playing rockabilly

I fancy myself a rock star even though I've only played in front of people (sober) once. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] But if I had a band (all girls, preferably), I'd want us to cover rockabilly songs and old Chuck Berry stuff. You know, the songs that basically only use B7, A, and G...maybe a little C7 and E thrown in. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Does anyone else here like to play rockabilly? I guess I like it best of all because it's so easy to play and predict what will happen next. Maybe it's kind of a cop-out, but it makes such a great sound that will never get old.

It's fun music, fun to dance to and fun to play! Not my absolute favorite genre, but I like a lot of it. You're right about the predictability though - unfortunately, that which makes it easy also makes it kind of boring after a while. But a LONG while. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Yeah, you're right...even after like an hour I get sick of playing it. I don't know how Carl Perkins kept it up for so long. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Maybe that's why everybody was trying to be his baby, Ono... [img]graemlins/wink3.gif[/img] *If you think rockabilly can get monotonous, you should trying listening to the blues: even though I love it now (I do, chaitanya [img]graemlins/thumbsup2.gif[/img] ), it took me an awfully long time to get my head around it.

I totally agree with you about the blues, Paolo. At first I kinda went, this all sounds exactly the same. But then I realized that it's okay because it's the music that has shaped every type of music today. Once you can play the blues, you can play anything. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Boogie-woogie's the same as well.

Originally Posted By onosideboards:
I fancy myself a rock star even though I've only played in front of people (sober) once. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] But if I had a band (all girls, preferably), I'd want us to cover rockabilly songs and old Chuck Berry stuff. You know, the songs that basically only use B7, A, and G...maybe a little C7 and E thrown in. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Does anyone else here like to play rockabilly? I guess I like it best of all because it's so easy to play and predict what will happen next. Maybe it's kind of a cop-out, but it makes such a great sound that will never get old.

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Wow! Get out of my mind! I was just thinking that last night. Well like usual, I'm always dreaming that I were a rock star, but I was listening to the BBC tapes last night and I was imagining me and other girls in a band preforming them. Although, just out luck, it probably won't become popular if it's re-introduced because it's too pansy for the punk-loving teenagers of today, but if I ever became famous, I'd love to do a cover album of all those rockabilly songs. Anyway, what I found somewhat funny and difficult was changing all the 'girl's to 'boy's and 'she's to 'he's.

Oh that is crazy, Ashes!! My inspiration came from the BBC album too! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] But I don't worry about the pronoun thing really.

Rockabilly chord progressions may be easy but try playing lead guitar in that style. Fast and difficult using many fingers.

This is an old thread, so a bit late but ... I beg to differ with the above. Rockabilly guitar is NOT easy to play by any means! There was no Rock'n'Roll to listen to yet so these early players learned sophisticated jazzy stuff. Diminished as well as Augmented passing chords, subtle turnarounds too. Multiple scales used in the soloing as well. Listen to Hank Garland or Cliff Gallup. Mastery of the Travis style -- keeping the alternating bass regular and on time while chording or soloing is a very difficult skill. I have been playing since the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan and I can tell you good rockabilly guitar requires a lot of knowledge of music theory and dedicated practice. But it is worth it!