Duck baker fingerstyle blues guitar 101
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MEL BAY PUBLICATIONS, INC. #4 INDUSTRIAL DRIVE PACIFIC, MO 63069 MB95068BCD by Duck Baker
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Transcript of Duck baker fingerstyle blues guitar 101
MEL BAY PUBLICATIONS, INC.#4 INDUSTRIAL DRIVE
PACIFIC, MO 63069
MB95068BCD
by Duck Baker
© 2004 BY MEL BAY PUBLICATIONS, INC., PACIFIC, MO 63069.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT SECURED. B.M.I. MADE AND PRINTED IN U.S.A.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any formor by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.
Visit us on the Web at www.melbay.com E-mail us at [email protected]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
1 E Blues Line # 1 ............................................................ 7
2 E Blues Line # 2 ............................................................ 8
3 Baby Let Me Follow You Down ................................. 24
4 Blues In A .................................................................... 28
5 The Jackson Stomp ...................................................... 31
6 Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor ............................... 40
7 Sister Kate .................................................................... 48
8 Seven Point One .......................................................... 53
9 Still Staggerin .............................................................. 58
10 The Dirtman Cometh ................................................... 63
11 The Deep Blue C ......................................................... 67
12 The Mighty Midget ...................................................... 75
CD CONTENTS
3“First song I ever played was the blues. I didn’t know much but I knowed that much. After a whileI begin to play the E blues, the D blues, C blues, A blues, and G blues. That was all there was to it.”— Scrapper Blackwell, in an interview with Art Rosenbaum
CONTENTSIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Blues in E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6E Blues #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6E Blues #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
An Idiot’s Guide to Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Major Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12The Dominant Seventh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Upper Interval Chords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Turnarounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
E Blues Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Baby Let Me Follow You Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Blues in A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27A Blues #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Blues in C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30The Jackson Stomp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Blues in G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Sister Kate Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
E Blues Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Seven Point One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
A Blues Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Still Staggerin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56The Dirtman Cometh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
C Blues Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66The Deep Blue C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
G Blues Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74The Mighty Midget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
INTRODUCTION
In the context of traditional folk music, blues as we know it is a very new form. The classic 12-bar form evolved during the early years of this century, and while there are clearly Africanantecedents of presumably ancient origin, the harmonic underpinnings of all but the most basic bluesmark the music as Afro–American. How far back into the 19th century the origins of this musicalstrain (as separate from ragtime, spirituals, and other early black music) can be traced is an area forscholars to fill in as best they can. The point remains, however, that in terms of traditional music, acentury or so is a short time. Modern composers can, of course, stretch the limits of their constructionsuntil they literally do not exist; their predecessors indulged in ever more-extended forms culminatingin Wagnerian cycles which take days to perform. But the folk song has to make its point, and quickly.Dance tunes are usually constructed of 8-bar sections and the standard 32-bar popular song (also of8-bar sections) is a far longer structure than most folk songs.
Contemporary culture is geared to the notion that even last year’s tunes are passe, so it bearsreinforcing the point I want to start with. Every form of American music in this century, except forsome free jazz and free improvised music, is an extension of forms which existed by the 1920s, ofwhich the popular song form and the blues are the newest. This is true of New Orleans jazz, swing,be-bop, gospel, bluegrass, rhythm and blues, and even such hybrids as Western swing and rock androll. Not one of these styles can even be imagined without the vital element of the blues.
It is much easier, however, to talk about “blues” as either a structure or a kind of musicalflavoring than it is to define the parameters of the music called “blues”. Even a term as geographicallyspecific as “Delta blues” means little musically, lumping together players as diverse as Son House,John Hurt, Sam Chatman, and Skip James. Hurt, for instance, played a guitar style that was not at allrooted in folk inventions but in Victorian parlor music. Nonetheless, his early recordings have adefinite African feeling to them that has eluded his many imitators. Chatman’s band, the MississippiSheiks, played in a jug-bandish style that included elements of blues, ragtime, minstrel tunes, andearly popular songs. Their composition “Sitting on Top of the World” remains popular with bluesplayers but also crossed over to Western swing by 1940, and then, sometime later, to bluegrass. TheWestern Swingsters were particularly prone to cover race recordings (as well as just about anythingelse) and often did a great job of it. Milton Brown, for instance, was a hell of a blues singer.
Of course, black musicians in the South always learned from whites as well. Many spiritualssound like syncopated Scottish folk songs (a fact which people who puzzle over Stephen Foster’sability to write “plantation” songs without ever going South would do well to consider). Just hearingpianos would have opened all kinds of doors for people who didn’t previously think chordally. Doorsthat lead, ultimately, to ragtime, stride, and jazz. The glorious truth of the matter is that all whiteAmerican music has black elements, all black American music has white elements, and it is exactlythis integration that makes American music great.
My own feeling is that music that is not open to other styles is in danger. A lot of contemporaryblues, jazz, rock, and country is tired and formularized, largely because each little world isincreasingly cut off from the others. As far as blues goes, I get the sense that a lot of young playerswho are taken with the music wind up in the hands of teachers who consider themselves expertsbecause they try to imitate old recordings without getting the feeling. A better approach in my mindis to let our own imaginations enter an area whose dimensions have been defined by the great mastersof the past. There are lots of musical ideas that fit well into that framework that Delta players didn’tuse. Of course there are many that don’t, notably the tendency of younger white players to rock-and-rollize the blues. One purpose of this book is simply to provide a whole lot of new licks that can beused in old contexts (and hopefully give ideas for other new licks). There are ideas that are swing andeven country-oriented, but I have stopped well short of anything truly “modern”—though all thereally great modern jazz players are great at the blues, from Miles and Monk to Coltrane and Ornette.
Another basic purpose is to expand knowledge of the instrument for the student. A lot of what’shere was designed to address specific problems that students have, like the tendency of the rightthumb to only approximate what it is he’s supposed to be doing (with apologies to all you southpaws,who are, I hope, sufficiently habituated to right-handed chauvinism to be able to make the necessaryadjustments without too much pain).
In laying things out according to key, I am following the lead of not just Scrapper Blackwell butof the great majority of traditional blues players, who learned by figuring out licks in various keysand then constructed their arrangements and improvisations around those licks. (I haven’t includeda D blues because I’ve never used D much for solo blues playing except for some D-tuning pieces,which seem a little out of the way for our purposes.) Nowadays students can buy books that showjust what people like Robert Johnson were doing, and of course this is a great aid. The idea here issort of a compromise: a book that teaches according to the system of self-taught ear musicians.
I have included a section which aims to de-mystify “theory”, by which we mean the analyticalside of music. I’m well aware that some people are suspicious of any musical analysis and think thatit’s opposed to the “feeling” side, which in one sense it is. This doesn’t mean, however, that knowingtheory prevents a musician from being soulful, any more than having a big vocabulary preventssomeone from writing a love letter. It’s true that there are many players who seem to be hung up withthe analytical or technical aspects so much that they are boring musically, but there are probably evenmore boring players who have no grasp of analysis or technique. Still, in recognition of the fact thatsome people really have a block and not just a prejudice when it comes to theory, there will be noproblem in completely bypassing such analysis as there is if you start to have an allergic reaction.I’ll add here that the biggest problem with theory is that it’s hard to communicate. It’s really no morecomplicated or difficult than the rules to a board game. Being analytical does actually use a differentpart of your brain than music itself does, and I think for some people that gives them an almostphysically uncomfortable feeling. I’ll just say that you can get over that aversion if you try, and ifyou don’t feel like getting over it, that’s fine too. All theory does is makes things easier.
I hope that students who are used to the classical convention of designating left-hand positionsaccording to the lowest fret being used won’t be too put out by the fact that I don’t use this system.It always seems very arbitrary to me (talking about third or fourth position on a fiddle, by contrast,seems to convey something definite). So what classical people would call a first-position C, I just calla normal C, or straight C, or anything else that renders the idea.
One final point: The pieces here range from intermediate to very advanced, as far as degree ofdifficulty is concerned, but none of them are extremely difficult all the way through. The idea hereis as much for you to pull out passages that you can use someplace else as to learn the pieces as written.If, for instance, the first part of “The Mighty Midget” is beyond your reach for the moment, don’t skipall the rest of it, most of which is considerably easier. Generally, the simpler tunes are at thebeginning, and techniques that may be new are discussed when they occur and references back towhere they occur are made only a couple of times afterwards, if at all. The design then, is to workthrough from start to finish rather than as a collection of pieces, though you are of course free to cutin wherever you wish. Just remember if you encounter a technique that seems hard in the middle ofthe book that it may have been covered in detail earlier.
All kinds of people have helped me develop my understanding of this music since LarryMcCullough first showed me how he’d figured out “Mississippi Blues” from a Library of Congressrecord in 1965. I sometimes wonder if I’d have ever gotten anywhere without having known BuckEvans in those days, for instance. But to confine what could be a very long list of people to those whohave helped me in specific ways with this project, I want to gratefully acknowledge the assistanceof Jerry Ricks, Lynn Abbott, Stefan Grossman, Joe Ayers, Art Rosenbaum, Craig Fox and TomBaker.
6
`
BLUES IN EE is the most popular key for blues jamming, for the simple reason that it’s a great key for guitar
blues. The fact that in a three-chord blues you have the open 5th and 6th strings that you can droneunder two of the three chords certainly has something to do with it. So does the fact that so much goodstuff has already been worked out in E.
Here are two fairly simple 12-bar tunes that will hopefully introduce some new ideas.
E Blues #1
The tune starts with a hammer-on that comes at the same time as a bass note. If this is new toyou it may take time to familiarize yourself. With your left middle finger already down on the 2ndfret of the 5th string, play the open 3rd string, and then when you hammer with your index finger onthe 1st fret, hit the open 6th string at the same time. The left index finger and right thumb go together,which may be a new kind of coordination to get used to.
The hammer in the second bar is quicker and comes after the bass note. Here we start with anA minor 7th shape
_then hammer on with the ring finger on the 2nd string, 2nd fret, for a normal A7 shape. Hold this shapeand finger the notes that follow with your pinkie. Similarly, in bars 3–4, go back to the two-fingerE7 shape we started with, and hold that while getting the other melody notes with your ring fingerand pinkie. Bars 5 and 6 are out of the A7 shape until the last note, which starts a little run that beginsindex-middle-ring on the high string. By the end of bar 7 we’re back to E7 again. In bar 9, hold anormal B7 and then, without moving either your ring or index finger, let your little finger go to the3rd string, 3rd fret, and then back again, while your middle finger goes over to the 6th string for thethird bass note. It’s back to A7 for bar 10, before a turnaround based on the following shapes:
_ _ _ _E Blues #2
“E Blues #2” starts with a monotonic (which is a fancy way to say one-note) bass line. Themelody notes over it are all fingered with the left index and middle fingers. The index moves fromthe 1st to the 2nd fret of the 2nd string at the beginning of the 2nd bar, so you can reach the 5th fretof the high string immediately after with your pinkie. Note that, in bars 5–6, all the notes on the 5thfret of the top 4 strings are fingered with the index finger, but it’s not really desirable to bar thesestrings. Just move the index finger where and when you need to — this is more how you wouldimprovise a line like this than holding a bar shape would be. In bar 7, we start by building up an E9shape, then move the ring finger from the 2nd to the 3rd fret of the high string and make an A7.
The passage that needs the most attention starts with the last note of the 7th bar, which we wantto fret with the left pinkie, 4th fret, 1st string, while the index finger gets the 2nd fret of the 5th stringfor the bass note at the beginning of bar 8. The index finger then comes to the 2nd fret, 2nd string,for the note that goes with the 2nd bass note (open A). This frees our middle finger to get the 3rd bassnote on the 4th fret, 6th string, and the next one, one fret down. The ring finger gets the 3rd fret ofthe 3rd string at the same time. These same two fingers then move down to the 2nd fret, where in bar9 we get ourselves into a recognizable B7 shape. Likewise bar 10 is built around a standard A7 —if you start with your middle finger anchored on the 2nd fret, 4th string, you’ll eventually wind upwith your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 2nd string.
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9
AN IDIOT’S GUIDE TO THEORY
Major Scales
If you hum a note and then let your voice slide up to the note an octave higher, you actually touchon innumerable points between, but Western music divides that octave into 12 tones. On the guitar,the frets do the same thing. The process by which the tempered scale, as it’s called, was arrived atdoesn’t concern us here. All we need to know is that there are 12 notes, of which every key uses 7to form its basic scale.
At this point, let me expand on a comparison I made in the introduction between learning theoryand learning a board game. In both cases, the rules are simple, and in both cases the question “Why?”is superfluous. Why are there 7 notes in a scale instead of 5, 6, or 8? Well, in fact, there are 5-, 6-,and 8-note scales but in learning the basics it’s the basic 7-note scale we use. Why is that the basicscale? For our purposes, we won’t consider that question any more than you would ponder why, inMonopoly®, you can’t move your piece counterclockwise.
We can get that basic 7-note major scale out of the 12 tones by starting at any tone andproceeding up as follows: a whole tone, another whole tone, a half tone, a whole tone, a whole tone,and another whole tone. Another half tone from that brings us to the note that’s an octave higher thanthe note we started with. Confusing? Then let’s break it down. A half tone (or half step) is the distancebetween a note and the one next to it. A whole tone (or whole step) consists of two half tones. It helpsthat the tones have names: A - A� (B� ) - B - C - C� (D� ) - D - D� (E� ) - E - F - F� (G� ) - G - G� (A� ).
Notice that, if we leave out the flats (� ’s) and sharps (�’s), we have 7 tones to correspond to theletters A - B - C - D - E - F - G. You would expect that to be our basic scale, but for a reason I’ll haveto give later, it isn’t. The basic scale using these notes starts on C. Now look again at our formula forderiving a major scale: whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step. If westart at C, we move up a whole step by skipping C� (which would only be a half step). Our secondnote is D. Then we move another whole step by skipping D� to E. Next we want a half step, whichis F. (As for why there is no E� or F� , don’t ask why — it just works out that way, as it also does forB� and C� .) Proceeding along by whole steps, we add G, A, and B, and our major scale C - D - E -F - G - A - B is complete. It will sound more complete when we go up another half step to C, an octaveabove the note we began with.
It’s impossible to explain why this process of building a scale is so important, and if it all seemsstrange at this point the only thing to do is get an instrument and play it and hear it. It will certainlysound familiar. The song that goes, “Doe, a deer, a female deer”, taught to young students tofamiliarize them with the major scale, may prove helpful if you remember it, especially if you knowthat Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do are Italian names for C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. If you have accessto some kind of keyboard, this scale looks like this:
C D E F G A B C D E F G A B
On the guitar, these notes can be found starting with C, 3rd fret, 5th string. Then play open D,E on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, and F on the 3rd fret. Then play the open 3rd string for G and Aon the 2nd fret of that string. Finally, play the open B string and your higher C is just a half step, orone fret, higher.
An easier way to see what’s going on with the guitar is to play an open string and proceed upthe fretboard using our formula for finding a major scale. There is, of course, no C string in standardtuning, but we’re ready to find some other scales anyway, so let’s start on the open G string.
10
Remember that each fret we move up is a half step, so for our first whole step we go to the 2nd fret,which gives us A. Another whole step means 2 more frets, which will give us B on the 4th fret. Nowwe want a half step for C on the 5th fret. Next we have three whole steps, so we’ll move 2 frets eachtime, for D on the 7th fret, E on the 9th, and F� on the 11th. The 12th fret will give you your octavehigher of G.
When we played open G and then the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, and 12th frets, we got the Gscale: G - A - B - C - D - E - F� - G. If we play the same frets on the other strings, we’ll also get thecorresponding scales. Try it. After the G scale, play the D which is D - E (2nd fret) - F� (4th fret) -G (5th fret) - A (7th fret) - B (9th fret) - C� (11th fret) - D (12th fret). If we begin on open A, our scalewill be A - B - C� - D - E - F� - G� - A. Starting with E, we get E - F� - G� - A - B - C� - D� - E. Finally,with B, we’ll have B - C� - D� - E - F� - G� - A� - B.
If you’re confused reading this, then get your guitar and play the scales on the indicated fretsto hear what they sound like. It’s always the sound itself that’s important, but we have to give namesto correspond to the sounds in order to describe the relationships between them. You should be ableto hear that the major scale has the same sound to it no matter what key you play it in. (The key isdetermined by the note you start with.)
Since this pattern we call a major scale can be applied to any of the 12 tones, it’s useful to beable to talk about this pattern without reference to a particular key. Classical musicians do this bygiving names to each step in the scale. The first note is called the tonic, the second the super-tonic,and we continue with the mediant, sub-dominant, dominant, sub-mediant, and leading tone. For ourpurposes, the only names we use very much are the tonic and the dominant. We can thank jazzmusicians for the simpler method of referring to the steps of the scale by their number, like the second,third, or fourth, or even just the 2, 3, or 4.
Now let’s look at what we’ve got so far. Here are the major scales we’ve described, with thenames for all the intervals (which is what we call them, in this case always meaning the interval fromthe tonic).
Key of C G D A E B
I Tonic C G D A E B(whole step)
II Super-tonic D A E B F� C�(whole step)
III Mediant E B F� C� G� D�(half step)
IV Sub-dominant F C G D A E(whole step)
V Dominant G D A E B F�(whole step)
VI Sub-mediant A E B F� C� G�(whole step)
VII Leading Tone B F� C� G� D� A�(half step)
VIII Tonic C G D A E B
Be sure you’ve got a good grasp of what’s been covered before going on.
At this point, we have the notes to correspond to six major scales. One simple fact needs to bestressed: Each letter gets used once, and only once, when making up our scales. We don’t ever havescales that use, for instance, an F and an F� , nor are there any which don’t have any F at all. This factwill soon lead us to some odd places.
11
So far, we haven’t seen any flats at all, because the keys corresponding with the open stringsare all sharp keys. This is why string players tend to favor sharp keys (while wind players usually likeflat keys, which is where their basic scales lie). Let’s look at the other scales anyway, just to see whatthey look like — in fact, it will be a good exercise if you try to figure them out yourself, then checkand see how you did.
Key of F B� E� A� D� G� or F�I F B� E� A� D� G� F�II G C F B� E� A� G�III A D G C F B� A�IV B� E� A� D� G� C� B
V C F B� E� A� D� C�VI D G C F B� E� D�VII E A D G C F E�VIII F B� E� A� D� G� F�
The reason for the order the keys have been given in will be seen clearly later, but basically withboth the sharps and the flats we started with keys closely related to the key of C, then moved furtheraway. Don’t worry if that seems strange for now, but notice how each scale moving from left to rightin our charts adds either a sharp or a flat. The key of F has one flat note in it, B� has two, E� has three,and so on until we get to G�, which has six (in other words, only one note in the scale is not flat).Likewise the sharp keys: G has one sharp tone, D has two, A three, etc. The key of G� can also becalled F� — it’s just as big a mess with six sharps in it. Notice that in the scale for this confusing keywe actually have C� and E� . This is due to the rule of only using each letter once, so we can’t haveB� followed by B, or F followed by F� . The reason for this rule is that writing music on the staffdepends on it. Luckily, neither F� or G� is used very often.
We should be ready to move on from the major scale, but I want first to suggest a method forfamiliarizing oneself with the intervals. Ultimately we want to hear what interval a note is from thetonic just by recognizing the sound of it. A good way to develop this ability is to take simple tunesand sing them to ourselves, substituting the numbers of the intervals for the words of the songs. Forexample, “This Land Is Your Land” would go, “1, 2, 3, 4, 4; 4, 1, 1, 3, 3; 3, 1, 1, 2, 2; 2, 1, 2, 3, 3;1, 2, 3, 4, 4; 4, 1, 1, 3, 3; 2, 2, 1, 7, 5, 7, 2, 1. The 7 and 5 in the last phrase are in the octave belowwhere we started. You can do this with any simple familiar tune. “O Christmas Tree” begins 5, 1, 1,1, 2, 3, 3, 3; 3, 2, 3, 4, 7, 2, 1; etc. “Happy Birthday” is 5, 5, 6, 5, 1, 7; 5, 5, 6, 5, 2, 1; 5, 5, 5 (anoctave higher), 3, 1, 1, 7, 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 2, 1.
You can of course do this with any tune, but you will want to start with very simple ones. Notall songs use the major scale, after all. There are various ways to alter that scale that are commonlyused, and we will begin to look at those in a moment. First, however, we’ll take a look at major chords.
12
Chords
We have seen how we make scales by taking 7 notes from the 12 in the octave. To make chords,we take notes from the scale and play them together. The notes in the major chord are the first, third,and fifth in the scale. They can be played in any order. For example, look at a basic E chord on theguitar: Holding this shape
_and playing each string from bottom to top (in terms of pitch, that is — NOT what is the lowest stringphysically) we get E - B - E - G� - B - E, which in terms of intervals would be 1 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 1. Thecommon C chord
_gives us E - C - E - G - C - E, or 3 - 1 - 3 - 5 - 1 - 3. Anyone who’s confused should refer back to thescale to see where the numbers are coming from.
Of course not all chords are major chords, nor all scales major scales. Minor chords differ frommajor chords because the scales for minor chords are altered relative to the formula by which wederived our major scales. In a minor scale, the third note is flatted, so that between the second andthird notes there is now a half step instead of a whole step, while the interval between the third andfourth becomes a whole step. The minor scale usually also features a flatted 7th and often a flatted6th. Let’s consider the A minor scale which has, besides the flatted 3rd, a flatted 6th and 7th. Ournormal A major scale is A - B - C� - D - E - F� - G� . Flatting the 3rd, 6th, and 7th gives us A- B- C- D - E - F - G. This, by the way, was what in medieval times was thought of as the basic scale, whichis why it is the one which starts with A. It’s hard not to reflect that the somberness we associate withminor keys might have seemed normal to that grim epoch. A minor is called the relative minor of Cand shares its key signature (no flats or sharps). The relationship between a major chord and itsrelative minor is an important one, albeit a little out of our range of focus here. To get a taste of whatit’s about, try playing these chords and their relative minors a few times: C - Am, G - Em, F - Dm,D - Bm. The relative minor of any major chord begins with the 6th note in the scale of the major.
Let’s look again at our A minor scale: A - B - C - D - E - F - G, and take the 1st, 3rd, and 5thnotes to make an A minor chord. The notes we get from the standard A minor shape
_are E - A - E - A - C - E, or 5 - 1 - 5 - 1 - 3 - 5. My purpose in spelling out what the intervals in thesecommon chords are is not to demonstrate a pattern, but the lack of one; as I said, it doesn’t make anydifference what the order is. There is a value, however, in noticing what the intervals are in otherchord shapes you use regularly. What “theory” is often about is giving names to relationships youalready understand.
So now we have two kinds of chords with three notes in them, the major chord and the minorchord. These are called “root chords”, because so many chords are made by adding to the basic 1 -3 - 5 root. C 6th, for instance, consists of the 1 - 3 - 5 C root plus the 6th note of the C scale, whichis A added to C - E - G. An A minor 6th would start with the A - C - E root and add the 6th note ofthe A minor scale, F� . (Note that the scale implied by this does not have the flatted 6th of the A minorscale we looked at earlier. Minor scales are pretty evenly divided about 6ths, but this won’t cause realproblems.) A somewhat confusing fact is that when we add the 7th note of the scale to the root chord,we don’t get a 7th chord but a major 7th chord (major here referring not to the 3rd but the 7th). ThusC - E - G - B is a C major 7th. C 7th is C - E - G - B�, which logically we would expect to be calleda flatted 7th, since that interval has been altered from our major scale configuration. I suppose thatthis is because 7th chords are so much more common than major 7ths, and, back when these thingswere being worked out, major 7ths must have been rare indeed. They don’t get used in blues at all,except in passing.
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13
The Dominant Seventh
The 7th chord, on the other hand, is extremely important, because of something called“resolution”. Resolution is the most important feature of what’s called horizontal harmony, whichis about how chord progressions work. (It is so-called because it refers to how written music developsleft to right. Vertical harmony refers to notes played at the same time and hence written over oneanother. Our discussion of chords is about vertical harmony, but now when we start to talk aboutchord progressions, it’s horizontal.)
Take the guitar and play a G7 chord, then a C chord. The way that that G7 leads back to that Cis crucial. For hundreds of years in classical music you pretty much couldn’t play a G7 without goingto a C (or C minor). There’s a wonderful story about J. S. Bach being such a deep sleeper that nothing,including slaps and screams, could rouse him. Finally the solution was found: one of his sons wouldplay an unresolved 7th chord and hold it while the old man tossed and turned until eventually hewould rush from his bed to play the resolution. An apocryphal story, but one that illustrates howimportant that resolving chord change is in the development of Western music.
This is as good a place as any to point out what some of you may be already thinking: namely,that blues music is not classical music and some of the rules are different. In blues, we often bendstrings to get notes in between the 12 basic ones, and we can play G7 all day without ever going toC if we want to. Even when we’re doing things that are completely different, however, it’s useful tobe able to describe the difference, and even in a standard, three-chord, 12-bar blues we do useresolution. Ragtime-type progressions depend on it still more.
In the C scale, G is the 5th note, and we can call the corresponding chord a V chord or dominantchord. The 7th chord, which as we have seen is used when resolving from the dominant chord to thetonic chord (as G7- C), is often called the dominant 7th chord. We can also talk about other chordsaccording to the interval they correspond to. The most important, beside the I and the V, are the IVand the VI. Most three-chord progressions would be the I - IV - V type (C - F - G, E - A - B, G - C- D, etc.). Now it’s time for a quick look at that famous musical mandala, the circle of fifths.
THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
resolution
Here we have the 12 tones arranged around a circle like the hours on a clock face. Starting atC where 12 would be, we move clockwise to the tone (or key) a fifth up from C. A glance at our Cscale (C - D - E - F - G) shows us that will be G. The next note moving clockwise, D, is a fifth up from
E� A
D�A�
B� D
E
BF�
(G�)
F
C
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14
G, and so on. There are any number of musical relationships that can be seen with this diagram; wewill just look at a few of the most important ones. Notice how the direction we move when resolvingis counterclockwise: G - C, D - G, B - E, etc. A point which can cause confusion is the reciprocalrelationship between the fourth and the fifth: G is the fifth of C (C - D - E - F - G), while C is the fourthof G (G - A - B - C). Thus when we resolve from G7 to C, we are moving up a fourth, but resolvingby a fifth.
Let’s look at the circle again, this time indicating the number of flats or sharps that occur in themajor scale of each note on the circle (these are called “key signatures” and indicate the key inwritten music).
The statement made earlier about the order in which we considered the major scales beingaccording to their distance from C is clearly illustrated here. What we did was move around the sharpside clockwise (G - D - A - E - B) and then down the flat side counterclockwise (F - B� - E� - A� -D� - G� or F� ). Each step we move clockwise adds a sharp to our scale or removes a flat, while eachstep counterclockwise adds a flat or removes a sharp. Let’s consider this a moment because it givesus a way to apprehend what resolution is.
Back when we discussed the dominant 7th chord, it was described as the major I - III - V rootplus the flatted VII. What this means is that we have altered our scale; the distance between the 6thand the 7th is now a half step, while the distance from the 7th up to the octave becomes a whole step.The G major scale is thus changed from G - A - B - C - D - E - F� - G to G - A - B - C - D - E -F - G. What we’ve done is change the one note that made the G scale different from the C scale. Oneway to understand resolution is to think of that alteration creating a tension which can only beresolved by moving to the tonal center implied when we use the scale with the flatted 7th — in thisway we move from G7 to C, or from D7 to G, or, for that matter, from F� 7 to B.
There are any number of ragtime-blues tunes that have progressions like A7 - D7 - G7 - C(starting with A7 but resolving to C) or E7 - A7 - D7 - G. Glance at the circle to see how theseprogressions work. Actually it’s more accurate to think of it as one chord progression put into twodifferent keys. Again, if this seems strange, get the guitar and play the chords above and see if youhear how the progression feels the same in either key. To transpose this progression into any otherkey, look at the circle and pick any key at all. Then go three steps clockwise and play the dominant7th chord of that note, followed by the 7th of the next note moving counterclockwise, the 7th of thenote after that moving counterclockwise, and finally the major root chord of the note you started with.Resolution by fifths is not the only kind of motion we can have in chord progressions by a long shot,but it is the most important, and the dominant 7th is also crucial in vertical harmony, as we’re aboutto see.
E� A
D�
B� D
B
F
C
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A�� � � � E � � � �
F�(G�) � � � � � �
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15
Upper Interval Chords
Many of the chords with names that frighten the uninitiated, like 13ths, 7ths with augmentedfifths, raised or flat 9ths, etc., are all extensions of the dominant 7th that function like dominant 7thsand, in most cases, you can just think of as dressed-up dominant 7ths. I’m going to show how thesechords are derived even though the more exotic ones wouldn’t be used in any but a very modern kindof blues. The main reason is that by the time we see where the ninth comes from, which is a very usefulchord, we’re halfway there. I also figure it’s worth a little time just to be able to know what theseseemingly intimidating creatures are actually made up of. It should be said, however, that there aremany more of these chords used in blues tunes than one might expect.
Up to now we have only discussed intervals up to the octave, or VIII. We can, however, go intoanother octave as well. When we add these notes from above the octave to a chord, we get what’scalled an “upper interval chord”.
The way we’ve built most of our chords up to now has been by leapfrogging over the even-numbered intervals, I - III- V for the root and I - III - V - VII for the 7th. Let’s continue this processby skipping the octave to go to the next note which is the 9th, then make two more jumps for the 11thand 13th. Here is what this will involve using the G7 scale:
I G
II A
III B root chord
IV C
V D
VI E
VII F seventh
VIII G
IX A ninth
X B
XI C eleventh
XII D
XIII E thirteenth
There are no intervals higher than 13 to consider, since we’ve now used up all the notes in thescale with our leapfrogging; one more jump would bring us back to G. Note that when we play upperinterval chords, we don’t usually want to play all the notes that we hit jumping up the intervals. Wedefinitely do not want the 3rd under the 11th, for instance, and there are any number of other finepoints that could be considered. What’s important is the point we began with, that the 9th, 11th, and13th are extensions of the 7th.
Just as we altered the major scale to get minor chords and 7th chords, we can alter the upperintervals, which will give us the weird-named chords. Here’s a more complete list of upper intervalpossibilities.
16
I G
II A
III B root chord
IV C
V D
VI E
VII F seventh
VIII G
A� flat ninth diminished, often
IX A ninth
B� raised ninth
X B
XI C eleventh 7th suspended 4th
D� raised eleventh 7th flat 5th
XII D
E� flat thirteenth 7th augmented 5th
XIII E thirteenth
In order to avoid confusion we will refer to chords like � 9’s as 7�9’s, so that, for instance, anA chord doesn’t get taken for an A�. Admittedly this is getting pretty far from Charlie Patton, andonce we’ve gone over these additional possibilities we can wrap up the theory section. The mostinteresting of these chords in many ways is the flat 9th, which could be played
_This could be used to get a passing tone between A and G on the high string. Notice how the
top 4 strings are holding a diminished chord shape. There are times when the diminished really is aflat 9th with the root lost in the shuffle, though the diminished functions in other ways, too. The raised9th has a distinctive sound that Jimi Hendrix used to kick off “Purple Haze”.
For the rest, I’ve given the names that the 11th, raised 11th, and flat 13th are usually called by,though I could take issue with all of those names, since they include intervals below the octave andto me the fact that they include 7ths shows them to be upper interval chords. Anyway, there they areand if I’ve helped anyone overcome an inferiority complex acquired by listening to jazz players talkshop, it’s been worth it. I do hope that all of this analysis will prepare you for the relatively simplepractical applications that follow, starting with a look at how to find some new turnarounds.
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17
TURNAROUNDS
In each of our “E Blues” tunes, we encounter a figure in the last 2 bars that seems to make adecisive resolution to E before going to B7 at the end of bar 12. These are called “turnarounds”, andare a particularly fascinating aspect of blues playing. Jazz tunes have turnarounds, too, but they arenot quite as important a feature of that music. Nor do they jump out the same way as bluesturnarounds, which seem to imply a great flurry of harmonic activity right at the culmination of chordprogressions which have moved slowly up to that point.
It seems likely that the blues turnaround evolved from ragtime-type music. Joe Ayers, a Virginiamusician at the forefront of the revival of minstrel music who is also a fine blues player, performsa pre-ragtime banjo tune from the 1840s called “The Japanese Grand March”, which features whatmay be the earliest form of a blues turnaround.* It works by going from A to A7 to D to D minor,then back to A. For those of you who braved the theory chapter, it would be going from the I chordto I7 to IV to IV minor, then back to I. In the key of E, that would be E - E7 - A - A minor - E. Rightnow, we will examine what must be the absolutely most commonly used blues turnaround with twoaims in mind. The main aim is to see if we can, with a minimum of analysis, figure out how to expandfrom that and find some other ways to voice the same turnaround. Secondarily we’ll see if we canunderstand what is happening in the chord progression. Afterwards we’ll look at some otherturnarounds more briefly.
We want to start with a standard D7 shape moved up 2 frets to make an E7. After playing thefretted strings over the open 6th-string bass, we move the shape down by a fret and play the samestrings again. The shape moves down by another fret and then there’s a standard E major, againpicking the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th strings. Usually this is all followed by going to B7, but for now wewon’t be concerned with that. Here’s what this turnaround looks like in music and tab:
Now let’s add another E bass note on the 4th string, 2nd fret. This will change our chord shapesbut not the flavor of what we’re doing. Our shapes look like this:
_ _ _ _*Anyone interested in hearing what this and other minstrel music sounded like should write to
Tuckahoe Music, P.O. Box 146, Bremo Bluff, VA 23022.
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And the music/tab:
As will be the case with much of the work we’ll do in this book, it’s the chord shapes that wewant to focus on here. You can vary things a lot just by playing the high strings one at a time indiffering patterns instead of all at once.
Let’s take a look at what we’ve actually got here. The first E7 chord shape on the top 4 stringsgives us (from the 4th string to the 1st) E - B - D - G� , or, in terms of intervals, 1 - 5 - 7 - 3. The nextchord looks like a standard diminished shape, but for now let’s just think of it as the second turnaroundchord — we’ll worry about what it is later. The third chord, which we’ll also get around to naminglater, is gotten by again holding the 4th-string E and moving everything else down 1 fret. Then wehave an E major chord. So what we have is an E7, with a 1 - 5 - 7 - 3 configuration, followed by achord that flats everything but the I, which would be 1 - � 5 - 6 - � 3. The third chord will give us1 - 4 - �6 - 2, while the final E major is 1 - 3 - 5 - 1.
What we are going to do now is move up the neck of the guitar and find other shapes that willfunction the same as the ones we’ve looked at. Not that there’s anything wrong with those shapes,but they do get played often enough that a little variety would seem desirable. I also hope to showwith this a practical application of our theory discussion, the better to get you interested in using it,hopefully.
For what we’re doing here, the order in which the intervals occur, like 1 - 5 - 7 - 3, doesn’t matteras long as they’re all there. The next E7 to be found moving up the neck on the top 4 strings is
_In terms of intervals that’s 3 - 7 - 1 - 5. We know that we want to hold the I where it is and move
the others down a fret, and doing so gives us
_Still holding the I and moving down another half step with everything else, we get
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^
An E major below that on the top 4 strings would be
_but the same notes are found more easily on the middle 4 strings:
_ or _In music/tab, this sequence looks like this:
The next E7 moving up the neck looks like an A7 shape moved up 7 frets:
_The configuration is now 5 - 1 - 3 - 7, so the note that won’t move down for the next two changes
is now on the 3rd string. The next shapes will be
_ and _Since there isn’t any sensible way to wind up with two E’s in our final E major chord in this
register, I’ve simply let this turnaround resolve to E7:
_
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There are any number of other ways to do exactly the same thing moving from E7 through ourtwo turnaround chords to E major if we use the lower strings. We’ll look at just one, to show howthe flavor changes but not the overall feeling.
It should be stressed that, besides all the turnarounds that can be found with this formula, youcan find many times more by only using some of the intervals instead of all four. It’s more common,for instance, to just use the 3rd- and 5th-string notes of the last turnaround we looked at, possibly overa droning low bass:
You can also jump from register to register, or make short independent melody lines over a bassor a bass plus a middle voice that descend according to the formula. The possibilities really arelimitless, though of course some discretion is necessary.
T-7 is similar to the turnaround in “E Blues #1”. It sound churchy, and is certainly related to theE7 - A - Am - E progression: here, E7 - A - C - E. It also continues its downward motion for longerthan the turnarounds we’ve considered up to now, getting to B7 with more subtlety than just walkingfrom A to B on the 5th string.
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We can also move the ascending line down and the descending line up.
I could, of course, fill the rest of this book and many others with turnarounds, but there are otherthings to get to and I think there is enough here as far as E turnarounds to keep everybody busy fora while. For that matter, those of you who have survived the dreaded application of the forbiddenknowledge of theory to the holy body of the blues can go on to other keys. Even if you didn’t get allthe theory, you may be able to use some of the shapes covered here up and down the neck. Becauseof this, I won’t go into a lot of turnarounds in other keys, but here are a couple in A. The first followsthe same formula as the first E turnarounds, but starts on a shape that would be uncomfortably highin E:
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The other A turnaround is much closer to what Delta players like Willie Brown did
Many of the tunes which follow don’t even use turnarounds. But there’s nothing to prevent yourusing licks from an 8-bar tune like “Follow You Down” and a 16-bar like “Pallet on Your Floor” withturnarounds like those here and making up your own E blues, C blues, G blues, etc.
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E BLUES AGAIN
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
This song has a long and checkered history, originally as “Baby, Let Me Lay It on You” but bestknown by the title given above, as it was called by Dylan and other revivalists who recorded it in the’60s. My favorite version is by New Orleans R&B king Professor Longhair, who did it as “Baby, LetMe Hold Your Hand”.
The melody shouldn’t present many problems at this point. Bar 5 uses two E shapes and bar 6two B7’s, but they should all be familiar by now. Bar 7 does have an unusual A7:
_The first variation begins by building up an E9
_from open strings. The A7 in bar 3 is built on a half bar on the 5th fret with the index finger; we’vealready seen this very useful shape. In the next measure we grab the bass string on the 6th fret whilestill holding the rest of the shape. Bar 5 is tricky but not really difficult. With your index fingeranchored on the 2nd fret of the 4th string, slide the ring and little ringers from the 3rd to the 4th fretof the 1st and 3rd strings. Then keep the ring finger down but lift the pinkie and play the two openhigh strings. The slide then repeats, but this time the bass note comes with the slide, much like thebass note/hammer-on combinations discussed in “E Blues #1”.
The ring finger and pinkie then move down to the 3rd fret and finally to the 2nd, where a B7 isformed. When they return briefly from there to the 3rd fret, be sure your index finger doesn’t leavethe 1st fret of the 4th string. The run in bar 7 sounds hard but it’s easy to do. Just watch the doublepull-off on the high string over the third bass note. The bass note goes with the first pull-off, thenthere’s another pull to the open high string.
Variation 2 is based on a sliding chord that will sound familiar to Chicago blues fans. When theshape moves down 2 frets, the chord changes from a 6th to a 9th. These slides are much easier onelectric guitars, but with practice sound good on acoustic. Notice how the right-hand index fingerpicks the 4th string in the bass riff after the slide in bars 1–2. Bar 4 has our first honest-to-goodnessknuckle-buster lick, featuring pull-offs on two strings while the string between gets a hammer-on.This just takes a lot of work — to start with, get the two pull-offs together, and you can leave thehammer-on out until you get it down.
I don’t think what follows is difficult. Be careful that the last note in bar 6, B on the 4th fret ofthe 2nd string, is part of the shape that follows — a half bar with the index finger. Phrases in bluestunes often begin with the last note of a measure rather than with the note right after the bar line, sothe corresponding chord may have to be in place before the bar line, as well.
Bar 7 is harmonized in 6ths. It begins with a normal, two-finger A7, but the notes on the 2ndfret of the 1st and 3rd strings require an index-finger half-bar so we can get the subsequent notes withthe middle and ring fingers. As for the right hand, use the index and ring fingers for the notes on the1st and 3rd strings, and either the index and ring or index and middle for the 2nd and 4th.
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BLUES IN AA Blues #1
A lot of this tune is based on an A made by barring the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings on the 2nd fretwith the index finger. We start by sliding the whole chord up from the 1st fret, even though we’reonly playing the 2nd string at that point. We then hold that shape while using the other fingers overit in bar 2 and slide up to it again as we come into the 3rd bar. At the end of bar 3 we drop the A shapeand by bar 4 have a normal A7. The rest of the first variation is straightforward enough, even if thesliding A7 and A are a new idea. This blues gets by with no turnaround, but notice how the right indexfinger alternates with the thumb where the turnaround would go, in bar 11.
The sliding chord idea is taken further with the beginning of the second variation, with shapesthat should be familiar by now, at least until we get to the last A9. At the end of bar 7, after hammeringon from the 1st to the 2nd fret with the index and middle fingers, leave your middle finger down andget the next two hammer-ons with the index and ring. We get the E7 shape in bar 9 by holding theindex finger on the 2nd fret of the 4th and 5th strings while the little finger slides up the high string.We put down the middle finger on the 3rd fret, 2nd string, and the ring on the 4th of the 3rd to completethe E7, then move them both up one fret for an unusual D7.
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BLUES IN CThe Jackson Stomp
This blues comes from an old-time string band called The Mississippi Mud Steppers, but it’sclosely related to a lot of old tunes. In this incarnation it works out to be a 22-bar blues, which is ofcourse unusual. The double-time feel would make it a 24-bar tune, but when it moves back from Fto C in bar 13, there are just 2 bars of C instead of the 4 you would expect.
We start with single-note runs that are played by alternating the right thumb and index finger.This is a very useful way to play single-note runs, especially for bass runs. Some players do all oftheir single-note playing this way. I especially associate it with Rev. Gary Davis but lots of bluesplayers have used it, as have traditional country pickers like E. C. Ball and Wayne Henderson.
We start normal fingerpicking in bar 9 with a simple F chord
_that gets a little less simple when the little finger goes to the 4th fret of the 2nd string while we holdthe rest of the shape. Just get used to it — it’s one of the things you need to do when playing in C.You also have to be able to get your pinkie to the 4th fret of the 2nd string while holding a C chord(bar 19 and elsewhere).
Also in bar 19 is a sort of ripple effect made with the right-hand fingers. Instead of playing thetop 3 strings together with the 5th-string bass note, the index and middle fingers precede the ring,which goes with the thumb. This is a very useful technique and is easy once you get the hang of it.It’s not a question of picking the strings in rapid succession but rather a single, almost rolling motion,a bit like drumming the fingers but in the opposite direction from finger-drumming.
Bars 15–18 feature what I sometimes call the “secret chord” on the guitar, made simply byhooking your thumb over the 3rd fret of the bass string, which leaves four fingers free to find whateverthey can.
Some of you may have heard that in classical music the use of the thumb is a no-no, but this ain’tclassical music, and using the approach of one discipline as a yardstick for measuring another isalways a futile exercise. I usually improvise at this point in the tune, but the variations here containa lot of ideas I use to base things on.
Looking at the lead-in notes for the second variation for bars 1–8, we want to play the 6th-stringbass note with the right thumb, the open 5th-string note with the index finger, and the next 5th-stringnote with the middle finger, all in rapid succession. Next let’s look at the third variation for bars 1–8. When we’re playing a normal C chord and need to play an A note on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string,we reach behind the middle finger and fret that note with the index finger. This way the middle fingerstays anchored on the 4th string and we don’t have to worry about where it is when we need the 4th-string bass note. I strongly suggest making a habit of doing this, both with the C chord and with theG, where it also happens frequently, as we’ll see.
In bars 9–14 of the second improvised chorus, the left pinkie is busy flicking the 3rd and 4th fretsof the 2nd string on both a C and an F. This is a very quick flick, but not all that difficult once youhave that stretch to the 4th fret mastered. By the way, the improvised parts referred to were originallydone for my Folk Blues Themes video, in case anyone is wondering how improvised choruses arebeing written down. (I know the Beat writers experimented with stream-of-consciousness writing,but I’ve yet to hear about anyone writing music/tab that way.)
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&
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3rd Variation, Bars 15-18
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1
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38
39
Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
This is a good example of the kind of bluesy folk song that made up a great deal of MississippiJohn Hurt’s repertoire. This version differs from John’s from years of playing. This is as good a placeas any to point out that we really want to slightly vary the way we phrase a melody every time weplay it. You should first learn the tune exactly as written, then make up slight variations and learnthose. When you get to where you can decide which variations of the melody to play at the momentyou do it, you’ll start having ideas for other slight changes, too. Just keep it simple, and you’ll developthis ability, which is the intermediary step to learning to improvise. It’s also much more fun than roterepetition, but may take some time to learn to do.
After “The Jackson Stomp”, “Pallet” shouldn’t cause great problems. Do note the change fromF - D7 in bars 11–12. We move the thumb from the 1st to the 2nd fret of the bass string and lift thering finger to leave the 4th string open, but the index and middle fingers stay anchored where theyare. The “Jelly Roll” variation is so-called because it is based on a lick used by the great New Orleanspianist/composer Jelly Roll Morton in his wonderful piece, “The Pearls”. Here we have to make ahalf-bar on the top 4 strings with the index finger while holding the bass with the thumb. It’s cramped,but you get used to it. The E7 shape in bar 10 should be familiar by now; we move it all up a fret inthe next measure for F7. The next bar features a very useful diminished shape:
_This shape is probably the best diminished chord going as far as fingerpicking is concerned.
The second variation is played entirely out of familiar positions, as is the third, but let’s take alook at the 3rd bar. This is a normal C chord, but the index finger now has to reach the 2nd fret ofthe high string, then slide down to the 1st fret. While the middle finger stays anchored on the 2nd fretof the 4th string, the ring finger moves to the 3rd fret of the bass, and the pinkie is getting ready togo to the 4th fret of the 2nd string. This is just not an easy bar to play. The good news is that the middlefinger doesn’t move. There may be easier ways to finger this passage but we always want to hold ourshape, both because it makes things easier in the long run and also in case you want to learn toimprovise variations on the melody.
The E7 in bar 10 is related to shapes we’ve seen before
_and as has happened before, it simply moves up 1 fret to F7 in the next bar. Our first F in the 4thvariation is like the secret chord we saw in “Jackson Stomp” — it consists of only the thumb. Therelease on the choked 2nd string should be as slow as possible.
^`21`3
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MAKE ME A PALLET ON YOUR FLOOR6
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47
`̀ `̀
BLUES IN GSister Kate
I’ve heard that this tune was written by a very young Louis Armstrong, who sold all rights tothe sometimes overly entrepreneurial pianist/composer/publisher Clarence Williams. This versionis really just variations on the progression, however, so it doesn’t much matter who wrote it.
We start with a straight D shape, and then go to a G that bluegrassers like a lot
_but doesn’t get used very often in fingerpicking. The ring finger doesn’t move when making thechange.
The break in bars 7–8 has notes on the 3rd fret of the 2nd and 3rd strings that we get with thering and middle fingers. In this case, we don’t want the notes to ring out for long; be sure to lift thefretting fingers as soon as the next note is played. There are any number of ways to finger the passagefrom bar 11 to bar 12, so choose your own poison. Note that for the change from C to A7� 9 in bar13, the middle finger doesn’t move.
Be very sure about your bass note alternation when we go to the second variation. The firstvariation began 6th string - 4th - 5th - 4th, but this time we have 5th - 4th - 6th - 4th. This is especiallyfor those whose thumbs tend to think for themselves. Be careful with this tune and a lot of thattendency will be cured.
There’s a transition chord in bar 2 made by simply moving the index and middle fingers up afret from D7. The break in bars 7–8 is not difficult, but watch the right-hand fingers and the timing.There’s a tricky passage going from bar 12 to bar 13. The pinkie needs to slide from the 4th to the5th fret on the 2nd string as the index finger lays down for a full bar on the 3rd fret. Finally watchhow, in bars 15–16, the index and middle fingers move up and down the fretboard together while thethumb holds the secret chord.
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51
E BLUES AGAIN
Seven Point One
The most basic kind of blues progression that gets used much in E would be something likeE / E / E / E7 / A7 / A7 / E / E / B7 / A7 / E / B7. (If you’ve never looked at chord progression writtenout this way, just count four beats for every bar line. In cases where there are two chords per bar, eachgets two beats unless otherwise indicated by accent marks.) The first “E Blues” tunes in this bookboth have an added change or two, starting with going to A in the 2nd measure of each. “E Blues #1”also employs a passing chord (A7� 9 or E diminished) in the second half of bar 6, and both haveturnarounds in bars 11–12.
The progression we’re going to play next looks like this: E - E7 / A - Edim / E / E7 / A7 / A7/ E / C�7 / F� m7 / B7 / E - G / F� 7� 9 - B11. This is the kind of progression that jazz players tend touse, but the roots go right back to ragtime/blues players like Blind Blake and Bo Carter. In fact, whenwe think of early blues composers like W. C. Handy and the music of performers like Ma Rainey whoworked the black vaudeville circuit at the turn of the century, progressions like this that move aroundthe circle of fifths may be older than the simpler progressions like the first one we looked at here. (Theidea that Delta blues is the original blues may well be an assumption of recent folklorists whosesources are usually each other.)
“Seven Point One” is a fun tune to play despite being named for an earthquake I got a sort offree ride in. Of all the tunes I’ve made up to teach students blues licks, it’s the only one I performregularly (I’ve also recorded it on Opening the Eyes of Love, available from Acoustic MusicRecords). The bass line at the beginning is just like what the great country picker Jerry Reed did inhis famous tune “Blue Thumb”, and if it sounds anything at all like Jerry, so much the better! He’sbeen known to sound earthquakish himself at times.
Start by sliding from the 2nd to the 4th fret of the 3rd string with either your ring or middle finger,and grab the second bass note with your thumb. You need to finger the E on the 2nd fret, 4th stringin bar 2 with your middle finger so that the index is free for the second bass note. Notice next howthe right thumb jumps quickly from the 4th to the 6th string in bar 3, and from the 5th to the 6th inbar 4.
There’s a trillish figure on the high string in the 7th bar that you’ll want to fret with the indexand middle fingers. When you get the timing for this and get used to the bass note that comes in themiddle of it, it’s not hard to do. The next chord, C� 7, is just C7 moved up a fret.
The trickiest passage is in bar 9. The shape we need is
_which is somewhat cramped but it’s the right hand we really need to look at. Pick the 3rd string withyour right middle finger at the same time as the first bass note, then roll quickly with the index, middleand ring fingers on the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd strings. This is a lot like the right-hand ripple we saw in “TheJackson Stomp”. Next move your right-hand fingers over and make the same roll on the three highstrings. The bass note on the 5th string comes at the same time as the high-string note.
I use my thumb to fret the bass notes on the turnaround, which is more modern-sounding thanthe ones we’ve had up to now. It’s also the take-off point for the first variation, which has an unusualE9 shape in bar 1:
_
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The next 2 bars are sticky but negotiable enough, if we’re sure to end bar 3 by following a normalA7 with the index finger on the 6th fret, 2nd string. From there it’s easy to get to Bm7:
_and then B� 13:
_Things calm down after that until we get to bar 9, which isn’t difficult, but be sure to start with
this F� m shape:
_The C9 in the last bar is most easily done without the ring finger half-bar that’s usually the best
way to finger 9ths. This time use all your fingers:
_The second variation starts with a series of high-string chords that’s pretty demanding:
_ _ _ _ _ _Bar 3 features a tricky passage which moves between these shapes
_ and _before moving through E11:
_to E9:
_The next few bars shouldn’t cause great problems, and there are various ways to finger bars 9–
10, as long as you’re sensible. Do notice the last A9 shape
_and be careful to bring your right ring finger from the 1st to the 2nd string when playing it.
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SEVEN POINT ONE
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A BLUES AGAIN
Still Staggerin’
Like “Seven Point One”, “Still Staggerin’” uses a chord progression that moves around thecircle of fifths: E - C� 7 - F� m7 - B7 in one case, A - F� 7 - B7 - E7 in the other. If these chords areunfamiliar, remember that in C or G, the progression would be C - A7 - D7 - G7 or G - E7 - A7 - D7.Actually, “Still Staggerin’” is an interesting progression all the way through. It’s based on JerryRicks’ version of “Stagger Lee”, which is based on several others. Hence the title.
This one starts with familiar shapes for the first few bars. At the end of bar 5 and into bar 6 aretwo F� chords:
_ and _Bar 7 features a pull-off that changes a B9 to a familiar diminished shape:
_ _The trick is laying the index finger down for the half-bar on the 1st fret without losing the sound ofthe note it was holding on the 4th string. This is somewhat difficult but something we need to be ableto do in advanced playing.
This tune features a hook in bars 13–14 that goes from A to D to A to F� +5. There are severalways to finger this last chord, but I use
_We begin bar 15 with a B9, and then the pinkie has to stretch to the 4th fret, 4th string, without
the ring and middle fingers moving. If this phrase sounds familiar, it’s been used in dozens of songs,from “Fishin’ Blues” to “I’m Beginning to See the Light” to “I’ve Got the Hongries for Your Loveand I’m Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line”.
I used to hear a harmonica player named Ray Bonneville play a line like the one that starts thesecond variation, and I think of him whenever I play it. If anyone runs into him tell him “Hi” for me.Start with your left index and ring fingers and then slide your ring finger from the 4th fret of the 3rdstring up to the 6th. Get the next two notes on the 2nd string with the middle and little fingers. If youmake a full bar on the 4th fret with your index finger, the rest of bar 2 should fall into place.
The key to bars 4–5 is that the middle finger stays anchored at the 6th fret of the 3rd string onceit gets there. Also note that the index finger doesn’t bar the three high strings but moves from oneto the other. We wind up in bar 6 with the index finger on the 5th fret, 2nd string, the middle fingerstill holding the 6th fret of the 3rd, and the thumb reaching around for the bass note on the 6th fretof the low string. Then the index and middle fingers walk their way down the frets until they get tothe 2nd and 3rd, while the thumb jumps ahead to the 2nd fret. This is awkward but not as hard as itmay seem at first. The next few bars are familiar shapes.
Variation 3 is based on chord riffs alternating with high-string runs in what’s called a call-and-response pattern. The A7 and D7 shapes in bar 1 should be familiar, but notice the trick of puttingthe E bass under the D7 — you can get a lot of mileage out of that. The melody notes in bar 2 are allfretted with the ring and index fingers, and the rest of the runs shouldn’t be hard to work out until latein bar 6, when the index finger goes to the 6th fret of the 3rd string so that the middle finger can slidefrom the 7th fret to the 8th as we come into bar 7. When it gets there we need to have a full bar down
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on the 7th fret, which puts us in position for the B9 and E7 that follow. Similarly, in bars 10–11, thelittle finger slides up the 2nd string from the 6th to the 7th fret as the index finger bars the 5th fret.
Our hook is now an octave higher, so we need to work out of
_For the D that follows, the index and middle fingers stay where they are while the little finger
moves over to the high string. The C9 shape that follows in bar 14 is used as a substitute for F� +5.
The last variation gets back to alternating bass lines in shapes we’ve seen by now. Note that the12HP1PO figure in bar 4 is out of a normal A7, and bars 5–6 are a bar chord.
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62
The Dirtman ComethAs you might guess from the title, this tune would not be played in an ivory tower. Its main feature
is right-hand slapping techniques that give the illusion of percussion accompaniment. Brazilian andflamenco players aren’t any shier than bluesmen about hitting their instruments, but they have differentways of doing it. What we’re trying to do here is replace the bass notes on the 2nd and 4th beats of thebar with slaps. First you have to learn just the slap, and then there are a couple of ways to make the slapwhile playing melody notes. It’s interesting that British guitarists like Martin Carthy and Nick Joneshave incorporated this approach into their tradition while most Americans have neglected it. A notableexception is John Miller, whose very evolved slapping style inspired me to try it.
It’s particularly hard to describe techniques like this in words, so I’ll again mention that myGuitar Aerobics video does include this tune before taking the plunge. When we slap, we curl ourfingers and hit the strings with everything above the first joint, from the knuckles to the fingernails.To begin with, don’t move your arm at all but bend the wrist back from your normal playing position.If your thumb feels lost, put it against the index finger just behind the first joint (at least to get started;once you get the hang of it, it will be in that general area but probably not right against your finger).Don’t back your wrist up too far — your thumb shouldn’t go past about a 45-degree angle. Now slapdown and hit the strings hard enough to get a sound but no harder than necessary. Try to get used tothat, then to alternating between slaps and bass notes (see the 1st bar of the intro).
The next thing to watch out for is the fact that many of the bass notes in the intro are played withthe right index finger, not the thumb. The thumb only plays the notes on the beat, while the index getsthose in between. This happens in bar 2 of the intro, and then the last note of that bar comes at thesame time as the slap. We do this with our thumb pushed against the first joint of the index finger asdescribed earlier, much as if we were holding a flatpick. Strike the string with the tip of your indexfinger using enough force to get the slap (your other fingers may slap other strings, too) but withoutoverplaying. I strongly suggest spending a lot of time with this intro before moving on.
We begin the melody with a slide on the 2nd string from the 3rd to the 5th fret, for which weuse the ring finger. Actually the middle finger needs to hold the 4th string and slide parallel on thesame frets even though we don’t play on that string (intentionally, anyway). This is done because withslapping you often hit strings besides those indicated, so we sometimes go ahead and fret those likelyto be hit so that it won’t sound wrong if they are. We can also muffle strings; in this case it’s a goodidea to let the left middle finger touch the 3rd string enough to keep it from sounding. So there’s afew things to think about that aren’t indicated at all in the music or tab, but at least you don’t haveto change the chord shape for the first 2 bars — just fret the high-string notes with your index fingerand pinkie. The second note in bar 2 comes at the same time as the slap. We do this with what is prettymuch a strum, hard enough to get the slap sound. You may need to lift your right forearm an inch orso from the face of the guitar to get a little extra force into this.
The 3rd measure starts simply enough with two C’s in a C7 shape, but to get the first slap wehave to utilize the pseudo-flatpick technique described earlier. Then you have to immediately pickthe open 3rd string with your index finger. Bar 4 is very similar.
In the 7th measure, we have to pick the open 3rd string and then immediately cross over it withthe index finger for a pseudo-flatpick-style slap on the 2nd string. The last new technique is the strumin bar 8. We get a double-time up-stroke by strumming up with first the middle, then the index fingers.This is very useful as a fill or in back-up playing.
The bridge starts with a C7 shape moved up 2 frets for D7. At the end of the first measure ofthe bridge the left index finger simply moves up a fret, almost behind the other fingers, which don’tmove. The last 2 bars of the bridge are a G7 with the thumb fretting the bass string, ring finger onthe 5th fret of the 5th string, and index finger on the 3rd fret of the 4th, but it’s once again the righthand to pay attention to. The middle finger picks the 3rd string, which is easy to start with but getsharder when it follows the pseudo-pick slap on the 5th string.
It’s a lot of fun, though very tricky, to try to improvise this way, and I’ve included theimprovisation from the video mentioned. I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow here, but the mainproblem when playing licks over the bass note/slap alternation is that you can’t avoid hitting morestrings than one at times. You have to learn which other strings don’t sound wrong (open G, forinstance). It isn’t called “The Dirtman” for nothing.
63
THE DIRTMAN COMETH
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66
C BLUES AGAIN
The Deep Blue C
The structure here is a little unusual. The basic idea is that of the classic 32-bar A - A - B - Aconstruction that so many thousands of standard pop songs use, not to mention a host of other kindsof tunes, including the one we just looked at. With this piece, however, the first A has 16 bars, andis really a repeat of two 8-bar segments, as if the tune were going to develop into a 64-bar structureof 16-bar sections, but then the B and last A are 8 bars only. So it’s really A - A - A - A - B - A, 48bars. I mention all this in case it seems an unusual length to anyone; it is, but it feels natural once youget used to it. There are swing and even country-oriented ideas here, but I would still think of thisas a blues tune.
There are probably enough challenges involved in just playing this tune to keep most people toobusy to worry about such technical considerations, however. Many of the shapes will be familiar, butthere are some new wrinkles. The first thing we need to look at is a right-hand technique that involvesalternating the index and middle fingers over an alternating bass. Let’s look at the 7th measure (D7with your thumb fretting the bass string). The three melody notes played at the same time as bass notesare picked with the middle finger, while those in between bass notes are picked with the index. The7th measure of the bridge continues this idea for the whole bar. This technique is essential foradvanced fingerpicking since your individual fingers can’t go twice as fast as your thumb, but melodynotes often do. We can use hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides to get around this but not always, andthis alternating fingerpicking is a good tool to have in the box in any case. It can give a real explosivekind of sound, for one thing.
Let’s look at the bridge. Be sure we’re holding F7 with the index finger barring the top 4 strings,as we did in “Pallet on Your Floor”. In the second bar the pinkie gets a real workout getting the noteson the 3rd and 4th frets of the 2nd string while the rest of the shape doesn’t move. Note that the secondtime the pinkie goes to the 4th fret, it’s a hammer-on. The bass run in bars 2–3 is thumb–indexalternation as seen in “Jackson Stomp”. This particular run has been used by a lot of people, but Ialways associate it with Leadbelly.
The second variation to “The Deep Blue C” is one of the happiest-sounding things I’ve everwritten — which is strange because I was pretty miserable at the time. Why it is that upbeat tunescome from downbeat times I can’t say, but they often do. Our starting C bar chord has been seen in“Jackson Stomp” and elsewhere, but this time a lot happens from that shape, and then from an F7 barchord. Once you’re used to all that, you’ve got to make a very fast shift to A7� 9 at the beginning ofbar 6.
The second A in this variation is a little easier since the hardest passages have been seen before,like bars 9–10 (“Pallet on Your Floor”). The bridge has some tricky moments, however, in bars 2–3. We start with a bar that initially covers five strings but shifts over halfway through the measureto leave the 5th string open. In the next measure, the bar has to shift again to cover all six strings whilethe pinkie hammers on the 2nd string, 5th fret. Simultaneously the ring finger goes to the 5th fret ofthe 4th string to be ready for the next bass note.
This is fairly advanced playing, and if it doesn’t come easy, don’t be worried. It’s worthplugging away on a piece like this one even if you never get it down, because just trying it will doa lot for your dexterity. I should also say that once you get used to things like this, it’s really not thatbad. In fact this is a fun tune to play, though I admit there are a few passages that are real easy tomess up.
67
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2 3
74
G BLUES AGAIN
The Mighty Midget
This title is taken from a long-time landmark in Leesburg, Virginia, not so much a food-to-gorestaurant as a trailer with a stove in it. It wasn’t haute cuisine but its presence in a town full ofoverpriced restaurants and antique dealers was reassuring before it was forced to move in 1994.
The first variation here is just plain hard, based on two shapes that really stretch the left hand:
_ _The only thing that may make this easier is to put a capo on the 2nd fret, but even then you’ll probablyneed to use the “secret chord” position for a long time before this will work. That your hand willstretch in time is the good news. And if you try this, the other shapes with your thumb fretting thebass string will feel easy.
The second variation starts with an example of the kind of swing and country-flavored licks thatWestern swing players introduced to blues playing. This is not easy stuff but should be understand-able if you’ve looked at “Deep Blue C.”
The third variation combines alternate fingerpicking with a strum that’s a little like our slappingfrom “Dirtman” but easier. Elizabeth Cotton and others employed similar right-hand pick-strumpatterns. Here we pick with the thumb and middle fingers together and then the index. Next strumdown with the index and middle fingers together, and finally pick with the index again. When youcan keep this pattern going, take a look at bar 7. Here the pattern is just bass notes and strumming.
In bar 8 we’ll make this more interesting. Instead of both the middle and index fingersstrumming up simultaneously, the middle finger comes first with the index immediately after beforemaking the down strum together. We saw this double-upstroke strum in “The Dirtman Cometh.”
Variation 4 is the easiest one here, based on these shapes:
_ _ _ _ _The last variation requires some alternate fingerpicking in the first few bars and is generally a
good workout, but it’s based on normal G, C and D shapes. We wind up with the bass pattern we hadat the beginning of the piece, but it’s easiest to get this with the middle finger fretting the 6th stringand then switch back to the thumb when we start over.
G – C D7
21̀
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