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Post by Phil on Nov 23, 2018 11:20:34 GMT -6
I need a big favor. I just posted an article on my blog describing a simple way to "jazz up" a standard I-IV-V Blues progression. I'm looking for someone who doesn't know anything about this (and is interested) to read the article and see if what I wrote is clear and understandable. I'm not by any means trying to play guitar teacher. I direct people to John's books to learn more. I'm simply sharing what I've learned in a way that I wish it had been explained to me. A long time ago someone told me that if you really want to learn something well explain how to do it to someone else. That's the true purpose of the blog, to cement my own learning. In the Navy we had a saying, "See one, do one, teach one." It's a fairly detailed post as I tried to answer all the questions that I had not too long ago. I'm also interested in any feedback on the layout and look of the article. Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to have a look. Jazz up a Blues Progression |
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Post by bluesbruce on Nov 23, 2018 15:41:08 GMT -6
"There are many many ways to do this, but we’ll focus on just one commonly used Jazz-Blues progression. Learn this basic progression until you can play it in your sleep. Once you know it inside-out there are some very simple ways to make it sound more musically interesting. But first, you have to have a strong foundation to build on. I’ll also explain how these additional chords function in the progression so you can play this progression it in any key."
"This is a I > VI > ii > V progression — the second most common progression in Jazz. Now for an explanation as to why the VI chord in bar 8 is a dominant 7th instead of a minor 7th as you would expect from a harmonized major scale.K"
A couple of minor typo's above. I thought the post made good sense, Phil, but I've also at least looked at some of Jazzin' the Blues before. It goes way beyond Mickey Baker's "just play it like this" kind of approach to chord progressions. I'm glad you've made some sense of this stuff. I think you've got to play it and hear it over and over, and some of it finally sinks in...
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Post by Phil on Nov 23, 2018 17:28:30 GMT -6
"There are many many ways to do this, but we’ll focus on just one commonly used Jazz-Blues progression. Learn this basic progression until you can play it in your sleep. Once you know it inside-out there are some very simple ways to make it sound more musically interesting. But first, you have to have a strong foundation to build on. I’ll also explain how these additional chords function in the progression so you can play this progression it in any key." "This is a I > VI > ii > V progression — the second most common progression in Jazz. Now for an explanation as to why the VI chord in bar 8 is a dominant 7th instead of a minor 7th as you would expect from a harmonized major scale. K" A couple of minor typo's above. I thought the post made good sense, Phil, but I've also at least looked at some of Jazzin' the Blues before. It goes way beyond Mickey Baker's "just play it like this" kind of approach to chord progressions. I'm glad you've made some sense of this stuff. I think you've got to play it and hear it over and over, and some of it finally sinks in... Thanks for taking time to read it and comment, Bruce. Man, it's amazing how you can read something you wrote over and over and still miss those stupid little typos.
The main reason I'm stressing to repeat this particular progression is so later you can easily alter the rhythm, do half-step approaches to the target chords, or throw in other substitutions. If you have to think about which chord comes next it's much more difficult.
I've noticed this exact same progression being played by Martin Taylor, Jimmy Bruno, Frank Vignola, Sean McGowan, Tim Lerch, and others including John Ganapes in "Jazzin' the Blues." That's why I said it's very common and forms a foundation to build on. Or you can just leave it as it is.
Regarding repetition: I've heard a couple of great players say that if you repeat a progression, lick, or even a simple melody often enough you'll be forced to change it in some way just to keep from going crazy. Everybody here is probably sick of hearing me talk about repetition over and over and over again.  |
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