Blues in A

Here is a blues in A. The basic form is executed with ninth and 13th chords, interspersed with bass runs outlining the 1st 3rd and 5th of each chord, with a chromatic run from 3rd to 5th. The solo style is constructed around each chord, using bends on the b3rd, and adding 2nd’s, 6th’s, 4ths and major thirds. There are minor pentatonic sequences, myxolidian sequences, and chord sequences. I tried to give extra attention to phrasing in this piece, climaxing in the second last chorus, with a sequence beyond the 12th fret, before a final chorus to recuperate in the 5th position.

Practice Track – E minor Pentatonic

You can never have enough of the E minor pentatonic scale. So here is another practice track, built around an E boogie power chord. There is just one chord! The organ comes in over the top with an E7 #9, while the bass line features sliding or bending between minor and major third. So hit those bends in your solo, especially the minor third!

Another One for the Bass Players – E Blues

Here is another practice track for the bass players. It is an E 12 Bar blues. The rhythm part is played with all dominant 7th chords, while the lead guitar plays with the E minor pentatonic scale. Here are the chords:-

|E7               |                 |                  |                |

|A7               |                 |E7             |                |

|B7               |A7            |E7              |E7           |

Try constructing bass lines from your dominant 7th chord arpeggios. Add in the 6th for a classic blues bass line. For your runs, try the the myxolydian mode from the root of each chord.

 

Bass Practice Track – E Minor Pentatonic

I thought it would be cool for my bass students to play along with a track that I am working on for an album by “The Robert Bloodwood Experience”, which is the name of my blues and groove band. So I have taken out the bass and the vocals, leaving just the drums and guitars.

It is predominantly an E minor groove, occasionally changing to G and then to A. See if you can figure out where by listening. Play along using the E minor Pentatonic scale. Remember that simple with a good feel is often the best option for bass.

practicetrackversionNoBassNoVocals

 

Practice Track: A Minor Blues

Here is a practice track for beginning or intermediate guitarists to sharpen up their minor blues solos. The Key is A minor – so use the A minor Pentatonic. For a more sophisticated approach, you can also make excursions into the D minor Pentatonic over the D minor Chord. For the E7 chord, try an E minor pentatonic, with some half tone bending on the G! That will take the G up to a G# to match the chord tone in the E7 chord (E, G#, B, D)

Another approach is to use the A natural minor scale, switching to the A harmonic minor scale (or just bending the G’s to G#) over the E7. The tempo is slow and the rhythm is steady to give you plenty of scope for exploring.

A minor Blues

|Am         |               |                 |                    |

|Dm         |               |Am           |                    |

|E7           |Dm         |Am           |                    |

The chords are a standard blues progression, but in a modern style, there is no final E7 chord in bar 12. Instead you will hear four distinctive organ stabs to alert you that you are coming back to the top again.

 

Practice Track: A minor blues

The Blues form is one of the basic forms for jamming in rock, jazz, and of course blues. Here is a practice track to help get your chops up to speed on the A minor blues. The chord progression is a typical blues variant, with minor I and IV chords. Often a V chord appears in the last bar of a blues, however this final V chord is often omitted as in this case!

There are many possibilities for soloing over such a progression, a good starting point is the notes of the C major scale, which may also be referred to as the A natural minor scale, or the Aeolian mode of C. This gives us both a flat 9 (F) and a sharp 9 (G) to play over the E7 chord. Alternately, we can use the A minor pentatonic scale, which is in realty a subset of the C major notes, omitting the F and the B. Using the A minor pentatonic, be sure to try bending your G up a semitone  on the E7, and try bending your D up a tone on the Am.

An alternative approach is to bass your playing around the chord arpeggios. We can use the Am7 arpeggio over the Am, the Dm7 arpeggio over the Dm, and the E7 arpeggio over the E7 chord.

We can drop in some colour notes to our arpeggios, seconds work over all three chords, while a major sixth sounds good over the Dm (creating a minor sixth sound). We can drop a #5 (C) in on the E7 (creating an E7#5 sound).

Another possibility is to play with the A harmonic minor scale over the E7, where it has the necessary G# to match with the G# in the E7 chord. This give a  little bit of a gypsy jazz flavour over the straight ahead rock backing. Harmonically, the harmonic minor can work over all the chords – try it out and see it you like it!

Here is the practice track. There are four repetitions of the progression. Play the tune over the first, then take two choruses for a solo, then play the tune again. You will hear the rhythm in the organ count you back to the top in each bar 12, which will help you know where you are in the progression, so you can pick up the tune in the right place again!

 

Rob’s Minor Blues

Practice Track: Finger Picking Blues

This practice track provides a finger style blues rhythm backing, ready for your improvisations using the E minor pentatonic scale. The chords are

||:E7         |               |A7          |             : ||

You can also try combining the E7 and A7 arpeggios over the appropriate chord, to augment the minor pentatonic. There is plenty of room for the so called “blue” notes in this style – the b3 (G), the b5 (Bb) and the b7 (D). Experiment with hammer on’s, pull offs, and combinations of hammer ons and pull offs, using them to lock into the triplet feel. Bends and reverse bends sound good on the b3 (G), the 4 (A) and the b7 (D), but stick to reverse bending the A on the A chord!

Play with these ideas, and ideas of your own, and explore what sounds good to you!

Finger Picking Blues Rhythm Track

 

 

Practice Track: G minor groove

This practice track is suitable for intermediate guitar players interested in rock, funk and blues grooves, and is especially good for practicing the G minor pentatonic scale. A distinctive feature of blues and blues derived styles is the use of the bend: try to get some bends happening on the b3rd (Bb), the 4th (C) and b7th (F). Use your ear and bend till it sounds good! There are just two chords, Gm7 and C9:Two Bars Gm7 and 2 bars C9Here is the practice track, with just drums and guitar. Use it for practicing lead guitar or bass.

Gm7-C9_groove_Rhythm Guitar_Drums

After playing with the above track, try the following track, which adds a bass line. How does this change what you play?

Gm7-C9_groove_Bass_Rhythm Guitar_Drums

Finally you may care to listen to the following version, which adds a lead guitar riff. Practice playing in the ‘gaps’ left by the riff, or try to play the riff or a harmony line. The riff drops away after 16 bars, leaving you 16 bars to play on your own, then comes back for16 bars. Once again, how does this change what you play?

Gm7-C9_groove_Riff_Bass_Rhythm Guitar_Drums

Have fun!

Rob

Talking About the Blues

One of the styles of music I love to play, and love to teach, is the blues. Much of modern pop and rock music owes its distinctive sound to the rhythms, harmonies and scales used by the American blues musicians. The Blues had its roots in the south of the USA, in the Mississippi delta region, and the first blues guitarists often sang on street corners. They developed the resonator guitar, made of steel, to help produce a louder sound. Look out for Son House and Robert Johnson as exemplars of this early blues. After the second world war, many people from the South moved north to Chicago and Detroit, and blues began to feature the electric guitar. Have a listen to performers like Muddy Waters, B.B. King and John Lee Hooker, who were playing right through the fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond. B.B. King still performs to this day, in his 80’s! These players really influenced the British blues/rock explosion that occurred in the late sixties and early seventies. Such big names as Eric Clapton and Keith Richards (Rolling Stones) were big fans, and through these players and their contemporaries, the blues features of the bend, the pentatonic scale and the dominant seventh chord, found their way into rock and roll and popular music, and are still a big feature in today’s rock and pop. Australia’s own John Butler is also well worth a listen, with roots in the blues! 

To play the blues, one needs to work on several areas of playing. Firstly, get the minor pentatonic scale under your fingers! Secondly, work on getting some bends happening, especially bending the flat 3rd, the 4th and the flat 7th. Thirdly work on some phrasing. A lot of the blues is based on call and response type melodies, that have their origins in the field hollers on the slave plantations of the American South. So think in terms of 2 bar phrases, with the second phrase repeating (perhaps with some variation) the first, and then going on to a new phrase! And finally, don’t forget to exercise your ears. Put on your favourite record, and see if you can play along. Even if you can pick out one or two notes here and there, it will help you to hear in a new way the music that is being played, and eventually will help you to play it yourself on the guitar!