Beyond 12 Bar Blues Bluesharmonica.Com Support Material Written by David Barrett

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Music Theory Study 6 Beyond 12 Bar Blues BluesHarmonica.com Support Material Written by David Barrett

Section 1 – Standard 12 Bar Blues

Chord Root Notes relative to Home Scale

Ex. 1.1 – Standard (Long Changes) I7 IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 V7 Example: “Temperature” Tongue Block Study 2

Ex. 1.2 – Quick Change I7 IV7 I7 IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 V7 Example: “The Split” Tongue Block Study 4

Section 2 – 12 Bar Blues Variations

Ex. 2.1 – 8 Bars of I7 7 i

V7 IV7 i7 Example: “Same Thing” by Muddy Waters

1 Ex. 2.2 – Starting on the IV7 IV7 I7 IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 Example: “Mystery Train” by Junior Parker (The Paul Butterfield Blues Band 1965 version is a little easier to hear the form than the Junior Parker original)

Ex. 2.3 – Stormy Monday Changes (we’ll study this later in the lesson) 7 7 7 I IV I7 ♭II7 I 7 7 IV I ii iii ♭iii 7 7 7 7 7 V ♭VI7 V7 I IV I V Example: “Stormy Monday” Bobby Bland Version

Ex. 2.4 – Bar 9 Option (Long V) V7 I7 V7 Example: “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry, Verses (not in the opening chorus if you’re listening to the original track)

Ex. 2.5 – Bar 9 Option ii7 V7 I7 Example: “Tell Me What’s the Reason” by T-Bone Walker and “Gary’s Blues” Tongue Block Study 3 (note that the transcription shows it as a V-IV-I, I didn’t want to confuse students at that skill level)

Ex. 2.6 – Bar 9 Option 7 7 7 ♭VI7 V i V Example: “Thrill Is Gone” by B.B. King

Ex. 2.7 – Turnaround Option (none) I7 Example: “T-Bone Shuffle” by T-Bone Walker

Ex. 2.8 – Turnaround Option I7 V7 Example: “Rock Me Baby” by B.B. King

Ex. 2.9 – Turnaround Option I7 IV7 I7 V7 Example: “Stormy Monday” Bobby Bland or Allman Brothers Version

Ex. 2.10 – Turnaround Option I7 VI7 II7 V7 Example: “Ain't Nobody's Business” by Jimmy Witherspoon

2 Section 3 – 8 Bar Blues

Ex. 3.1 I7 V7 IV7 I7 V7 I7 V7 Example: “Slow Down” by J.B. Lenoir and “Key to the Highway” by Little Walter

Ex. 3.2 I7 IV7 V7 I7 V7 Example: “Walkin’ By Myself” by Jimmy Rogers

Ex. 3.3A I7 IV7 I7 V7 I7 V7 Example: “Just Your Fool” by Little Walter (Verse)

Ex. 3.3B 7 7 7 7 IV I IV I IV7 I7 II7 V7 Example: Bridge for “Just Your Fool” by Little Walter (Most common bridge type)

Ex. 3.4 I7 IV7 7 7 7 7 7 7 I V IV I IV I V Example: “It Hurts Me Too” by Elmore James

Ex. 3.5A I I7 IV +ivdim 7 7 7 7 I VI II V I IV I V Example: “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” by Freddie King Version

Ex. 3.5B I III7 IV +ivdim 7 7 I VI II V I VI II V

Ex. 3.5C I III7 IV iv 7 7 I VI II V I VI II V

3 Section 4 – Other Forms

Ex. 4.1 – 16 Bar I7

IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 V7 Example: “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters

Ex. 4.2A – 16 Bar I7

IV7 I7 ii7 V7 I7 Example: “Hey Bartender” by Floyd Dixon

Ex. 4.2B – 8 Bar Bridge for Example 4.2A IV7 I7 7 7 7 ii V I Example: Bridge for “Hey Bartender” by Floyd Dixon

Ex. 4.3 – 20 Bar I7

IV7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 Example: “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy” by Howlin’ Wolf

Ex. 4.4 – 24 Bar I7

IV7 I7 7 7 V IV I7 V7 Example: “Big Boss Man” by Jimmy Reed

4 Section 5 – Transcribing Chords

One of the challenges of being Blues musicians is that most of the music we want to learn, sheet music is not available (sheet music shows the chords, lyrics and lyric melody). This leaves it up to us to figure out what’s happening in the song. Being that we are not chordal instruments, like guitar or piano, we’re not very good at figuring out the chords used in a non-12 Bar Blues song—but we do have some options, besides asking a guitarist or pianist (which you shouldn’t be embarrassed to ask… this is not our strong suit, but it is theirs).

Ex. 5.1 – Exercise: Download the jam track for “Walk With Me,” Tongue Blocking Study 1—don’t look at the transcription for the song. Listen to the jam track and make note where you hear the chord changes on the staff.

Ex. 5.2 – Listening to the track you heard the chord changes as happening in these places. The question now is what are the chords? We need some extra help here.

Ex. 5.3 – Exercise: Complete the G Major Scale and Chords below. At this point you should have the notes of your C Harmonica well memorized—but if you haven’t, also add hole numbers for one octave next to the pitches.

To figure out a chord by ear start with the root note of the song, G in this case. Playing 2 draw you’ll notice it matches well for bar 1. In most cases the first chord for the form of a song will be the I Chord— but we need to make sure—G is found in two other chords, the IV and vi Chords. To confirm that this chord is a I Chord, you’ll want to play B and D to make sure they match—in this case they do. In bar 2 the 2 draw G doesn’t match—so this rules out the I, IV and vi Chords. Your I, IV and V Chords are your go-to-chords, so your next best guess should be the V Chord, so playing D (1 draw) we find it does work. Again, don’t just stop there, you must confirm it by playing F# and A—and in this case they do match. Continue this process to finish working out the chords below.

Ex. 5.4 – Complete the Chart

Our final result is below. I’ve included some arpeggios for you to play.

Ex. 5.5 – Arpeggios

You now have an accurate map of the chord changes for you to solo over. If you’re an experienced player, this is all you need to give you a reference point to improvise. If no ideas are flowing, then use passing tones as a first step.

6 Ex. 5.6 – Passing Tones

If you want a more bluesy sound, add the ♭7th to each chord.

Ex. 5.7A – Major-Minor 7th Chord Arpeggios

If the ♭7th is too bluesy, try the Major 6th.

Ex. 5.7B – Major 6th Chord Arpeggios

7 Sometimes a mixture of the bluesy ♭7th and the Major 6th is the right choice.

Ex. 5.7C – Mixture of Major 6th and ♭7th

Let’s now add the passing tones for each chord. Note that the scale made is the Mixolydian Scale (Major Scale with a ♭7th).

Ex. 5.8 – Mixolydian Scales

If you want to get really bluesy, build a Blues Scale for each chord.

Ex. 5.9A – Blues Scales

8 Ex. 5.9B – Major Pentatonic Scales on I6 and IV6, with Blues Scale for V7.

Our example used our three common chords, but in a different order than we’re accustomed to seeing them used in. Let’s now look at a chord progression that uses more chords than our standard three, the famous “Stormy Monday” chord progression. Different versions exist out there in our music world, so let’s choose the Allman Brothers version. I’ll walk you though the process I use to approach a song. We already have a chord chart for what Bobby Bland did, so I’ll start there.

Ex. 5.10 – Stormy Monday Changes

7 7 7 I IV I7 ♭II7 I 7 7 IV I ii iii ♭iii 7 7 7 7 7 V ♭VI7 V7 I IV I V

With these chords in mind, I grabbed my C Harmonica and downloaded the Allman Brothers version from iTunes and played along. I noticed some areas of the progression didn’t sound quite right, so I then did a search for “Stormy Monday” and the Wikipedia link came up and this is what it showed…

Ex. 5.11 – Wikipedia Definition of Chord Changes

I’ll now spell out the notes on the staff.

9 Ex. 5.12 – “Stormy Monday” Chord Changes, Wikipedia Definition

The Wikipedia example didn’t explicitly state which version of the song was used for analysis (there are two recorded versions by the original author T-Bone Walker by the way), so I need to make sure it’s correct for playing to the Allman Brothers version. I do this by playing each note of the chord… one degree at a time. I suggest you purchase the song and do the same along with these examples.

Ex. 5.13 – Root Notes

10 All these root notes, except for the A♭ Chord, sound like they match—I’ll take the A♭ Chord root note out of my final listing—that’s if the chord is correct at all. Now we move on to 3rds…

Ex. 5.14 – 3rds

All of these notes match well, though note I had to switch to on E♭ Harmonica to play bar 10… E♭ is only found on an 8’+, so it was better to just switch harps for that. If you have a piano around, you could of course just play these notes on a piano, but I’m not going to assume everyone has a piano hanging around. Now on to 5ths…

Ex. 5.15 – 5ths

11 These 5ths sounded good. Now on to ♭7ths…

Ex. 5.16 – ♭7ths

The ♭7ths sounded a little dissonant to me as Chord Tones, except for bars 7 and 8 where they sounded really nice. I’ll leave the ♭7ths in my final listing, but I’m not going to use them as, “hold these notes and they’ll match well.”

Ex. 5.17 – 9ths

None of the 9ths sounded good to me as notes to sit on that match, so I’ll not include them in my final version, except for the ♭II9 Chord, since options are limited in that chord and a 3’ (B♭) will come in handy.

12 Overall the chord progression presented on Wikipedia worked great for us. Below is my final reference version.

Ex. 5.18 – Final Chord Progression

I don’t need to spend any time on the I, IV or V Chords—these are common chords to a Blues harmonica player—I’ll improvise those on the spot, but I do need to focus on the other chords. The following notation focuses on all of the note/hole options for these chords, as well as any preceding or following notes of the standard chords that will facilitate smooth transitions, specifically those that move by half step.

13 Ex. 5.19 – Final Sequence

This is a large list of options. The next step is to play one note a chord, followed by a note of the next chord, etc. Take the time to do this now. When you find some nice note combinations make note of them. I’ll do that as well for the next example.

14 Ex. 5.20 – Final Sequence Note Combinations

Try some of the note combinations I wrote above, improvising for the other areas of the form.

For More Information 1) Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad), Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_It_Stormy_Monday_(But_Tuesday_Is_Just_as_Bad)