Blues Forms

[John Steele (deceased)]

This is relevant to a conversation I was
having with someone this week, so I thought
I'd post this.

Blues Forms

The Blues in F

The very simple blues form:
<font face="monospace" size="2"><pre> <font size=3>
|F | | | |
|Bb | |F | |
|C7 | |F | |


Another common variation, sometimes
Described as a “V-IV Blues” (5-4)


|F | | | |
|Bb | |F | |
|C7 |Bb |F | |

What I’ve heard called a “fast four” blues:
(with a V-IV)


|F |Bb |F |F7 |
|Bb | |F | |
|C7 |Bb |F | |


We’ll stick with the “fast IV” for the rest of
These examples.
You’ll notice that not many chords other
than the V are notated as 7ths, but of
course, as it’s The blues, you can pretty
well use a dominant chord For all of them.
In other styles of music, doing this may
sound too, well, bluesy!

Sometimes instead of going V-IV, jazzier
arrangements Call for a II-V change.


|F |Bb |F |F7 |
|Bb | |F | |
|G7 |C7 |F | |


The II chord could also be minor.
In this case, G-7 instead of G7.

And, jazz guys being the way they are,
notice that, if you’re going to use II-V,
you might as well jam the VI in before it,
and use a nice turnaround…

|F |Bb |F |F7 |
|Bb | |F | D7 |
|G-7 |C7 |F |(G-7 C7)|

or, perhaps


|F |Bb |F |F7 |
|Bb |Bo |F |Am7b5 D7 |
|G- |C7 |F D7 |G-7 C7 |


After they had pretty well hit the limit
with possible variations on the last 8 bars
of the blues, guys like Charlie Parker
started to find interesting ways to get to
the IV through the first four bars, and
beyond:


|F |Em7b5 A7 |D-7 Db-7 |C-7 F7 |
|Bb |Bb-7 Eb7 |F Bb7 |Am7b5 D7 |
|G- |C7 |F |(G- C7 |


That might seem kind of thick, but it’s
actually A very beautiful sounding thing
when handled right.

We haven’t gone much beyond 7th chords
here, but Anywhere a 7th symbol appears,
experimenting with Dominant chord
variations such as 9th, b9th, #9,

Altered, and even Sus4 chords can reveal
interesting Harmonic shades.
There are other variations, I know, but
there's a few basic ones.
</pre></font>
-John <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Steele on 05 January 2003 at 10:18 PM.]</p></FONT>

[Ricky Davis]

Gosh John; I thought you were off Coffee pal...ha
Great work; great info....thanks a ton.
Ricky

[John Steele (deceased)]

http://www.mjq.net/bossbrass/covers/canblues.jpg

-John

[Dave Birkett]

[Larry Bell]

Wonderful info, John (as usual)
I teach C6/B6 by evolving the 12-bar blues. You have some twists I'll have to include.

Thanks

------------------
<small>Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2000 Fessenden S-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro

[Gord Cole]

John :
Thank you!

[CrowBear Schmitt]

thanx John

[Earnest Bovine]

And with just a couple of changes from your last example,
|F |Em7b5 A7 |D-7 G7 |C-7 F7 |
|Bb |Bb-7 Eb7 |Ab |Abm7 Db7 |
|Gb |Gm7 C7 |F (Ab7) |(G- C7)|
you have Thielemans's Bluesette.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Earnest Bovine on 06 January 2003 at 09:02 PM.]</p></FONT>

[John Steele (deceased)]

Wow... thanks Earnest.
I've played that tune 100 times, and I'd never noticed that. Cool. That's one of those Expressway tunes... once you get on, it's hard to get back off.
-John

[Don Walters]

This is excellent for a newcomer like myself to blues/jazz. Thanks John & Earnest

A question: I don't understand the use of the "minus sign" in some chords. What is that?

TIA

[Earnest Bovine]

G-7 = Gm7 = G minor seventh = G Bb D F

[Don Walters]

Thanks, Earnest.

So the question arises; why use 2 different types of notation for the same thing, in the same piece?

Not being critical, just wondering...

TIA again ..

[Earnest Bovine]

<SMALL> why use 2 different types of notation for the same thing, in the same piece?</SMALL>

I think that's because I copied what John had done (one way) and changed part of it (the other way).