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| A little theory on the 12 bar blues |
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There is one important characteristic that can be seen in all blues music. This is the placement of the primary chords within its 12 bar form. The tonic chord will appear in measures 1,7,11
The subdominant chord appears in measure 5
A cadence will normally appear in measures 9,10 and will return back to the tonic chord. A Cadence is any rhythmic flow of sound or the harmonic ending, final trill of a phrase or movement. Below is a 12 bar blues showing this theory. |
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| Model Interchange Chords |
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| Model interchange chords are chords taken from a parallel tonality to use in primary tonality. A good example of this is take the chords from the key of C minor and add them to key of C major. This would be Natural Minor Modal Interchange chords since C minor is your basic natural minor (Aeolian mode). The Natural Minor Modal Interchange chords are as follow. |
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| Dom7 Chromatic Voicings/Tensions |
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Practice the chords below until you can play them smoothly from start to finish. Once you can play them with ease try thinking what chord tensions you are playing as you go.The chords are layed out to play the upper tensions chromatically. All the chord are played on the inside 5 strings. The chord tensions are written above the chords. Example: The 2nd chord is your basic C7 and the upper tension is Db (on the 2nd string) this is a b9 making C7 = C7b9 The third chord uses a 9 making a C7=C9 You get the idea! try to incorporate this into your own playing. You know the saying use it or lose it!
Have fun
Brian Calloway |
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| Chord Tension Chart |
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The chord tension chart below will give you some insight on the funtions of chord tensions which ones sound good and which ones don't. Play through paying close attention to the sound and the feel of the tension. |
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| Drop 2 Type Voicings |
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| The Chords examples below are Drop 2 Voicings. Drop 2 voicings are chords with the fifth of the chord dropped down an octave. For example in a C major7 chord the notes are laid out as C,E,G,B this is called four way closed. To make it a drop 2 voicing we will need to drop the G and Octave so the notes will now be in this order G,C,E,B (Drop 2 Voicing) Drop 2 chords are much fuller sounding chords and more accessible then The Basic Four way closed. The Four Cmaj7 Inversions are played on the inside 5 strings 5,4,3,2 strings.
Practice these in all keys. Have Fun Brian Calloway http://www.mp3.com/briancalloway |
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| Using Major 3rds |
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| brian writes " When playing The Major 3rds above use alternate picking! Start with the first down picking and the next note picking up. Do the same for all the notes. This will not only help you with you Major 3rds but will also make your picking technique better!
Have Fun Brian Calloway
www.mp3.com/briancalloway " |
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| The Four Types of Triads and Their Inversions |
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Below are the four types of triads. Major,Minor,Dim,Aug.
They are layed out as Arpeggios but on each set of 3 strings is a triad.
For example In C Major Root Postion
the 3,5,5 on the 1,2,3 strings is a C triad and if you move down to the
next set of 3 strings 2,3,4 you will see 5,5,5 this is the next triad and on the
3,4,5 strings you will see 5,5,7 this is also a C major triad. You get the point.
Practice this in all examples.
I included a midi file that plays
each triad(Arpeggio)Play Examples
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| The DIM Chord is your best friend! |
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brian writes "The Dim Chord can be your best friend when it comes to chords or soloing.
I will relate this to a blues situation.
Lets take the basic 3 chord blues progression in the key of D
That's D7 G7 A7
If you don't already know a dim chord is a dom7 with a flat 9 so you can easily interchange the two.
This is the same with scales, play a dim scale instead of a Mixolydian or penatonic. So with a blues progression of D7 G7 A7 try replacing with Fdim, Bflat Dim and C Dim. And all you have to do is move each chord up a minor third to get 3 new dim chords
A flat Dim, B flat Dim, E flat Dim. So realy theres only about 3 DIM chords all together.
Remember this will scale ideas
Play a F dim over a D7 chord or A flat over a D7 etc.
It does take some practice but once you get the hang of it the skys the limit.
Hope this open some doors for you.
Enjoy
BY:Brian Calloway
briancalloway@juno.com
www.mp3.com/briancalloway " |
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| Renaming Chords |
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brian writes "This is a simple lesson to get you thinking different guitar about chords!
First lets take a C major chord.
Thats C E G your Root your 3rd and 5th.
Now lets take the seven diatonic chords from the key of C Major. C | Dm | Em | F | G7 | Am | B-7 flat 5 |
Read On...." |
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| Did You Know? |
The Super Locrian scale is played over altered Dom 7 chords containing a b5 and b9
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| Archived Files |
| Tuesday, May 06 | | · | Music Symbols add character |
| Saturday, April 19 | | · | Reading Music - Notating Rhythm |
| · | Reading Music - Staves And Form |
| · | Abbreviation Symbols |
| Friday, November 22 | | · | Interval Inversions |
| Sunday, August 18 | | · | Arpeggio's in a Key |
| Monday, August 12 | | · | Guitar Harmonics- Part 1 |
| Saturday, July 27 | | · | Time Signature Primer |
| Sunday, June 16 | | · | Cadences |
| Thursday, June 13 | | · | The Relative minor and Tonic chord functions |
| · | A little theory on the 12 bar blues |
| Monday, June 10 | | · | Model Interchange Chords |
| Wednesday, May 08 | | · | Dom7 Chromatic Voicings/Tensions |
| Friday, May 03 | | · | Chord Tension Chart |
| Sunday, April 21 | | · | Drop 2 Type Voicings |
| Tuesday, April 16 | | · | Using Major 3rds |
| Saturday, April 13 | | · | The Four Types of Triads and Their Inversions |
| Sunday, March 17 | | · | The DIM Chord is your best friend! |
| · | Renaming Chords |
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