how to play the blues 36 chapter - … · how to play the blues 36 the blues is many things to many...

3 6H O W T O P L A Y T H E B L U E S

The Blues is many things to many people. You might imagine the sorrow of old man wailing out in a raspy voice over a slide guitar, or Louis Armstrong with his cheeks puffed out like two biceps. In this book we’re going to try to see the blues from a technical point of view. We’re going to talk about major and minor scales, rhythm and traditional melodic clichés. My hope is that after you’ve finished this book, even if you haven’t an ounce of the blues in your soul, you’ll still be able to wail a little at the piano.

Chapter

1 Let’s start with the key of C. Here are the three main chords in the key of C. Play these in the left hand (just below the center of the piano).

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H O W T O P L A Y T H E B L U E S

Now let’s get ready to add some right hand (melody) notes to our chords. Here’s a blues scale to get you started.

I’ve separated the notes out into different hand positions. Start with your thumb on C and play these three notes. Use thumb, then index, then middle finger.

Now put your thumb on E and play these four notes. Use thumb, index, middle and ring (the fourth finger).

As you go up over the top of the scale, play the A with your thumb, the Bb with your middle finger and the C with your ring finger.

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To get into this last position, flip your ring finger over your thumb (which should still be holding the note A) and use it to play G. The last three notes, Eb, D and C, can be played by the middle finger, index finger and thumb. You will have to stretch between the G (played by the ring finger) and the Eb (played by the middle finger).

One general rule for scales and fast passages is to keep the thumb off the black keys.

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Blues Exercise 1 We’re going to learn to play “fake book” style in this book. Everything’s a little topsy-turvy. The left hand will be written above the staff as chord symbols. Use the voicings taught on the first page for the left hand. The right hand is the notes written out (the melody). On the following page, I’ll walk you through the notes and rhythm.

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Blues Exercise 1 notes

As you can see, the there is a lot of the notes E and Eb in this exercise. In the blues the third scale degree often moves between the major and minor to create different flavors. Especially as you move to the F7 chord, the Eb sounds better than the E. Take a look at this example:

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Blues Exercise 1 rhythm

For this exercise, I’ve put a steady beat of quarter notes in the left hand. Practice playing both hands and counting.

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The Most Common Blues Notes

The third scale degree is made “blue” by lowering it a half-step. In the key of C, the third (E) is lowered a half-step to Eb. The seventh scale degree, likewise, is made “blue” by lowering it a half-step. In the following boogie-woogie style piece, notice that the seventh and third scale degrees are lowered.

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Often, the blues plays with the difference between minor and major by moving between the low third and the high third and the low seventh and high seventh. Usually, the major notes are only played for a second such as in the last beat of the first measure, where the note B is in the middle of a triplet. Notice in measure four how the Eb moves to an E. This forms a C major chord for a few beats before returning to minor feel for the next few measures.

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Shell Voicings for C7, F7 and G7

A shell voicing is the third and seventh of a chord. Let’s learn the shell voicings for three common chords in the key of C.

C7 E is the third of a C7 chord.

Bb is the seventh of a C7 chord. C7 with the third (E) on top

F7

A is the third of an F7 chord. Eb is the seventh of an F7 chord. F7 with the seventh (Eb) on top

G7 B is the third of a G7 chord. F is the seventh of a G7 chord. G7 with the seventh (F) on top

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Shell Voicings PracticeH O W T O P L A Y T H E B L U E S H O W T O P L A Y T H E B L U E S

I have taken out the note names below the bass clef and added chord symbols.

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Rhythm Practice

Let’s practice the rhythm from the shell voicings exercise.

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3 6Chapter

2 H O W T O P L A Y T H E B L U E S

The Blues Scale

The blues is a tradition, so you don’t have to be all that creative to play the blues. I’ve written in the solfeggio. Ideally, you would sing and play along. That’s the best way to start to hear the key in your head.

Here’s a blues scale in the key of C with added chromatic notes. I’ve written the solfeggio (the “do, re, mi” syllables) as well as the note names. Eventually, you should be able to hear melodies in solfeggio. This book should be a good introduction to this skill.

On the next page, I have the same example transposed into the key of F. Notice how the solfeggio stays the same, but the note names change. One big advantage solfeggio will give you, is that as you relate the keys, instead of thinking of 12 different keys, you think in terms of one set of fixed relationships that transpose. Practicing solfeggio is one of the best ways to improve your musical skills and help yourself learn to improvise or play by ear.

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See the appendix to practice this scale in all the other keys.

The Minor Blues Scale

Minor blues can either be written in a major key with flats written on the third scale degree (and often the seventh scale degree as well), or as you see above, written a minor key, with the key center being the sixth scale degree. The solfeggio names then are based on the sixth scale degree. (Notice how it starts on “la” above).

Most often when you read music, this is how minor keys are written so I wanted to give this to you to study. Instead of the I chord and the IV chord in the first two measures, you have the vi chord (“six chord”) and the ii chord (“two chord”). The equivalent of the ii > V > I pattern in major ( “two five one”) is the viim7 > III7 > vi pattern (“seven minor seven to three dominant to

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six”). This is an example of major minor borrowing because normally the seven chord would be diminished and the three chord would be minor.

The third chord to the right is Bdim (the normal vii chord in the key of C)

But often the parallel major equivalents (in this case from the key of A) are used. It’s as if the second to last measure above is in the key of A, and the Bm7 and E7 chords are the ii (“two”) and V (“five”) chords respectively.

The fifth chord to the right is Bm (the two chord in the key of A) replacing the normal vii chord in the key of C.

The fifth chord to the right is Bm (the two chord in the key of A)

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Here’s an example using both the ii > V (“two five”) and the vii > III (“seven three”) cadences. A cadence is the end of a musical phrase, especially the last few chords. (In the key of Am, which is the same as the key of C, Dm and G are the ii and V chords. Bm and E7 are the vii and III chords.

Now that we’ve learned a little bit about harmony and chords, let’s focus on the melody again. One of the easiest ways to create melodies is to use chord tones in a sequence. Let’s look at this same sequence of chords, but this time I’ve added a melody that takes chord tones and puts them into a nice sounding sequence. (Jump to the next page.)

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While this doesn’t sound much like the blues yet, it goes to show how you can be very theoretical in your approach to improvising and composing. Often, the less you try to reinvent the wheel, the better your music will sound. There is plenty of room for expression in the confines of form.

On the next page is a more rangy minor blues scale. I’ve added a boogie-woogie bass line to it. If you want to keep practicing the scale, you can put a 12 bar blues under it (move to the IV chord and back again, and then on to the V chord.)

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Here’s the same blues scale from the last page, only this time written as triplets. Underneath, I’ve added a different boogie-woogie accompaniment.

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This time around, I kept the bass from the last exercise but replaced the scale with an arpeggio of the six chord (the tonal center in minor).

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So again, I’ve kept the left hand the same, and added a simple sequence in the right hand. I’ve left out the note names this time, because I think you can figure out the notes, and it will be good sight reading practice for you.

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Now let’s practice triads moving up the scale.

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I’ve added two voices in the right hand. Start slowly!

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how to play the blues 36 chapter - … · how to play the blues 36 the blues is many things to many...

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