The Blues Face

The Blues Face, we've all seen it, some maybe have done it, the guitarist bends a note, squints the eyes, grits the teeth, some smirk, some use a funny half smile, and various other facial contortions, so is it a technique or is it style? Do they teach it at GIT or Berklee? is it just showmanship or the result of "A good man feelin bad"? What is the proper use of the "Blues Face"? Your comments please

Originally posted by pstring
The Blues Face, we've all seen it, some maybe have done it, the guitarist bends a note, squints the eyes, grits the teeth, some smirk, some use a funny half smile, and various other facial contortions, so is it a technique or is it style? Do they teach it at GIT or Berklee? is it just showmanship or the result of "A good man feelin bad"? What is the proper use of the "Blues Face"? Your comments please

This would be more of a habit that some guitarists develope
thier selfs when first starting out or after a few years.
I Don't think this applys to blues music only.
Some or most guitarists don't even know thier doing it.
This is not something that can be taught!
I got caught at one of these habits years ago by
some friends.They told me you know when you play it looks
like your talking and moving your lips like your talking
to your self.I did'nt know i was even doing this.
I even tried catching myself doing this but could'nt.
To see if you have any funny things you do have someone
video tape you up close and you just might see if you
developed any of these krazy habits.
Anyway after viewing the video i seen the talking thing
they was talking about.It was really weird watching your
self doing facial contortions.

Mark

You are not alone. See this

If you've ever seen Steve Vai in concert, or on video, he get's some of the most ridiculous expressions on his face when he plays. Sometimes he looks just like a kid who's found a new toy.

Ahhh...the good ol' "Blues Face" - out ranking the "Arched Back" and even the "Fall-to-floor-on-Knees" trick...heheh
Gary Moore's very own Blues Face won the TG magazine's poll of faces pulled by guitarist...although under the title of "The Porn Face"......food for thought...

I took 'blues faces 101' when I attended Berklee, and that year we had BB king that came over to show us some of his own... I passed with an A-...

It is a technique. When you hit a bad note, look as if you're in absolute rapture while hitting it another two time for good measure (while holding the blues face), and you may just get away with your mistake.

That's totally right!! And if you follow with a dive bomb, you are the new Van Halen!

Ever seen the 'For the love of God' clip from Steve Vai, it's almost disgusting to watch how much facial expressions he does with it. Just as example

I have some friends who move their lips too when they play but they think I'm joking :-) I really wouldn't know about myself, but I think I put on a sour face :-)

Ha well, if it doesn't affect your playing (like your tongue hanging out muting the strings or something) it's ok for me. I think it can be funny some times too.

Latz, Gulder

Here's a test for you....try and play your solos with out pulling those "ridiculas" faces...10/1 says you can't! Seriously...we've had "competitions" to try and see, and none of us managed to play without pulling those faces...Just something to occuby a few minutes of the day...hehe

Me and my band have a wedding gig coming up soon, and we have some news songs we've been practicing up on a lot. A lot of times we'll record a song on a tape recorder to make sure we were doing everything right (sometimes we think we sound great, but when we hear it from the audience's POV, we're like, "Damn, that sucked!"). Well, our drummer just got a new video recorder, so Tuesday we videotaped a practice session. A friend was there and he recorded each of us while we took our solos. I closed my eyes, bobbed my head to the rhythm of the song, and threw in a little gesture here and there (especially during extreme bends), but the other guitarist looked like he was getting off during his solo!!! Now we always make sure to watch his face when he solos for a good laugh.

Take Angus Young.
Sometimes he looks like he's about to
give someone a big sloppy kiss.
He looks really focused..

And Randy Rhoads makes various expressions
when he plays. It looks like the whole song is
depending on his face-movements. Pretty funny.

Look at Hendrix's Woodstock performance. Sometimes he is really composed, others he looks like he is forcing the note out through his forehead or somehting.

My other guitarist's sister went a a long weekend course for stage performance ages ago and they video taped everyone performing, then played it back to them. The catch was, they played back with no sound and sped up! She quickly learnt how to stop doing her "perculiar" actions.
Having said all that, as foolish as we may look sometime, at least it shows we're enjoying ourselves!
Anyone ever got caught out playing air-guitar whilst doing these?...(ahem).......lalalala...

I have attended several master classes while in the US, it was some time ago. But I have studied with a guy that was from the GIT while in Oregon (I attended a high school there)

Here's MY answer.

If you wanna eat, sleep, live, and breathe music, Berklee is the right place. You have the greatest musicians from around the world coming here to get an education, and that's priceless. I've seen people that were stars, or already working musicians, that came there only to learn baroque composition (or something they didn't know yet), or stuff like that.
The only problem about Berklee is its price... Try to get a solid music education at your local community college, form a band, start gigging.

I'm telling you, it's not about wanking the guitar for 5 hours a day just for the fun of it. It's about learning two hours worth of music overnight to play it in front of everybody the day later. It's about reading books, getting an education, writing, and gigging with the best the planet has.
Is it worth it? Dude, I spend the day singing, playing the guitar, and I getting PAID for it. I wake up and I look forward to going to work. Nothing would have happened without the dedication I gave to my craft. Of course, not every Berklee students ends up as a pro musician, just like not every computer nerd ends up like Bill GATES. But that's worth a try.
Don't forget, being a pro is just like any other job. It takes hard work, dedication, discipline, and a good sense of humor (wawazat? yes, I definitely think it opens doors) if you got what it takes, go for it. If you don't have a discipline, keep the music a hobby, both are fine.

It IS awesome :D

I've found that while playinf a popsy Blues solo, if I "talk" the note to my fingers, it comes of the amp with a bit of a "vocal" quality.

Make sense?