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Blues Playing – Tackling the I – IV movement
Usually, when playing the blues we tend to make a limited number of
scale choices in order to achieve our blues ‘vocabulary’ whilst
improvising. In order to achieve the sound of the blues we tend to
limit ourselves to the following scale choices: ‐
1 – The minor Pentatonic/Blues Scale – our blues ‘primary colour’.
We tend to use the minor pentatonic or blues scale built from the
root of the key our blues is in.
2 – The major Pentatonic – think BB King and a generally brighter
sound. This scale follows the root notes of each chord as they change
meaning we need to be able to move the scale around on the fret
board to make it work with the blues progression. In this sense this is
a more difficult scale choice to work with.
3 – The Mixolydian scale – This is our most sophisticated sound thus
far and the most complicated to work with. Again, the scale follows
the root notes of each chord being transposed in order to fit the
relevant chord we’re soloing over at the time. Again, this makes this a
more difficult scale choice to use for soloing.
Here are some examples of a blues in the key of G using the above
scale choices.
The chords in a basic 12 bar G blues are as follows: ‐
I chord = G7
IV chord = C7
V chord = D7
Here is the progression 3 times with the scale choices outlined
above.
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1.) G Minor Pentatonic/Blues Scale
2.) G, C & D Maj Pentatonic Scales
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3.) G, C & D mixolydian scales
So far all of these are great scale choices and give us a great blues
sounds but something is lacking. Music is all about tension and
release and so far we’ve not really created much tension in our blues
solo using the above scales.
If we look at the first 6 bars we can see that we have 4 bars of G7
followed by 2 bars of C7. This is our I chord (G7) moving to our IV
chord (C7). We could drastically improve our soloing by creating
some tension during this long G7 section, specifically when it moves
to the C7 chord in bar 5. We can create this by using other scales with
more tension notes in bar 4 to set up a tension that resolves when we
settle on the C7 chord in bar 5. By concentrating on just these first
two chords we can develop an aural awareness of this
tension/resolution so that it becomes part of our repertoire over the
blues progression. Tension notes are usually sharpened or flattened
notes against the chord. Specifically, flatted or sharpened 2nds, 3rds,
4ths, 5ths and 6ths, all of which are normally natural intervals in a
dominant 7th chord.
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Let me give you some examples by way of some common scale
choices for the 4th bar of our blues progression that will set up this
tension and release.
1. G Superlocrian (Ab melodic minor) 1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7
2. G diminished (half/whole) 1, b2, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7
3. Bbm Pentatonic b2, b3, #4, #5, b7 (against the G root note)
Here are those scales written out for you.
All of these scales contain these altered tension notes referred
to above. Try playing the scales in the 4th bar of your blues
progression over the G7 chord. You’ll hear that these scales
contain many tension notes that require resolving when we
move to the C7 chord. By creating this tension and resolution
we are creating forward motion that doesn’t exist naturally in
the progression. I’m sure you’ve heard this sound before and
it’s familiar to your ears. Now you must learn the scales
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2010
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required and practice using the I‐IV blues backing track
provided to create lines which resolve to the C7 chord in bar 5.
The key point is to resolve your lines well in order to have the
listener understand and hear the resolution of the tension
you’ve just created. All of the notes in these 3 scales will
resolve up or down to a chord tone of C7. Practice resolving
each tension note individually to one of these chord tones in
order that your ears can hear where each note wants to resolve
to. That way you’ll be able to create lines using the scales that
naturally move from the G7 chord to the C7 chord without
sounding forced or awkward.
Good luck!
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©COPYRIGHT
TOM
QUAYLE
2010