Blues Theory Pdf
Bartolome Beacham
When dealing with a blues situation, you can generally draw on the Master Blues Scale as a primary source of pitches. Then you can add color notes to the blues, which are generally context dependent. Color notes are any notes that we discussed already, but which are not in the Master Blues Scale.
In this article, I will introduce the basic 12-bar blues form and discuss common harmonic and melodic variations. I've found the study of the blues form useful for beginning improvisers as well as music producers who are struggling with chord progression ideas. Sometimes, it's hard for producers learning to sculpt arrangements to know where to begin, so I've often used the blues form in my production classes as a starting point. The blues is the rich musical tradition born in the American south that has grown and morphed over a hundred years into the many genres of music we listen to today including pop, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. So, understanding blues form as a player or composer can help you understand other song forms as well.
The basis of the 12 Bar Blues is made of 3 triads: The tonic chord, sub-dominant chord and the dominant chord. These are the major chords in a harmonized major scale. If we express this is in the key of C, then the I or tonic chord is C, the IV or sub-dominant chord is F and the V or dominant chord is G. Roman numerals are often used to express the number of the chord within a scale. As I continue, I will assume that you have basic knowledge of scale and chord theory. To make things a little easier for those of you who may be beginning theory learners, I will keep my examples around the key of C.
Now, the basic major triads work fine at first, especially for beginners. For piano players, you can start with triads as you get used to playing the chords with one hand and then add the melody in the right. When you add the blues scale as the melody, the triads still work quite well.
The use of the dominant 7th chord takes home key out of C major and gives the blues progression a more ambiguous feel as it rides between major and minor. The dominant chord is constructed from the basic major triad above with an added minor 7th. The minor 7th is the interval that takes us to a different scale. This is enhanced further with the addition of the blues scale and dominant scales.
Let's look at the way the blues scale is constructed. The basis of the blues scale is the minor pentatonic scale that is constructed from a major scale with this formula: 1, b3, 4, 5, b7. In a minor pentatonic scale there are 5 notes (hence the name!) with the 3rd and 7th flat and the 2nd and 6th left out. In order to make this a blues scale, a #4 (or b5) is added above the root of the scale. So, the blues scale formula looks like this: 1, b3, 4, #4, 5, b7. The sound of the tri-tone gives the blues its signature melodic sound. This special note is also called the 'blue note'. In the key of C, our blues scale is as follows: C, Eb, F, F#, G, Bb, C. The blues scale contains the minor 7th interval notes from our dominant 7th chords, so any melody created with this scale will fit nicely over the chord progression. In fact, you can play any note in the scale at any time during the progression and it will sound good. This is a great place to start for musicians who want to improvise either on a solo instrument or on piano.
Although the blues scale works well and can be used exclusively, professional blues players access more than that to create masterful melodies and solos. In fact, they try not to use the blues scale all the time but offer up that coveted 'blue note' at an emotional high point in the solo or melody for example. It's definitely more challenging to incorporate the three dominant or mixolydian scales into a solo without sounding lost or too busy while soloing. The good news is, the scales share many common tones so you just have to be careful of which notes to stay away from over certain chords. Or, access the blues scale in those moments. The 2nd and the 6th of the scales are reintroduced in the dominant scales so that the soloist can express a full range of emotion.
One of the most common variations is substituting the IV7 chord (or the F7 chord in the case) in the 2nd measure. Also, since the form often repeats many times during a performance, the V7 (or G7 chord in this case) can be used in the last measure to help carry the form back to the beginning (as you saw in Figure 1). In blues rock, the V7 is used in both the 9th and 10th measure instead of dropping to the IV chord sometimes. This is not demonstrated below but another variation to consider. Chromatic chord movement is used to spice up the chord progression. It's common for keyboard or guitar players to 'slide' down a half step between the V and IV chords in the 9th and 10th measure as another way emphasize the chord change.
I would suggestion playing around with this form by setting up a simple beat in your DAW at a comfortable tempo and practice playing through the chords on your keyboard to get a feel for the changes. You can use two hands for the chords if you like or for more advanced players, play the chords (or at least root and 7th) in the left hand and improvise with the blues scale in the right.
In part two of this introduction to the Blues, I'll go deeper into variations on the form and discuss the role of the bass as it relates to the development of jazz, keyboard voicing techniques and melodic examples.
Like the pentatonic, there are both major and minor blues scales. With its basis in the pentatonic scale, the blues scale is easy to learn and play, which contributes to its wide usage across musical genres.
As a general rule of thumb when practicing scales, you want to start on the root note. This helps enforce the sounds of the other scale notes in relation to the home, or root note, to establish a key center.
The diagrams below show the minor blues scale in the key of G minor. The scale patterns for both A minor and G minor are exactly the same, the only difference is the root note from which the scale is built. I chose two different keys to highlight this concept.
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The blues is an extraordinarily important genre in U.S. popular music. Not only is the tradition itself very old, with roots reaching back to the music of enslaved African Americans, but it continues to exert influence on 21st-century popular music.
The documentation on the history of the blues is quite limited due to its age, but the earliest blues songs existed in the late 1800s, and it seems to have grown out from earlier African American musical styles, such as field hollers and work songs, as well as microtonal and rhythmic characteristics of West African music. In this sense, although jazz musicians very frequently play the blues, the blues as a tradition has distinct origins from jazz. Jazz developed first in New Orleans through a mix of African, Caribbean, and European influences. The result of this distinction is that many of the truisms of jazz or tonal music do not hold true in the blues. Among the biggest harmonic differences are:
The 12-bar blues progression is composed of three phrases, typically four bars each. A major difference between the blues and more traditionally tonal music is that it emphasizes plagal cadences instead of authentic cadences. At its most basic, the harmony progresses as shown in Example 1:
A variation on the 12-bar blues progression. Typically composed of four four-bar phrases, usually two iterations of tonic, followed by subdominant and dominant. The final phrase may or may not end with a turnaround.
Typically comprises three phrases of four bars each. The first phrase is entirely tonic harmony (I). The second phrase contains two bars of subdominant (IV) and two bars of tonic (I). The final phrase begins with one bar of dominant (V) followed by one bar of subdominant (IV) and two bars of tonic (I). The third phrase may or may not end with a turnaround.
Quarantine has allowed ample time for musical exploration. I'm a classically trained pianist studying music in college, and I'm using this extra time to be immersed in and learn how to play the blues.
The most confusing aspect of this song is its mixing of major/minor blues scales. Even in the opening riffs, the song seems to switch between the two. The first little lick uses notes G, A, and C, going into a C7. The A puts it in the C major pentatonic/major blues scale category. Another 2 licks incorporates notes all from the C major blues scale, then he uses a lick that uses Bb instead of A (0:07). At what point is this just minor blues with an added sixth, and at what point is it switching between the major and minor blues scale. And, if it is all minor blues scale with an added 6th, how does one explain the constant use of sliding from Eb to E almost every time that note is hit (since E is not in the C minor blues scale). Is this merely a blue note leading into a chord tone?
Another point in this song that perfectly showcases this mixture is at 0:24. As the first 12 bar blues sequence goes into the V, Otis uses a lick that goes up chromatically (hitting each note in conjunction with a high C). The notes hit are C, D, Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G. It's almost as if both the major/minor blues scales are combined into one, composite, chromatic scale. How can this be explained?
I understand that blues is essentially a study in mixing major and minor simultaneously, but I'm confused about the how and the when; how do I know when to mix these two ideas, when does it get away from one or the other and turn into one seamless mixture?
Another song that mixes the major and minor blues scales is "Same Old Blues" by Freddie King. I worked this out on piano first and then on guitar when the bends proved... kind of impossible on piano. lol
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