form

In Gary Smith's 54th submission for BluesHarmonica.com we continue our series on blues bridges... this time with the standard bridge (IV I IV I IV I ii V) in different groove types http://www.bluesharmonica.com/contributor/gary_smith

The same approaches that we used from the V (Bar 9) we can use for the Turnaround (Bar 11). Here are these options again, but specifically for the Turnaround.

1) “From the Turnaround, All-in” – You and the band start on Bar 11 and play a turnaround lick

2) “From the Turnaround, All-in” – Same idea as above, but you don’t start until the beginning of the next chorus. This gives you the opportunity to hear what the band is laying down before you play. continue reading...

Our first type of opening is simply from the beginning of the 12 Bar Blues Form, from the I (from the one... we use Roman numerals for chords). The speech will be as follows for "Need My Baby" by Big Walter Horton...

1) "G"

2) "Shuffle" (in this case with a Quick Change)

3) "From the I"

4) Count the band in and play continue reading...

Today I'll start a series to help you understand, and eventually use, the common opening types found in blues that are safe to call in a sit-in (you sitting in with an established blues band) or jam session (mixture of skill and experience level of musicians) situation.

Let's start with the basics of what generally needs to be stated for a song...

1) Key - "E," for example. Avoid drawn-out phrases like "Okay, we're going to play a song in the key of E." Keep it succinct... "E" continue reading...

Let's use an example of a common error when performing a memorized piece of music to a backing track or live band. Let's say that you accidentally rest for 5 beats after a phrase instead of the required 6. You've worked on your song so much to memorize it that you have the spacing worked out between each lick so well that if you're not saving some of your mental power for listening to the band as you play to make sure that you are where you're supposed to be in the form, then you'll most likely stay out of time for a loooong time.

Here's a tool you can use... continue reading...

Okay, let's see if you figured it out correctly. Below are the three different chord progressions found in the song, as well as the chorus with the error.

Harp Solo (12)
I I I I
IV IV I I
V7 IV I V7

Verses (8)
I I7 IV IV
I V7 I V7

Bridge (8)
IV I IV I
IV I V V

Chart
Harp Solo (12) | Verse (8) x2 | Harp Solo (12) | Bridge (8) | Verse (7.5) | Verse (8) ||

See if you can figure out where the two beats were dropped in the verse following the bridge and how you could approach the vocals to change this to be a standard 8 bars.

Before I outline "Just Your Fool" by Little Walter I think you should take a listen to it for yourself first. Listen careful to the form and see if you can figure out what's going. Your clue is that it has both 12 and 8 bar forms, with two different types of 8 bar forms present. There's also a deviation (i.e., mistake) in the form in one of later verses.

This song is on the School of the Blues House Band Standards List simply because of its form. There is no standard 8 bar blues chord progression, unlike the 12 bar blues which is expected to be a specific way (with small variations every now and again). In my experience "Key to the Highway" provides the most common version of an 8 bar blues used. If you use this as your reference point, when doing a different 8 bar blues you can say to yourself, "It's like Key to the Highway, but it changes like this..."

The chord progression is...

I V IV IV
I V I V continue reading...

"Tramp" provides our most common rock beat (straight-eighths) in the blues. You can hear derivations of this groove in William Clarke's "Pawnshop Bound" and my recent "Here We Go" on the It Takes Three CD. This song also provides a good challenge of dealing with what's basically a 12 Bar Blues in nature, but with an irregular length (some of the chords are double in length and it's not consistent from chorus to chorus). The band's challenge is to turn the form into a consistent form. continue reading...

Now that you've played the hook as it's presented in the song and experimented with adding textures for variation, how about using deletion as a way to bring interest? Experiment with this and see what type of ideas you come up with. I'll share some of my thoughts tomorrow.