This month, it's the Master of the
Telecaster himself – the one and only Albert Collins! A hugely
influential figure in the blues pantheon (just ask Stevie Ray and
Jimmie Vaughan or Robert Cray), Albert's powerful, stinging phrasing
earned him the nickname “Iceman”. Marrying the bright, biting
tone of a Telecaster's bridge pickup with a (usually) clean sound
picked with his thumb and fingers for extra “snap” gave him a
distinctive tone often described as an “ice pick”. Albert would
play off this description, naming many of his signature tracks around
this theme – his instrumental track “Frosty”, his cover of
T-Bone Walker's “Cold, Cold Feeling”, albums named “Ice
Pickin'”, “Frostbite”, “Don't Lose Your Cool”, “Cold
Snap”, “Iceman” and so on.
He was a consummate showman, often
playing with an extra long cable to allow him to interact with
members of the audience. Several anecdotes tell of him leaving the
club with audience in tow to buy a chocolate bar without stopping
playing, another tells of him leaving the building whilst playing his
solo, and then returning to the stage. A few minutes later a man
showed up to deliver the pizza Albert had ordered.
I can only hope that story is true.
As you would expect, the minor
pentatonic forms the backbone of his style. He was adept, however, at
blending the major – particularly the natural 6th –
into his playing, and we'll look at a couple of licks that take
advantage of that. However, be aware that you're unlikely to get them
sounding exactly right – just as with Albert King back in
January (remember that? Before R rates, PPE and social distancing
became part of the everyday vocabulary? ), he would tune his guitar
in a very non-standard way, in this case an open F minor (F C F Ab C
F) and capo high up the neck. Happily, most of his licks do translate
pretty well to standard tuning, so we can get a good approximation of
his style.
Let's take a look at couple of licks
from his signature track, “Frosty” in the key of D (which seemed
to be a favourite).
This one has a characteristic quirk,
using the major 6th and minor 3rd – those of
you familiar with the modes will recognise that as Dorian – but
what gives the lick it's bite is the six semitone interval between
the b3 (F) and the major 6th (B) – the interval of six
semitones is in itself a b5, the dreaded tritone, or “Devil's
Interval”.
The 6th can be an incredibly
effective note to use in a blues, as the 6th (B) over the
I chord (D) translates to being the the 3rd when you move
to the G chord (G-B-D). When you combine this with another blues
trick – hammering or bending the minor 3rd into the
major – you're left with a seriously tasty blues vocabulary that
can move between major and minor tonalities. Let's leave you with
another couple of licks to try out:
Combine these with a stinging
fingerpicked attack and a biting single coil bridge pickup and you've
got a sound which inspired a generation of Texas blues players!
Enjoy, stay safe out there and tune in next month for the delicate to
frantic phrasing and lunatic string bends of Buddy Guy!
