Guitar/Blues

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The Saint Louis Blues - published 1914.
Contents [hide]
1 Introduction
2 The twelve bar blues structure
3 Basic blues shuffle rhythm
4 The minor pentatonic and blues scales
5 Exercise 1
6 Exercise 2
7 Exercise 3
8 External links
Introduction[edit]
The blues is an American form of music. Its development started in the African-A
merican communities of the southern states in the early 1900s. Where does the bl
ues come from? The most commonly held belief is one of African culture meeting h
ead-on with European culture. African rhythms and vocal inflections are self-evi
dent in the blues but how much of this is mixed with European ideas is still bei
ng investigated. Some historians point out that after the American Civil war the
re was a small boom in music-making due to the fact that soldiers who had formed
the regiment bands were allowed to keep their instruments. It is also known tha
t the banjo was developed from an African stringed instrument though musicologis
ts cannot be precise about its origins. There is also a strong link to the work
songs of African-Americans with the familiar "call and response" found throughou
t Africa. All the above reasons and many more probably contributed to the develo
pment of the blues. The origins of the blues may be lost, due to no early record
s detailing its birth, but later records show its journey across America with ea
ch regional area developing distinct styles; such as the Mississippi Delta blues
of the 1940s and the Chicago electric blues of the 1950s. "The Saint Louis Blue
s" (1914) by W.C.Handy was one of the earliest blues sheet music to be published
and sold well; introducing the genre to a wider audience. This long history and
the acceptance of the blues into popular culture means that the blues is a star
ting point for a lot of popular Western music from the 1920s onwards. Many guita
rists will feel a sense of familiarity when they play a blues scale for the firs
t time.
These lessons are designed to teach a player with basic guitar knowledge how to
master the blues.
The twelve bar blues structure[edit]
The 12-bar blues is the basis for the majority of classic blues songs along with
many other popular rock and pop songs. It's a simple chord progression that can
easily be transferred between different keys. Each box represents one bar or me
asure with four beats; count the boxes and you will know why it's called the "tw
elve bar blues". The roman numerals refer to the chords that can be used and in
which bar they will appear.
I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I
Below is the key of C major. The I is the tonic chord from which the key derives
its tonal name.
I II III IV V VI VII I
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C
I is a C major chord, IV is F major and V is G major. If we apply this chart to
the key of C it would look like this:
C C C C
F F C C
G F C C
Note that the minor chords and diminished chord of C major are not used in the e
xercise above. The twelve bar blues exercise above uses only the primary chords
of C major.
Basic blues shuffle rhythm[edit]
This exercise is a twelve bar blues shuffle in A. Observe that the lower note in
each bar is always an open string and will be one of the roots of the primary c
hords I, IV or V.
Twelve Bar Blues In A
The minor pentatonic and blues scales[edit]
The minor pentatonic scale is a five-note scale that is very widely used in both
blues and rock. It can be derived from the natural minor scale by removing the
second and sixth notes. Here it is in the key of A:
A, C, D, E, G, A
A minor pentatonic
In any key, the pattern of intervals in between the notes of this scale is (in h
alf-steps, or guitar frets):
3, 2, 2, 3, 2
So the second note, in this case C, will always be 3 half-steps, or 3 frets, hig
her than the first note, A. The third note is 2 half-steps or frets higher than
the second, and so on. If you were to play it all on the low E string of a guita
r, it would look like this, in tab:
A minor pentatonic scale played on the E string
Here are two octaves of the A minor pentatonic scale, in tab, in 5th position:
A minor pentatonic two octaves
The blues scale consists of six notes, the most important of which is the blue n
ote. The blue note distinguishes the blues scale from a standard minor pentatoni
c scale, and makes the blues sound very distinct. It comes in between the 3rd an
d 4th notes of that scale, making 3 notes in a row in the middle of the scale.
The vast majority of blues and rock solos consist almost entirely of notes in th
e blues scale.
This is a blues scale played from the fifth fret. The scale starts with the note
"A" and therefore takes its name from the first note: Blues in A. You can chang
e the key by changing the starting note of the scale and using the same pattern.
Move the pattern up two frets (7th fret) and you are playing a Blues in B. Move
it up one fret more (8th fret) and you are playing a Blues in C. Memorize the p
attern by playing it repeatedly.
A minor pentatonic including "blue" notes
Exercise 1[edit]
Twelve Bar Blues In A
Exercise 2[edit]
Twelve Bar Blues In A using Sevenths
Exercise 3[edit]
Playing The Blues Using Only Seventh Chords
You can use seventh chords when playing the blues. Try the 12 bar blues in A usi
ng the chords below. No fingering has been given for the D7 and E7 since they ha
ve the same fingering as a C chord.
A7

D7

E7
Further blues exercises can be found in the appendix Blues Exercises