Stuart Smith
V. Standard Chord Progressions: Blues and “Rhythm”
Download 1.17 Mb.
|
V. Standard Chord Progressions: Blues and “Rhythm”A jazz approach to bluesThe blues has been, and continues to be, a strong influence in jazz. Within the jazz tradition, a 12-bar form of the blues has become standard; however, there is considerable variety in the chord progressions used. These progressions generally exhibit root movement by fifth, up or down, but the actual chords used can range from basic triads to richly extended seventh chords connected in chromatic patterns. The traditional blues progression, which had already become standardized by the 1920’s, is the following: 
An even more basic (not to say primitive) form of the blues chord progression can be obtained simply removing all the sevenths from chords in this example and just using plain triads. Such simple harmony would be almost unthinkable in jazz, but rock groups have used it. Here is a more modern version of the blues progression: 
As can be seen, this version uses “borrowed” chords, secondary dominants, and linear chords, which should all be familiar to students from the study of traditional harmony. Here is a list of well-known blues tunes that should be studied: All Blues Au Privave Bags’ Groove Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues Are Bessie’s Blues Bud’s Blues Blue Monk Blues for Alice Blue Trane C-Jam Blues Jumping with Symphony Sid Misterioso Mr. P.C. Now’s the Time Opus de Funk Short Stop Stolen Moments Straight, No Chaser Tenor Madness West Coast Blues The so-called “blues scale” is often proposed as the basic melodic material for improvisation on blues chords. Here are two versions of the blues scale: 1^1^1^ ë3^ ì3^ ë5^ ì5^ 6^ ë7^ For C blues, this scale would be: 
1^ 2^ Ó3^ Ô3^ 4^ Õ4^ 5^ 6^ Ó7^ Again for C blues, this scale would be: 
These scales correspond quite closely to actual blues practice; however, to understand how jazz, blues, and rock musicians use these scales, careful listening to a variety of blues performances is necessary. Download 1.17 Mb. Share with your friends:
|