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Learning Michael Bloomfield's style

Ship

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Does anyone have any recommended books or videos for studying the Mike Bloomfield's playing? Licks, transcriptions, or anything really would be appreciated.
 

captainvideo

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Does it have to be a book?
There are a few out there but I've been studying his style since I first started guitar.

I'd recommend grasping his style by studying his early work. Work with the Butterfield Band on the 1st album and the Lost Electra Sessions. When he played a biting Telecaster tone. That attack stuck with him when he shifted to Les Pauls. You can cop some of his most basic licks from those early recordings. He would use those licks throughout his career and build on.

I like to listen to the Live Adventures with Al Kooper to cop more of his soloing style. You'll get a lot of his signature runs and phrases there.

Also look to his influences. Muddy Waters for slide, but Michael's phrasing borrowed heavily from B.B King. Look for B.B's Kent Singles and stuff Michael would have listened to as a kid.


His If You Love These Blues Play Em' as you Please is a great lesson on his style as well.

I can talk about Bloomfield for days.
 

Ship

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It doesn't have to be a book. I'm just looking for anything that might help me understand his playing better. I usually try to use Youtube to an extent but there's barely anything on there for him. He's my favorite player and I'm just looking for anything that kind of breaks it down a bit. I've been listening to the first two Butterfield albums alot lately, Electric Flag, and Super session. I'm more of a blues player than a jazz guy, but damn His Holy Modal Majesty is one of my favorites. and my motherinlaw got me the From His Head to His Heart to His Hands boxset for Christmas with the cool documentary so I'm trying to soak that up right now as well.
 

Ship

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Thanks! I did stumble upon that first website. I think I'm going to buy some transcription books like the first Butterfield album and try to use that and learn all the songs as close to note for note as possible.
 

Ship

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You may have seen these already, but I found some Bloomfield Lick lesson videos:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhwi9Q_EzeU
Bloomfield has a very relaxed, loose feel that is hard to replicate in my opinion but it sure is fun trying!

had to pass along this video of Bloomberg's Tele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B4yavD9AEY


Thans for the videos! Every time I see the Tele video I cringe seeing that big chunk out of it. I ended up getting the Hal Leonard Anthology book that has Transcriptions of a decent number of songs he played on. I agree with you about his relaxed, loose feel. Tonally I know I'll never sound like him and that's ok because I feel like I've already developed my own. But, I love learning how he phrased things because he did it in such a unique way.
 

kevmoe

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Mike Bloomfeild..White boy blues # 1 !!! Interesting life as well as a Tortured soul.I always felt Duane Allmans licks had a lot of bloomy in there,as well as song selection,..
 

Ship

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Mike Bloomfeild..White boy blues # 1 !!! Interesting life as well as a Tortured soul.I always felt Duane Allmans licks had a lot of bloomy in there,as well as song selection,..

I agree. If I had to make a top five, Duane would be number two right after Michael. I'm currently reading the book Duane's daughter wrote and in it she has some letters Duane wrote. It seems that he had some interactions with Michael while playing as a session musician. I think it makes sense that they have similar styles though. Two guys deep into the blues but also very capable of throwing jazz in the mix when they wanted to. :dude:
 

captainvideo

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You may have seen these already, but I found some Bloomfield Lick lesson videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhwi9Q_EzeU
Bloomfield has a very relaxed, loose feel that is hard to replicate in my opinion but it sure is fun trying!

Interesting take on Bloomfield's playing.

I would personally not describe his playing as very relaxed. Maybe loose but even that would be a stretch of a term to use in my opinion.

His playing on the first Butterfield record sounds like a man who's about to eat his Telecaster alive. Heck, even the picture of him on the back of that album looks like he's about to engulf that guitar. The solo on Shake Your Money Maker sounds like WW3 had just broken loose.

Fast-forward a few years to the Monterey Pop Festival. The Wine Wine Wine solo certainly doesn't look relaxed.

When I watch videos of Bloomfield talking he certainly appears to have a million things going on at once in his brain. Today we'd call him autistic or at the very least on the spectrum. In one of the bios I read someone said Bloomfield told them he felt like he had a hot wire stuck in his brain at times. The man was also an insomniac. I don't think he could calm down at times and I also think Michael turned to drugs in someway to self medicate himself.

I believe his playing was like that too. Just a ball of fire and not very relaxed at all. To me it seemed like when he was about to solo he would throw himself into it completely and it was a recipe for either something amazing or a total disaster.

I think part of why non of us will ever be able to play like Michael is we don't have the same mental make up he did.
 

c_wester

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Interesting take on Bloomfield's playing.

I would personally not describe his playing as very relaxed. Maybe loose but even that would be a stretch of a term to use in my opinion.

His playing on the first Butterfield record sounds like a man who's about to eat his Telecaster alive. Heck, even the picture of him on the back of that album looks like he's about to engulf that guitar. The solo on Shake Your Money Maker sounds like WW3 had just broken loose.

Fast-forward a few years to the Monterey Pop Festival. The Wine Wine Wine solo certainly doesn't look relaxed.

When I watch videos of Bloomfield talking he certainly appears to have a million things going on at once in his brain. Today we'd call him autistic or at the very least on the spectrum. In one of the bios I read someone said Bloomfield told them he felt like he had a hot wire stuck in his brain at times. The man was also an insomniac. I don't think he could calm down at times and I also think Michael turned to drugs in someway to self medicate himself.

I believe his playing was like that too. Just a ball of fire and not very relaxed at all. To me it seemed like when he was about to solo he would throw himself into it completely and it was a recipe for either something amazing or a total disaster.

I think part of why non of us will ever be able to play like Michael is we don't have the same mental make up he did.

Great post.
I kind of came to this conclusion myself.
 
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