Chorus Form any rules?
Good afternoon David,
I've just completed L.O.A.3 and felt that I needed to really get a handle on Chorus Forms so I'm pitching in so to speak.
Couple of points that I could use some clarification on please. Firstly a lick, are there any rules that a lick has to follow, for instance must it contain all or part of a I, IV or V chord or can it be simply a short ( 1,2 or 3 bars long) musical phrase that has a nice hook/swing/feel to it? which leads onto the question, are there any notes that shouldn't be played in the same lick or phrase that woudl cause a dis-chord?
My other question is about the fill. Do the notes used for a fill have to be appropriate to the postion where is is applied within the 12 bar structure for example say my A Chorus Form lick was short and occupied only one bar (measure) and I alternated the A Chorus Form with a fill throughout the 12 bar structure so we would have Bar 1 lick Bar 2 fill etc etc, when we got to say bar 10 (bar 9 being the lick Chorus Form A) would the fill have to be made up of a IV Chord to make it sound correct, as in normal terms we would expect a IV Chord at bar 10?
Hope that makes sense David.
Thank you and kind regards
Greg
Morning David,
Thanks very much for your reply all of that is so cool and exciting, can't wait to try this out later today.
cheers all the best,
Greg
Happy to help. It is cool and exciting!
Hello Greg. Answers below...
"Firstly a lick, are there any rules that a lick has to follow, for instance must it contain all or part of a I, IV or V chord"
Your A lick is on the I Chord, so yes, it will contain mostly notes of the I Chord. At this point though, your goal is to just grab a lick that sounds cool to you and stick it in there... in most cases it will work. The safest place to grab a lick from is from the I Chord (Bars 1 through 4 for example).
"or can it be simply a short ( 1,2 or 3 bars long) musical phrase that has a nice hook/swing/feel to it?"
Exactly
"which leads onto the question, are there any notes that shouldn't be played in the same lick or phrase that woudl cause a dis-chord?"
Right now don't worry about this. But, to answer your questions... sure, there are. Assuming that the lick sounds good on the I Chord, the 3 draw doesn't sound so great over the IV Chord, due to the fact that the note B (referencing a C Harmonica) is a half step away from the Bb of the IV7 Chord (C E G Bb). That's a common one. Generally speaking, a note that's a half step away from a note of a chord (if held upon) can sound bad. Simply give your lick a try using the A A A Chorus Form and see if you hear any clashes, then adjust the lick until it seems to fit well.
"Do the notes used for a fill have to be appropriate to the postion where is is applied within the 12 bar structure for example say my A Chorus Form lick was short and occupied only one bar (measure) and I alternated the A Chorus Form with a fill throughout the 12 bar structure so we would have Bar 1 lick Bar 2 fill etc etc, when we got to say bar 10 (bar 9 being the lick Chorus Form A) would the fill have to be made up of a IV Chord to make it sound correct, as in normal terms we would expect a IV Chord at bar 10?"
Fills generally happen in Bars 3 and 4, 7 and 8 and 11 and 12... all of these are on the I Chord, so no focus needs to be given in regards to matching the other chords.
Keep throwing me questions as you have them