke's jam track!

Hi Marcus .. good question.  Alpha and Beta are rough terms used in the software / web industry to define early testing of new products.  Here's my take

Alpha is an incomplete early version of a new product / service that has enough functionality and utility for people to use and benefit from.  An Alpha test is usually closed (invitation only) and small 6-10 people.  It's a time for the development team to see how new potential users react to the product .. get a fresh perspective and new ideas from people .. and also find bugs / issues.  For Sonic Junction, it was also a time for Duke, Corey and I to work out how we would create the lessons together .. and find issues, work out the kinks etc.

Beta is generally close to or feature complete version of the commercial product.  It can range from closed, invitation only to open (like ours).   The goal for the Beta is to test the commercial product with a larger number of users to prepare for the commercial launch.   In our case, we have the functionality .. but will update the UI before our commercial launch.   Beta's are usually free.  We charged $1 for our Beta as a token symbol that we are creating a paid service and want to work with people who are willing to pay for services IF they deliver value to them.

Moving forward, we are approaching the product from a modern web perspective .. so we will likely continue to refine the product with new releases every 2-3 weeks (you may have noticed we added the video looper 2 weeks ago).  Right now we have two things in development

1. New UI (still minimalist with a bit more color and polish)

2. Tab / chords overlay (on & off) in the video player (really cool full screen experience)

When we go to commercial, it will be a subscription service with two plans .. monthly $19.95 and yearly $199.50 .. which works out to $4 or $5 a week (or lesson) depending upon the plan.  The subscription will give you access to all artists, all lessons and feedback (Q&A and uploaded videos).  

Happy to answer any further questions and thanks for the question Marcus.

Great BB but check out "Blues is King" from the mid 60s recorded live in a Chicago club. It's my favorite BB ever! Duke 

Thank you Catya.  I will look at this on Thursday ... and update on Friday with what I find.

Mike I just came back to the site after closing my browser, now the text boxes are in my old notes.  If you didn't change anything, then it's something to do with the browser not viewing the chord box upon the initial creation.

Steve

hmmm, the chord boxes showed up in the text box preview area when I typed it...but then when I saved the reply it reverted back to the text as you see above.  trying again.

nope... what am I doing wrong?

Steve

BTW, this is extremely freakin coooool. I know it will work, I just need to figure out the code.

Mike, 

Outstanding job.  You mention "write some music in a comment"...so I'm testing this out with your template.

Greetings.... and happy new year all,

I'm a new member and really enjoying the site. Can someone explain what the significance of the Alpha and Beta status of the site means?

Thanks,

Marcus

I'll have to second Terry's line

"I still feel like a kid when I learn something new and cool."

.. I couldn't agree more.  It's like a new door opens, and the world just got a little bigger and more beautiful.

Thanks Mike! You guys are the best.

Bill

Hi Bill .. great and VERY timely suggestion as we're in the middle of updating the Forum design as we speak.  

Totally agree .. will do .. and you should see the update in before the end of the month.

Mike

Hi Roger .. thanks!  Yeah, I've learned a lot from Duke .. and every time I watch one of his videos I continue to be amazed by how broad AND deep his knowledge is.  In one of the Memphis Grind lessons he plays this Curtis Mayfield / Jimi Hendrix riff that had me noodling around for 30 minutes .. and I was just laughing because I love Curtis Mayfield .. and bingo .. a little golden nugget just landed in my lap!

Enjoy Duke and thanks again for the feedback.

Hi Duke,

   Wow! I can't believe you think you have small hands. I've always thought I had small hands and figured that was something holding me back. If you think you have small hands than I must have little flippers! :(

Hi Steve .. thanks for the thoughts and feedback.

Yes .. making things as simple as possible so we all can communicate as easily and richly with Artists like Duke and Corey is the #1 goal.   We're going to continue working on the video and writing music into the web .. as well as look at ways to make things as easy and fun as possible to learn, play and create (so far .. we're still on the learn part of the experience).

Good question on the blog.  The most likely route we will take is to have this be a way to share your practice and performane videos ... with your personal friends, music friends .. and Artists like Duke and Corey for feedback.  Would be great to get your thoughts on what you would like to see.

For the feedback, you can get it now by posting the video in the Ask Duke section of the Forum.  Right now all feedback is public as this is how we think we can create the most value for the community (i.e. my hypothesis is a lot of people can learn by watching the dialogue between talented musicians .. and who knows, even if someone is not as good a player .. they may have listened a lot and have unique ideas to share).   

Yes .. it's quite a challenge .. but I think worth it.  What would be more fun and rewarding than hanging out with and learning from the top musicians in the world?  I know I've personally never learned so much so quickly as I've learned from Duke and Corey in the past 2 months .. and not just the riffs / songs .. but how to approach music.

I think there are some similarities to Facebook .. but I'm trying to design the experience so the conversation goes deeper, is more thoughtful and can have more back and forth (i.e. you can make a video comment, or even write some music in a comment).  The challenge is rich yet simple .. just like good guitar playing!!

I've notice that the posts in the forum only have the time and not the date of when they were posted. It would be nice to see the date on those.

Thanks,

Bill