Guitar World 
                                November, 1997 
"talkin' blues" 
 By Robin Trower
                                  DEVELOPING YOUR OWN VOICE 
 

Hello and welcome to my new column. 
I'm happy to have a monthly forum in GUITAR WORLD to share my feelings about the blues with you and give in-depth lessons on how to play some of my better-known songs, such as "too Rolling Stoned," "Bridge Of Sighs," "Day Of The Eagle" and "Daydream."  We'll get to those tunes in later columns, but first I want to talk about how other blues artists influenced my playing. 
     Blues music has been a great love of  mine for many years.  My two most recent albums, 20TH CENTURY BLUES and SOMEDAY BLUES (both on V-12 Records) feature my own blues originals, as well as classics such as Lowell Fulson's "Reconsider Baby" and the standards "Sweet Little Angel," "Crossroads" and "Feel So Bad." 
     In writing blues material,, I try to mine new territory, if possible, and, within that context, present my own voice.  Let me tell you, it isn't easy.  There have been so many great blues guitarists through the years.  How can you top B.B. King, Albert King and Otis Rush?  Well... you can't.  So my goal isn't to "top" anyone, but to draw on my love of blues, lock in on the feeling I get from it and carve out my own little niche. 
     The first blues I heard was one of B.B. King's earliest singles, "Three O'clock Blues," which he recorded in 1951.  I heard that song in 1963 when I was a teenager, and I immediately fell in love with the sound.  A friend of mine used to write to a record store in Memphis, and they'd send him a bunch of singles - whatever they happened to have in stock.  Through him, I got to hear records that weren't available in England at that time, such as "Think" by James Brown, which completely blew me away; it sounded like music from another planet! 
     At that time, I was playing guitar in a band called the Paramounts, which also included my future Procol Harum band mate, keyboardist Gary Brooker.  We were doing Ray Charles-style r&b, and eventually moved on to James Brown and Bobby Bland material.  I had started playing guitar because I loved Elvis Presley and his brilliant guitarist Scotty Moore.  I was also into James Burton, who played with Ricky Nelson, and of course Chuck Berry.  Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers also had great guitarists, too.  But my favorite of all is Cliff Gallup, who played with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps.  He was truly special - unbelievable technique for the time.  I think he was coming from a jazz-meets-Country and Western swing perspective, with some Les Paul and a little bit of blues thrown in, as well.  You can hear a great coming together of different styles and he still knocks me out. 
     Shortly after I was exposed to B.B., early recordings of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf , like "Smokestack Lightening" and "Rolling Stone," started to be imported into England.  It was all a bit mind-bending.  Compared to what I was accustomed to hearing, this was real, unadulterated black music, and it was (and still is) very intense. 
     One thing I'm glad I never did as an up-and-coming guitar player was methodically figure out anyone else's licks.  I absorbed a tremendous amount by listening to records, but I was more interested in what was BEHIND the notes, what the guy was feeling when he held a note or played a certain phrase, and the attitude and the body language that I imagined went with it.  My goal was to capture the feeling I got when I listened to the blues, and draw on that feeling when I played. 
     My bible, in those days, was B.B. King's LIVE AT THE REGAL.  I played it over and over.  To me, that's the best guitar playing B.B.'s ever done.  But as much as I loved it, I didn't sit and try to cop what he was playing riff-for-riff.  His improvised melodies were not mine.  When you improvise, it's like you're singing a melody, the way the notes and the melody go together have to reflect what you want to say, not what someone else already said.  In the best blues improvising, it almost sounds as if there are lyrics that go along with the notes.  The statement is so strong, the communication so direct, that it's almost as if the player is speaking to you with words.  There's a story being told, right from the heart. 
          B.B. uses a lot of major scale tones - sixths and ninths - in his melodies, and it works beautifully for him.  (You'll hear this in T-Bone Walker's playing, too.)  But at that time, I wasn't as interested in the major tones; I was more attracted to the darker, minor tones, such as flatted thirds and flatted sevenths.  In recent years, I've begun to incorporate sixths and ninths more frequently. 
     My point here is if you spend your time trying to cop other people's stuff, you're limiting your own growth.  It's important to listen to as many other players as you can, but too many young guitarists want to run before they can walk, so they take the easy road and copy other players' licks note-for-note.  It may take you twice as long to develop your own sound and style, but in the long run, it'll pay off - you'll sound like you.  As James Brown once said, "You've got to find that little part that might sting you in the heart."