The Blues

[anders]

The blues is a fundamental building block in jazz. So here’s a thread where we can discuss blues in all its forms and shapes. If you got a blues progression, turnaround or lick that you want to share with the rest of us, here’s the place to do it. I’m starting off by giving you the chords to a tune I recorded recently.

Blues for Herb

|| Bb13 | Eb9 | Bb13 | Fm7 Bb13 |

| Eb9 | Ab13 | Bb13 | G7#5 |

| Cm7(9) | F13 | Dm7 G7#5 | Cm7(9) F13 |

[anders]

Charlie Parker Blues:

|| F7 | Em7 A7 | Dm7 G7 | Cm7 F7 |

| Bb7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Am7 (D7) | Abm7 Db7 |

| Gm7 | C7 | Am7 D7 | Gm7 C7 |

Right now I’m working on these changes. To get an idea how they sound at full tempo listen to ‘Blues for Alice’ or ‘Laird Bird’ by Charlie Parker. When playing with others, especially when there’s also a piano in the rhythm section, I find it very effective to use two- or three note voicings. For example:

F(maj)7 x879xx
Em7 x757xx
A7 5x56xx
Dm7 x535xx
G7 3x34xx
Cm7 x313xx
F7 1x12xx

Bb7 6x67xx
Bbm7 6x66xx
Eb7 x656xx
...

Don’t forget to check out jazzalta’s and mahayana’s great arrangements of ‘Georgia on my mind’ and ‘Mack The Knife’.

[mahayana]

Those are some nice ones, anders. I put the chords to Blue in Green over on the Kind Of Blue thread. It's 10 bar really strange blues. Took some effort to figure out how to play that one, hah!

13th subs in major keys always sound good. When I play the old standard "Wonderful, Wonderful" I start it out all 13th chords- (10 X 10 11 12 12 )

D13-------C13-----A13---G13-----A13-----C13--D13
Some-----times----we----walk----hand----in----hand

C13--A13---G13----A13----C13---D13------C13--A13--
by----the----sea----and----we----breathe--in----the---

G13--A13---C13--D13
cool--sal----ty-----air (then it switches to all maj7ths)

Sorry, that wasn't a blues tune!

One simple minor blues that I play is "Mattie T", the tune Jethro Tull stole from Stanley Turrentine's 1965 "Joyride" album to make into the hit "Locomotive Breath."

[anders]

More chords for another one of my blues based tunes. Not a 12-bar progression this time.

Remember

[mahayana]

Anders, I'm curious. Which form of Am11, Bm11 are you using for this tune?

The stretchy one---(5)X555 10 doesn't sound right with the other chords.

The bass root one---5X5533 sounds better, really just a Gsus4 barre chord, slashA

This one------------X02433 works for the Am11, becomes rootless when you move it.

Maybe this one-----XX2435, put the root on string one, leave out the b7?

[anders]

For this particular song I'm using the one you call the bass root.

Am11 (or Gsus4/A if you like) 5x553x

Bm11 7x775x

[shawn]

I think the best way to approach Blues is knowing that there are many, many formations of the same basic idea...just embellishments from the very basic...to the Charlie Parker stuff mentioned before. My jazz teacher has been having me work on memorizing many different versions of 'the blues'..so far we've done two.
What Rod (my teacher) says, is that if I can memorize these...and know what I'm doing improvise-wise; then I can listen to the bass player...and if he decides to switch forms within the blues that we're jazzing in - or piano for that matter - then I can react to it...and create some good stuff...we messed around with that idea...and I highly recommend it.

Here's four off the top of my head:

|I7| | | |IV7| |I7| |V7|IV7|I7| |

(basic)

|I7|IV7|I7| |IV7| |I7|VI7|ii7|V7|I7|V7|

(getting intricate)

|I7|IV7|I7|v7 / I7|IV7|iv7 / bVII7|iii7 / bvi7|ii7|V7|Imaj7| II7 / V7|

(getting more intricate)

I7|Ib7 / #IVo|I7|iv7 / I7|IV7|#IVo7|I7 / VII7|bVII7 / VI7|ii7|V7|*a turn around*

Now, you can spice up all of these with a turn around (except the last one...which Rod just said work out all of them and pick one you like ;D) A turn around is a way to bring the chords back to the first chord in the progression (the blues progression) without the basic way that everyone seems to know. A few are listed below.

try out these turn arounds: Each bar is good for what it says...but another way to vary it up is to substitute the last two bars (not the last four) with the 4 measures cut in half - 2 bars = 1 bar -

I7|VI7|ii7|V7|
I7 / VII7|bVII7 / VI7|II7|V7|
I7 / ii7|iii7 / VI7| II7| V7|
I7 / bVII7|VI7 / bIII7|II7 / bVI7|V7|
I7 / VII7|bVII7 / VI7|VI7|V7|
I7|bIII7|II7|#I7[/b]

A quick guide:
the roman numerals are the symbols of the key that you are in, so bVI7 in C is going to be Ab7...or #IV in D is going to be G#. Now, lower case numerals are the minor equivalent to the chord in that key...so ii7 in C is going to be D-7. A numberal iwth just a 7 after it (or any 7th extension for that matter) is going to be a dominant. o is a diminished chord....half diminish has a line through it...but that can't be typed (that I know of) so I would just usually put halfdim or something like that. The roman numeral system (often neglected) is useful for progressions and 'formulas' like that where yuo would be playing something in multiple keys...because you can literally "transpose" it to the new key instantaneously....this is a good mental workout too...I recommend we keep this around (I know Bach and the Boys used this a lot). Blank bars (bars with no chord written in them) is just shorthand for the repetition of the previous bar's chord...

[mahayana]

Good post, Shawn. Maybe you could write out a couple of the complex ones with chord letters (in E or A) so people could play the idea even if they're new to the numbers?

Also, I was thinking that some minor blues, written this way, would be interesting. You know, like The Thrill Is Gone, Love's In Vain, Unchain My Heart, etc.

Guess they would all start with vi7 then ii7 ...and so on.

[shawn]

mahayana said:

Good post, Shawn. Maybe you could write out a couple of the complex ones with chord letters (in E or A) so people could play the idea even if they're new to the numbers?

Also, I was thinking that some minor blues, written this way, would be interesting. You know, like The Thrill Is Gone, Love's In Vain, Unchain My Heart, etc.

Guess they would all start with vi7 then ii7 ...and so on.

Okay, here's an example of the last turnaround coupled with the last progression that I posted above in A:

|A7|Ab7 / D#o|A7|D-7 / A7|D7|D#o7|A7 / G#7|G7 / F#7|B-7|E7|A7 / C7|B7 / Bb7|[/i]

Just remember when you're doing the roman numerals for chords, that you must follow the key signature of the major key in that scale (Since we're doing major, and it's a good basis for everything) So, in the 7th bar, the VII7 is G#7 because in A, G# occurs and so on...
Hope that example helped.

[jazzalta]

A gentle reminder about Roman numerals. They're great if you're really up on your scales and heavily into transposition. When working with singers, I use them all the time on the fly with other band members who know what the hell I'm talking about. But there are still some of the weekend warriors who frown your way when you start talking 'bout bVII's and dimV's etc.

[shawn]

Yes, well I say if you're going to be into the music business; you should prepare yourself for any mishap you might come across...even if that means Roman Numberals.

[mahayana]

I was just sitting here, thinking about the blues as a way people cope with depressing things. Don't think there's a more distubing thought than imagining not being able to play guitar anymore. I've had cuts and injuries to my hands, a broken finger once, that slowed me down for awhile...

Anyway, I was thinking about Jerry Garcia, Ray Charles, other dead guys. Truth is, it makes me mad to think about the teenage carwreck blues. What a waste! Jerry played with three fingers, Ray was blind. I'll put some chord pattern down for our young friend eventually. All too much.

[kawe]

hi!
these are blues progressions as joe pass would play them. it's a copy out of his book "guitar style".
hope, you enjoy them!

www.geocities.com/pinsk94/joepassblues.doc

greets
kawe

[mahayana]

Another Sunday morning coming down. Think that was a Johnny Cash song.

Just wanted to say thanks to anders and Shawn and kawe for these great progressions. They are all well-worth practicing and memorizing.

I just played through this thread, have a few thoughts. For one, it would be a kindness to people that aren't real familiar with jazz chords, to post picture forms of some of the ones that are unusual. Like in the first blues, the G7#5 is an easy chord to grab, we use it all the time to sub in major tunes. It's played

XX3443

I could tell what I like about each of these progressions, but for a start, those bass "voicings" anders put in the second post are sweet, well worth playing if you want to play something different than the standard guitar chords. Try them out, see for yourself.

And I really like the "middle" line in the Joe Pass example above. It uses the + and - notation for sharping and flatting the extensions, if you are following the Comping Blue In Green thread, I explained over there that the A7#9#5 chord is really easy to play- it's a regular 7#9 form with the little finger flattened to add the fret next to it on the high string.

X 12 11 12 13 13

Thanks again, guys. Excellent stuff.

[jazzalta]

While we on the topic, one of the best little books on this topic was put out by Warren Nunes and Jerry Synder. It's from the Warren Nunes Jazz Guitar series, and it's entitled simply "The Blues." These books had little vinyl records in them (okay, I'm aging myself) but were a terrific resource for blues progressions. Here's an example in F:

|| Fmaj9 F6 | Fm9 Bb7 |Fmaj9 Dm7 Dbm7 | Cm7 F7+9 |

| Bb13 | Bb9 | Fmaj9 Bb13 | Am7 D7+9 D7-9 | Gm7|

C13-9 Eb13-9 Gb13-9 A13-9 | Am7 D7+5 | Gm7 C13||


Enjoy!