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Five Basic Blues Songs
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Subject: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Allan C. Date: 20 Sep 99 - 09:59 AM I got to playing around with some chords a few nights ago and attempted to play some blues. I think I tried to do this a few years ago, but it just didn't sound right. My girlfriend was there this time and she surprised me by remarking that it "sounded really good". Frankly, I thought so too. I don't know what has changed. Maybe it that old thing about "you've got to live the blues to sing the blues". Whatever the reason, I am now trying to learn a few songs. Unfortunately, I am pretty ignorant in this regard. I would love to learn some "standards" for starters. I would appreciate it if you would post a list of what songs you think would fit in that category. Also, although I am sure that most of these could be played with just three chords, if you have any suggestions for "standard" progressions, I would like those as well. An example of where I am at right now is this: I am currently working on "Tryin' To Win". Thanks in advance. |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Jon W. Date: 20 Sep 99 - 10:27 AM Standard blues progressions in the key of E for example (each letter representing one measure of that chord): EEEE AAEE BAEE Variations (1st and 3rd line): EAEE AAEE BAEB
This is classic 12-bar blues. It's all in 4/4 time with a shuffle rhythm (sometimes this is notated as 12/8 time for slower pieces). It can be played in any key - E, A, D, G, C being probably the most common. Another way to look at it is I - IV - V (root, fourth, fifth chords): Some standards are: Sweet Home Chicago, Dust My Broom, Hootchie Cootchie Man, and the Brownsville/Louisiana/Roll & Tumble family of songs. Listen to Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Jimmy Reed, and Muddy Waters. |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Neil Lowe Date: 20 Sep 99 - 01:06 PM Jon W.'s post is dead on. "Born Under A Bad Sign" is one of my favorites. I'm more into electric blues, so the electric version (by Cream)of this song is the one I learned. It departs somewhat from the standard 12-bar progression as follows: I-I-I-I, V-IV-I-I. This song can also be played on a 'box,' with equally delightful results. I would add Lightnin' Hopkins to Jon W.'s mix. Regards, Neil |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: M. Ted (inactive) Date: 20 Sep 99 - 01:53 PM "Step it up and Go", "Blue Suede Shoes" if you learn them, you'll know how to play a whole bunch of other ones that turn out to be the same but with different lyrics-- |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Big Jack Date: 20 Sep 99 - 02:37 PM Don't forget the greatest blues song..."we are the navy blues, we are the old dark navy blues..." |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Frank Hamilton Date: 20 Sep 99 - 03:08 PM 12 bar blues I //// //// //// I7 //// IV //// //// I //// //// V7//// I //// I // IV // I // V7 // The last two bars are called the turnaround 8 bar blues: I //// V7 //// I //// IV //// I //// V7 //// I // IV // I // V7 // 16 bar blues I //// //// //// I7 //// IV //// //// I //// //// IV //// //// I //// //// I //// V7 //// I // IV // I// V7// The first example is most commonly used. The second example would be Trouble In Mind, Crow Jane, Keys To The Highway The third example would be C.C. Rider It must be said that often the bars are not rigidly adhered to. For some verses a traditional blues player might use an 11 i/2 bar blues or and 8 1/2 bar blues. Traditional blues players seem to know when the chords change intuitively. Frank Hamilton
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: MandolinPaul Date: 21 Sep 99 - 05:21 AM If you want some blues at its most basic, buy one of the many Greatest Hits of Jimmy Reed albums. He is the master of the great place that all bluesplayers call home: "The Medium Shuffle". |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 13 Oct 99 - 10:38 PM Some other useful 12 bar patterns for blues: /I.../IV7.../I.../I7.../IV7.../IV7.../I.../I.../V.../IV.../I I7 IV IVmin/I.V7| for example /E.../A7.../E.../E7.../A7.../A7.../E.../E.../B7.../A7.../E E7 A Amin /E.B7./ another useful turnaround (bars 11 and 12) goes /I IIdim IIbdim Idim/I.V./ e.g., /E F#dim Fdim Edim/E.B7./ --seed |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Pinetop Slim Date: 19 Jan 00 - 08:28 PM I don't know if Careless Love, Corinna, Frankie & Johnny and Midnight Special fully qualify as blues tunes, but they are about as close to it as I can play on mtn. dulcimer. Could anyone recommend other songs in the vein of sort-of-blues in a major scale? |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: GUEST,MTed Date: 20 Jan 00 - 02:16 AM Those count as blues tunes--early ones, at that--the first two begin by going from the tonic to the dominant and back, something that comes from the last century--(or the second to the last, depending on what century you think this is) You should be able to get a pretty good rhythm going on a mountain dulcimer, especially if you work on learning to damp the strings--their was an old one string instrument that blues musicians used to play (and make themselves--basically from a broom handle, nails, wire, and a can or pail) I never actually saw a real blues guy play one, but I have heard recordings, and they seem to have been able to get a very compelling sound out of it--suitable for country dances--of course you have to be able to sing real loud to go along with it-- The thing is that you ought to be able to play a couple blue notes--preferably the third and the seventh, because a major scale isn't very bluesy-- I always liked "Make Me a Pallet on your Floor", CC Rider (or Easy Rider) "Goin Down the Road Feelin' Bad" has always seemed like a good candidate for the blues to me, but there are some who disagree--also, if you learn to play the melody to "Shortin' Bread", you will discover that you have plenty of the tricks that you need to play the blues--
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Grab Date: 20 Jan 00 - 08:58 AM Standard 12-bar blues is the most well-known and popular blues. Listen to just about any blues player for some of this. Status Quo also used this for their rock stuff. Rock often uses these progressions but tends to be more with 16 bars, since this is a more 'natural' dance feel, ie. 4 groups of 4 bars. There's also Chicago blues (tell me if I'm wrong here - oh hell, I don't need to say that here ;-) which tends to repetition of the same chord sequence over and over (sometimes with minor changes) as the singer thinks up new words, although this usually goes in 12-bar units, and sometimes has slight changes to make it a bit more 12-bar blues-y. Get a John Lee Hooker record for some of this. The original Boom Boom recording falls into this category, although there are other versions of it done in a standard blues progression too! A fairly standard Chicago blues rhythm goes (pause) A G E (pause) A G E. I'd guess the repetition of the same chords allowed you to make stuff up on the spot. This is traditional in African music where a common tune is used for spontaneous words, so it may well have been carried over since most black music involves a good deal of spontaneity. That's my theory, anyway. Anyone with more info on black tradition who can explain it better? Grab. |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Mark Clark Date: 20 Jan 00 - 11:18 AM Allan, Previous posters have just about covered the territory but you should always experiment. For instance, any time you're playing a IV chord, try playing it as a IV7 chord. Also, almost any time you're playing a major seventh chord you can probably substitute a ninth or a thirteenth with good effect. You can also play the tonic chord as a major sixth to give it a more jazzy feel. The main thing, though, is to immerse yourself in the music of all the artists named above until it becomes second nature. Good luck, - Mark |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: GUEST,MTed Date: 20 Jan 00 - 11:55 PM (I am posting as a guest because of cookie troubles) Dancers just need the four measures or four counts--wheter the song comes in 12 or 16 bar sections doesn't matter to them--and actually, the most rock dancing really came from jitterbug/swing/lindy, and that music is typically 12 bar blues-- Just as a point of reference, Markf revived this thread because he wanted to play some blues on his dulcimer--how he is going to play major sixth and ninth and thirteenth chords on it will be interesting to see-- |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: Pinetop Slim Date: 21 Jan 00 - 05:37 PM Thanks for the tips, MTed. Damping the strings produces a choppy sound, but maybe with practice... Sixths and ninths are pretty easy to find in ddAD tuning; for an E13, though, would have to retune to DAAD (credit Neal Hellman's Dulcimer Chord Book and Janita Baker's contribution on DAAD). |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: GUEST,MTed Date: 21 Jan 00 - 09:16 PM You need a bit of choppiness to keep the blues/swing beat--A good trick, which I use on the guitar a lot, is to damp the string (or strings) that I am keeping the shuffle beat on, but letting the others ring-- If you are playing on just one string, you may want to damp it when it is open and let it ring when you play it up the neck--As I think about it, just listen to some good blues slide guitar, and copy--it really doesn't matter how many strings you are playing on-- The most important part is just to have a really funky shuffle feel-- |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 22 Jan 00 - 07:52 PM Another important characteristic of a lot of blues is triplets: quarter notes divided into three equal parts intstead of two. For the slow rock blues think Fats Domino playing 12 to the bar, accenting 1,4,7,10: dahdahdahdahdahdahdahdahdahdahdahdah or the quarter+eighth triplet: DAHdaDAHdaDAHdaDAHda I have found lots of spirituals sound great with a bluesy treatment: "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Nearer My God to Thee," etc. Just accent the rhythms, use lots of sevenths, slide into long notes, walk the subdominant chord down to the second, go into the dominant seventh, then returning to the tonic, walk it down to a lower position. Add a harmonica to your arrangements, play it in second position (crossharp: C harmonica for G tunes) and bend and unbend notes, play the low growly two and three reed chords, use your hands for the wahs and the tremelos--dynamite. Another blues progression I've been playing with a lot lately is that found in "Brown's Ferry Blues" and "Fare-thee, Titanic, Fare-thee-well":
/G.../G7.../C.../C7.../G.../G7.../D7.../.... --seed I |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: M. Ted (inactive) Date: 22 Jan 00 - 08:21 PM You got a couple months worth of lessons packed into that one paragraph, CharlesKratz(smile)-- Seriously, I think the idea of the triplet feel is the most important one, in terms of explaining the swing feel-- I have always taught my students that in written jazz and blues, all the quarter notes are played staccato, and the eighth notes are played as a if they were the first and third triplets-- |
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Subject: RE: Five Basic Blues Songs From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 22 Jan 00 - 11:21 PM Hey, M. Glad to see you've got your cookie back. Or were you on your work computer before? The folks I play with regularly (the Born-Once Gospel Singers) are mostly old timey players, but I'm trying to move the group more into bluesy stuff. It's going well--except that Sally, our autoharp player--if she ever makes it back to playing--has no sevenths on her autoharps. None. She has two custom made harps, beautiful to look at and to hear, but no sevenths, no circle of fifths. Actually, though, we've got two guitar players and a bass player who give good blues, and the group jumped eagerly into "Fare-thee, Titanic, Fare-thee-well" when I introduced it a couple weeks ago after getting the words from Gargoyle and a tape of it from Art Thieme. I'd asked for lyrics because the banjo player in the shanty band I play with does it, but I stand behind him and he does it in a heavy black accent (he's white, but does good blues). We've done the blues spirituals for quite a while--although I don't think we ever played them in a gig. The closest we came to blues in a gig is "Columbus Stockade Blues." --seed |
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