The Gummy Worm Blues

Yesterday, I had one of my most enjoyable guitar lessons ever. It was with Maya, the student I wrote about before in the post titled “Sometimes I Hate Kids, Sometimes I Love Kids”. So last week I taught Maya how to play a 12 bar blues, in A Major. The blues are the foundation of rock & roll and jazz. And since, in its most basic of forms, it uses only three chords it a great thing to teach a beginning guitarist. Also, the blues has a very basic lyric pattern. You state a line, then repeat it. And then close with a line that rhymes with the first line.

So Maya’s assignment was to write a blues song or two and practice the chords. While she didn’t follow the lyric structure exactly, what she wrote works as a blues song. This is one of the songs she came up with.

“I got the Gummy Worm Blues
And I can’t afford to buy any shoes
Life can be so mean
I gotta get me some green
Yeah, I got the Gummy Worm Blues!”

I thought this was excellent, especially when you consider that she is 8 and ¾ years old. (She makes it a point to mention the ¾ part.) So I show here how to place the words above the measures so the words fit the music. Maya keeps saying that she really likes this song and that it’s going to get stuck in my head like it was stuck in her head. And I have to admit that Gummy Worm Blues is a great idea.

Maya then asks “Why do we have to put spaces between the lines?” I tell that way the piano play can play a bluesy fill. I proceed to show her by playing the rhythm and fills all by myself on my guitar. I wasn’t doing anything really technically amazing, just basic blues fills. Maya proceeds to say, “Wow, you should be famous!!!”

Thanks Maya, but it takes a little more that just being able to play the blues. Don’t get me wrong, I’m working on being a famous musician. It’s just taking awhile.

Going back to her lyrics, I have to wonder how does an 8 & ¾ year old girl know that “Life can be so mean.” Also, how does she know that she’s gotta get her some green? Maya certainly has wisdom well beyond her years.

Musically, I love the blues because you can enjoy it at any point of your life. You can sing the blues when you’re up or down, whether you’re rich or you’re broke, when you’re happy or sad, and when you have a woman or wish that you had. And in the simplicity of the music one can find and discover amazing musical complexities. I know that sounds contradictory, but it’s true.

So I enter this weekend singing the “Gummy Worm Blues.” Kinda fitting since I have had a cold since coming back from NC on April 4th. Going to go see the doctor in an hour. He’ll ask what’s wrong with me. I’ll have to respond, “You know Doc, I think I got the Gummy Worm Blues. What do you prescribe for that?”