Blues Rhythm Guitar Essentials Live Stream – Wednesday Aug 29th 2018 By Erich Andreas YourGuitarSage.com Click Here To Watch The Free Beginner Series Click Here for $1 Access to UGS and 365 courses Blues is one of my favorite genres of music, especially to play on guitar. For as fun as it is to play, it is surprisingly simple and lends itself to other popular genres such as rock and country. Like many, I first discovered the blues when I was a child. I loved to hear the instruments "shuffle" and swear that I could hear those guitars cry and feel the weeping souls of the players conveying the blues to me. Blues rhythm guitar is an easy yet exciting style to learn and is the backbone for many other popular styles of music. In this series, we are going to focus on four key areas that once explained will open up a whole new world of blues playing for you. Those areas in order are: 1. 12 bar blues 2. Building seventh chords 3. Boogie-woogie riffs 4. Boogie-woogie turnarounds I know the above subject matter seems a bit like I'm speaking in code but I promise you that playing the blues can be easy and fun if we break it down to its essentials as we will do here. I'm so excited that we are taking this journey together and that you are entrusting me with your guitar education. My promise to you is that I will deliver on these goods and with practice, you too will be playing blues rhythm guitar. Are you ready? Let's bring on the blues! 12 Bar Blues The “12 bar blues” (AKA “blues changes”) is one of the most popular chord progressions, not just in blues, but in all of popular music! The progression is based off of the 1, 4, 5 chords. As the name suggests, this chord progression has 12 “bars” or measures. This progression typically repeats and is a favorite among musicians and singers for improvisation and songwriting. There is also typically a “turnaround” in 12 bar blues. A turnaround is a motif (musical idea) occurring at the end of the chord progression denoting the end of the chord sequence and preparing the listener to hear the chord progression again. In blues, the turnaround typically occurs in the last two bars of the 12 bar progression. There are 1000s of songs based off of the 12 bar blues progression while other songs are strict 12 bar progressions. Here are just a few famous songs from that list: Hound Dog by Elvis Presley Blue Suede Shoes by Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley Rock and Roll by Led Zeppelin Tutti Frutti by Little Richard Red House by Jimi Hendrix Pride and Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan Scuttle Buttin‟ by Stevie Ray Vaughan La Grange by ZZ Top Tush by ZZ Top If you are not familiar with these tunes, check some of them out and you will notice how often this classic chord progression is used throughout popular music. Being familiar with it in every key will help make you a powerful blues player. You will always have something to “go to” when you pick up your guitar! I have included for you the 12 bar blues progression in several different keys and also in the Nashville Number System (or just “Number System”). If you are unfamiliar with the Nashville Number System, check out eBook1 at YourGuitarSage.com Your practice for this section of the book should include playing and memorizing each chord progression, being able to play them at varying tempos (slow, medium, fast) and with various feels. 12- Bar Blues In A In 4 12- Bar Blues In E In 4 12- Bar Blues In G In 4 12- Bar Blues (Number System) In 4 Building Seventh Chords There is an expression that says, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” That is to say, if I show you a chord and show you where to put your fingers on what frets, you could memorize the chord easily. But if I show you how to assemble chords from scratch, then I enable you for years to come. There are literally thousands of chords. So it‟s your choice: memorize each chord or learn a method of assembling them and save yourself hundreds of hours. How cool would it be if I could show you how to make a seventh chord out of every chord that you already know instead of having to memorize hundreds of chords, effectively doubling or tripling your chord vocabulary in one night? If your answer was anything close to “Super-uber-mega- cool!!!,” then HANG ON, because we are getting ready to rock! As a rule, shortcuts typically “cut” some stuff out and often times “short” you of the full picture. But you know that already, and that‟s why you are studying so diligently. So digesting this information, understanding the concept and putting it into practice may take extra time up front (the long way), but I promise you it won‟t take you nearly the amount of time it would take you to memorize a few hundred new chords (the “shortcut”). The definition of a seventh chord is a chord consisting of a triad plus a note forming an interval of a seventh above the chords root. There are seven commonly used seventh chords in Western music. You can easily master these first 3 (most often used) formulas - immediately doubling your minor chord vocabulary and tripling your major chord vocabulary. How cool is that? Take your time with these and get the first three formulas down before moving to the others (FYI-The three most popular formulas are Major 7th, Minor 7th and Dominant 7th.) Major seventh - for example Dmaj7, DM7, DΔ, etc. (these are chord symbols that you will see on charts) Formation -(1, 3, 5, 7): to easily convert any major chord into a major seventh chord, find a higher octave of the root and flatten it by a half-step (meaning, don't flat the lowest note - the root, but find a higher octave to alter). For example, play a D major chord. To convert this chord to a D major seventh, drop the high D on the second string back one half-step to Db (or C#). To play this easily, bar the second fret at strings 1, 2 and 3 while you play the 4th string open. Minor seventh - for example Emin7, Em7, E-7, etc. Formation - (1, b3, 5, b7): to easily convert any minor chord into a minor seventh chord, find a higher octave of the root and flatten it by one whole-step. For example, play an E minor chord. To convert this chord to an E minor seventh, drop the E on the fourth string back one whole-step to the open D. Then strum all the strings. Dominant seventh - for example A7 or A7 Formation - (1, 3, 5, b7): to easily convert any major chord into a dominant seventh chord, find a higher octave of the root and flatten it by 1 whole-step. For example, play an A major chord. To convert this chord to an A dominant seventh, drop the A on the 3rd string back one whole-step to the open G. Then strum strings 1 through 5. Half-diminished seventh - for example “D minor seventh flat five” Dm7b5, D-7b5, Do, etc. Formation - (1, b3, b5, b7): to easily convert any minor seventh chord into a half- diminished seventh chord, flatten the 5 by a half-step. For example, play a D minor seventh chord. To convert this chord to a D half diminished seventh chord, flatten the A on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string by a half-step, to an Ab (or G#). This chord can easily be played by barring strings 1-3 at the 1st fret and strumming strings 1-4. Diminished seventh - for example D°7, or Ddim7 Formation - (1, b3, b5, bb7 (or 6 - known as enharmonic 6)): to easily convert any half-diminished seventh chord to a diminished seventh chord, flatten again the already b7. On the above D half-diminished seventh chord that we just played, flatten the C (on the second string) by a half-step. The fretting should be as follows high E string (1st fret), B string (open), G string (1st fret), D string (open). Now, if you are anything like me, that double-flat seven (bb7) bothers you. This is how it is justified. These are 7th chords we are talking about right? How can a 7th chord NOT have a 7 (interval) in it, but a 6 instead? Things get a little complicated with this type if theory, but no worries! I will guide you through it. Too, I don't expect you to digest/retain all of this in one sitting. It may take several days or weeks for this to really settle in, depending on how much attention you give it. Let's keep moving forward. Minor major seventh- for example Dmmaj7, DmM7, DmΔ7, D-Δ7, etc. Formation - (1, b3, 5, 7): to easily convert any major seventh chord to a minor major seventh chord (I know “minor major” right? Just roll with it.); flatten the third by a half-step. For instance, play the D major seventh chord from our 1st example. Now flatten the 3 which is on the second fret of the first string.