Learning to Groove with the New Birth Brass Band!

So I’ve never been to New Orleans but one of my favorite 2nd Line groups is New Birth Brass Band. I’ve learned a lot from listening and playing along to their recordings. Plus had tons of fun grooving along to some great tracks! Thanks guys and all the best to all of you!

I’m not an expert but from what I understand New Orleans has both the swing feel and also elements of afro-latin music like the clave and the bass drum.

Table of Contents

I’ve Listened to D-Boy probably Hundreds of Times – it’s Amazing!

Playing along with groups like New Birth and Rebirth also is good for guitar players because usually there is no guitar player.  

This means you stretch out in directions that you may not usually with recordings that have a chordal instrument. On the other hand, there’s not a guitar player to listen to in order to learn what one might play.

Learn More about New Birth and New Orleans Second Line & Swing

GuitarKitchen Ideas & Lessons related to 2nd Line and NOLA swing

D-Boy is a Beautiful Album

Musicians

If I find better links for the musicians, I will try to add them …

Songs

  1. Mardi Gras in New Orleans
  2. D-Boy
  3. You Got Yours
  4. Spread Your Legs
  5. Whoopin’ Blues
  6. I Ate Up The Apple Tree
  7. Smoke That Fire
  8. Jesus On The Mainline
  9. Ms Lollipop
  10. Shakin’ That Ass
  11. Li’l Liza Jane
  12. Caribbean Second Line

Check out the New Birth some of their albums and tunes at Lousiana Music Factory and/or Amazon

I highly recommend two of their albums: D-Boy and New Orleans Second Line! I love both, especially D-Boy.

Play Along with New Birth!

Here’s what usually do (on guitar&drums) – (The order isn’t too important probably):

  1.  Put on headphones and/or run the music through some good speakers
  2. On drums, I try to play the bass drum bass and the main parts of the snare part (more or less)
    1. I check out the groove and try to lock in with the bass line.
    2. Listen and learn the bass drum part
    3. Try to get the basic feel of the snare drum part
    4. I don’t know if it’s the right way, but I like to think of it as swung Afro-Cuban funk. 
    1. Since I’m one of those guys that always wants to try out a new beat or something, I really try and focus on holding down the bass line and groove throughout (in a way that has continuity, etc). The bass player (on sousaphone) really holds down the groove, so it helps to focus on the bass lines.
  3. On guitar:
    1. I’ll try to do each of these once through whole track
    2. Then I’ll strum along with the groove with muted strings
    3. I’ll strum along to the groove, adding accents, usually to lock in with the bass drum and/or bass line
    4. On guitar, I learn (basics of ) the bass line
    5. Then I figure out the chords from the bass line
    6. I try to pick up the melody
    7. Then I’ll strum along with the groove with chords
    8. Then I’ll try to pick up the different horn hits and parts!
    9. I’ll try to pick up the solos
    10. I’ll try my own solos, etceteras
  4. Then I’ll listen in my headphones to the music and record myself playing drums and/or guitar to see how it sounds. Usually, I need to tighten up my time and groove, and also make the upbeats pop/feel really good and energetic … I don’t do this a lot, but I do it sometimes 🙂
  5. Then I’ll try to play the song without the recording and see how it sounds
  6. You also try to sing the groove, the bass line, the lyrics and the horn parts, too!

Ideas for Learning Li’ Liza Jane

Besides the ideas I talked about above, I would just say, that most of the song is in the key of F major. If you learn the basics of the bass line (how the chords go with the bass line you’ll be pretty set). Also maybe try to play major pentatonics and some F blues scales. The main chords are F, Bb and C.

Practice Makes Progress!

Hope you have fun! Besides Li’l Liza Jane, there’s tons of great songs on D-Boy. Some are more traditional with older school chord changes and some are modern, so you get a good range of grooves and melodies.

Of course, like always, I do try to support musicians as much as possible, though sometimes it’s not always clear the best way to help (other than buy their albums and support their shows).

All the best to all the great musicians coming from the New Orleans scene. The world is tremendously grateful and inspired!

All the best! Peace and Love!

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