Tip of the week: First position, Stevie Wonder style, Part 1

When you think first position, you think blow chord, right?

Stevie Wonder created a way to play in first position that does two unusual things:

-- It focuses on the draw notes, using the slide

-- It creates a blues scale instead of a major chord.

The blue notes are the flat 3, the flat 5, and the flat 7 in the scale, right? In C, you add those notes to the 1, 4, and 5 and you get: C Eb F Gb G Bb

Now look at the slide-in draw notes: Eb (the flat 3), Gb (the flat 5), Bb (the flat 7), and C (the tonic note)

All of a sudden you have 4 out of the 6 notes of the C blues scale.

Now try playing this scale (number by itself = draw note, + = blow note, < = slide in)

5+ 5< 6 6< 7+ 7< 8+

(Instead of 5+ you can play 4<, and instead of 8+ you can play 8<)

Voila, a little slide work and you have a C blues scale.