| HOME / BLUES FOR BEGINNERS PART 5 | |
Title: Blues Guitar - for beginners (article 5 of 5..or 6..or 7)
Author: Michael Long (axeface@hotmail.com)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome once again to the wonderful world of blues. I must apologise for
the delay in this article, but things have been fairly busy. Thanks again
to all of you who have mailed me - if anything comes up, please feel free
to drop me a line (axeface@hotmail.com) and i'll try to help.
There will be one more article after this one; it just has to be done. That
will cover the tricks of soloing and a written out solo if i can be bothered
(it's a lot of work to write these things - it's much easier to either write
it on paper or show people...but we'll do what we can right?). Also, if anyone
out there has any ideas for a new series, then i'd be only too happy to hear
(rather read) them. Mail them to me if u wish.
This article should be a lot of fun, but you will probably have to be pretty
well versed with the other 4 articles to make any use of it, as it will cover
ground from all of them (hopefully). So...for this article, i'll try to cover:
* blues progressions (more than before)
* bass lines
* target notes and
* solos
As usual, i'll probably not get around to all of this, but most of it should be
covered.
A few articles back i was talking about blues progressions. This time, we are
going to take these one step further and add a solo into a progression. It's not
as hard as it sounds, but it does require a fair amount of practice.
We'll start off in E - it's fairly basic to start off. The progression is as
it was before (E - A - B7) but this time we'll change it up a little, add an
intro and spice it up all round. If you remember back to the very first article
i wrote, there was a little chord chart as below:
(all open chords - B can be barred or as B7 [x21202] but even better is B9 [x2122x])
bar# 1 2 3 4 5 6
||:E /// | A /// | E /// | E /// | A /// | A /// |
bar# 7 8 9 10 11 12
| E /// | E /// | B /// | A /// | E /// | B /// :||
This can be reused here, with only minor adjustments. Ok...the first three bars
are fine, and we can leave them as is for the time being (we'll add an intro in a
minute). In the fourth bar, why not try to play with the E chord a bit - make it a
seventh or even better, slide the 9th shape up to the 7th fret for E9 (076777)...this
gives a great flavor and tone to the sound. Same thing for the A in bar 6, but this
time just play with the fingering of the chord to make the 7th.
As for the last half...this is where it gets fun. OK, you can play with the E (bar 8)
if you want to, but remember, we'll be chucking a solo in there soon as well, so don't
add too much just yet.
Bar 9 can be played as a B..but that really is a little boring. So...try this:
fingering - B9 - x2122x And all you do for bars 9 and 10 is this: for bar 9, play
C9 - x3233x the B as written (to left) and then for bar 10, play two
beats of the four on the C9 (slide i if you want, it's the same fingering one fret
up) then for the other two, slide back to the B...it's a great sound. Once you
have played this, go back to the E, then the little intro/outro i'll show
you in a minute, and end with the B9. But first, here's the chord chart as it
stands:
bar# 1 2 3 4(7th) 5 6 (7th)
||:E /// | A /// | E /// | E /// | A /// | A /// |
bar# 7 8 9 10 11 12
| E /// | E /// | B9/// | C9/B9/| E /// | B9///:||
Next, we should add an intro/outro to the progression to make it flow together a
little better. I'll tab it out with a little extra of the progression so
you can see where it goes together:
E shape all here------------------------| B9 E
E-----0---------0---------0----------------|-----------|--0----------------|
B----------------------------------------3-|---2-------|--0----------------|
G--4-----4---3-----3---2-----2---0(1)------|---2-------|--1----etc.--------|
D------------------------------------------|---1-------|--2----------------|
A--5---------4---------3---------2----2----|---2-------|--2----------------|
E------------------------------------------|-----------|--0----------------|
The note in bracktes means hammer on to the G#. The rest of it just follows on as
written in the chord chard above. You can also strum the B9 a few times if you want
as a filler...it's up to you.
The first part of it is simply an E open shape, so hold this and you should be right.
you'll need to pick out some of the notes, but it's really not that hard once
you have played it a few times.
The outro is very very similar to the intro, as it is basically the same thing just
placed in the song, not at the beginning (it makes sense if you think about it).
Anyway, what you play is the B9 part (bar 9) then C9/B9, then hit the E open
chord once, then go into the intro/outro bit, and repeat the progression.
It's dead simple after a few times and you have figured it out in your head how it
should sound. It's lots of fun, and really easy (once you have got it).
Now then...to add the solo - this is going to be a real task to write out, so
i'm only going to give you the basics; hints on where to play the solo, where
to play the chordings etc... it's just way too time consuming, sorry.
You'll have to have a look at the other articles i've written for the patterns
for soloing, cause i am not going to write it all again. Basically, the best thing
to do is to play the progression throguh once so to set the key in the minds of both
yourself and the people listening (if there are any)...it's not goo just playing the
intro and the soloing for 10 minutes, cause it will not sound good.
So play it through, set the mood. By the way, tempo for this can be anything you
pick; it's your choice, and this sort of progression works both fast and slow...but
start it slow. Use a metrenome if you have to - keep the beat strictly always.
Anyway, where was I...the solo, right. It is difficult to say where to play, but
generally speaking you can hit the tonic of the chord and let it ring, then
play a small solo over it, until the next change (be it E - A for example) then
you can hit the A chord, or note alone, and continue the solo.
A good way to keep it interesting is the old style of "call and response" - make a
tune, and play that for the first part (the "call") then, make a "response" to that -
but try to make it similar, as if it were a conversation between the two phrases.
Another way to make this work is play something fairly close to the first phrase, but
simply up an octave, with slight variation. You'll be amazed at how well this can
work.
So now that we have that part out of the way (sorry it took so long, but it is best
to explain everything so you all can understand) we can move onto bass lines. These
are another thing you can play in a blues style, and then add chords to them to make
a progression, then later add a solo and make it into a full piece. This time we'll
work in A cause it's a great key for this (easy to play too) - follow below:
A D A A D Eb
bar #1 2 3 4 5 6
E---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----------|
B---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----------|
G---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----------|
D---------------|-----4---7----|-----------5-|-7---5--------|---4--7-----|----4--7---|
A-----4---7---6-|--5-----------|----4---7----|--------7--6--|-5-------5--|-6---------|
E--5------------|------------6-|-5-----------|--------------|------------|---------6-|
A A E D A E F9 E9
bar #7 8 9 10 11 12
E---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----8---7-||
B---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----8---7-||
G---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----8---7-||
D------------5--|-7---5--------|----6---9----|----4---7-----|------------|-----7---6-||
A----4---7------|--------7--6--|-7---------6-|-5------------|----4--5--6-|-7---8---7-||
E-5-------------|--------------|-------------|-----------6--|-5----------|-----------||
This can be repeated as many times as you wish, and there are also (as always) heaps
of different ways to play it. For example, bar 2, instead of playing what is written,
you can jump from the G to the low E string (6) and play (frets numbered) 2 - 3 - 4,
just as a way to keep it interesting. There's a whole heap of these things that
you develop as you progress through your knowledge, so just see what happens.
Adding the chords to this is really quite simple also. They are listed above the tab,
and i'll chart the fingering below. Try to play them on a different beat every now and
then - for example, play the A chord listed, then go to the tab at the second beat,
then the following bar, play the first note of the tab, then hit the chord, and then
play the third beat in the tab - i should have made it clear that the numbers in the
tab are also the crotchet beats (in effect anyway), so you replace one of them for the
chord...it's easy. This is only one way; other times it is best to place the chord on the off beat, inbetween the two bass notes, cause it gives a better effect (see tab below).
The chords are as follows:
A - 5x567x All you need to do is figure out the best place to put these
D - x54555 chords each time and you can't go wrong. But remember to
Eb- x6757x change it up so that it doesn't get too boring to listen to.
E - 076777 Also, i know that these chords are not plain major/minor chords
F - x87888 but to save confusion i'll just leave this alone and not call them their
real names for a change.
To further explain this, i'll show you a few bars of the tab and chords:
A first beat D this one A A D on Eb on
bar #1 2 is offbeat 3 4 5 6
E---------------|--------------|-------------|--------------|------------|-----------|
B--7------------|----5---------|--7----------|--------------|-5----------|-7---------|
G--6------------|----5---------|--6----------|--------------|-5----------|-5---------|
D--5------------|----4-4---7---|--5--------5-|-7---5--------|-4-4--7-----|-7--4--7---|
A-----4---7---6-|--5-----------|----4---7----|--------7--6--|-5--------5-|-6---------|
E--5------------|------------6-|-5-----------|--------------|------------|---------6-|
The easiest way to keep the chords sounding like they fit is to form the shape of the
chord whenever you play that chord in the progression (form the A when the A bar is
up etc..) This way if you want to play the chord it's there, and you don't have to think
about what you are trying to play.
So that is basically it for this article, cause i really don't want to fit too much in
all at once. If you have any trouble with anything here or any comments about this
article or the series, please mail me at axeface@hotmail.com, and i'll hopefully get
back to you as soon as i can (normally the same or next day, if i'm not busy).
Sorry we didn't get to the solo's again this month, but i'll try to get it done soon.
Best of luck with this one...it's fun once you get it! Keep on strummin'.
- michael.
PS: sorry if there's heaps of spelling mistakes; i'm writing this as fast as possible
to finish it off, so bare with me. thanks. by the way, this is the biggest of the
articles to date :)
About Guitar Notes | Add A Site | Advertising | Contact Us | Guestbook | Make Us Your Home
© 1995-2006 Guitar Notes. All rights reserved. Disclaimer and privacy statement. Site designed by Mainframe Media & Design.
