Joe Bonamassa - String Bending: À La Blues Great Larry McCray
TALES FROM NERDVILLE by Joe Bonamassa
McCRAY'S WAY
String bending, à la blues great Larry McCray
A signature element in Larry McCray’s style is that he has a very distinct and unusual bending technique where he will “marry” two bends within one long phrase. In this lesson, Joe Bonamassa shows us a few ways to incorporate this technique into soloing ideas.
#JoeBonamassa #LarryMcCray
McCRAY'S WAY
String bending, à la blues great Larry McCray
A signature element in Larry McCray’s style is that he has a very distinct and unusual bending technique where he will “marry” two bends within one long phrase. In this lesson, Joe Bonamassa shows us a few ways to incorporate this technique into soloing ideas.
#JoeBonamassa #LarryMcCray
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC - JOE BANAMASA, "LARRY MCCRAY"]
00:01 (SINGING) I'm still winging at hard times,
00:04 smiling at the pouring rain.
00:06 Hi there, guys.
00:10 Joe Banamasa here at the beautiful Guitar World
00:13 Center for the Performing Arts in Manhattan, New York City.
00:17 I had the honor of producing a record with my friend Josh
00:20 Smith for an artist from Michigan named Larry McCray.
00:25 And Larry's always been one of my favorite players
00:27 over the last 35 years.
00:30 And getting to work with him, not only
00:32 as a singer and a songwriter, but as a guitar player,
00:35 I was able to pick up a few pointers from him.
00:37 He would show his stuff when we weren't recording.
00:41 And he has this really unique way of bending,
00:43 where he kind of marries the two bends into one long phrase.
00:49 So like-- and I'm not doing it like he plays it,
00:52 because he invented it, but I'm kind of paraphrasing,
00:55 no pun intended.
00:56 So if we're in the key of B, it would go something like this.
01:00 So if you marry both of them together--
01:06 and you can actually, if you want to extend it.
01:12 So if you're playing--
01:21 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:24 And there's a cool one in E. I'm going
01:30 to try to get it in one take.
01:32 If not, we're going to edit it.
01:33 But--
01:33 [GUITAR PLAYING]
01:36 And that's kind of a hybrid between what Larry McCray would
01:46 do or Chris Kane.
01:48 And they have this--
01:49 both those guys are some of my favorite players,
01:51 because they have this ability to string phrases together
01:55 and have this infinite stream of ideas.
01:57 So thank you, Larry McCray, for the tips.
02:00 I'm sorry I'm going to steal them and put them
02:02 in my repertoire.
02:02 But I am an equal opportunity thief.
02:04 [GUITAR PLAYING]
02:08 [GUITAR PLAYING]
02:11 [GUITAR STRUM]
02:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:17 (upbeat music)
02:19 you