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It seems that lesson 453 is a 16-bar blues pattern consisting of the following chord progression:
I ii IV I
I ii IV I
I ii VII/IV I
I ii VII/IV II can’t find anything that mentions this progression as typical for a 16-bar blues composition. Or is it that anything goes as long as the folks playing with you know the progression? Since I’m relatively new to playing the blues, I am not sure if the progressions can be widely varying. I was stuck on I IV V. Newbie. Sorry.
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Hi Larry,
I wouldn’t call it a major blues progression. An 8 or 12, or 16 bar blues would use 1, 4, 5 dominant chords +/- various substitutions.
I would call this a mixolydian progression. The tonal center is B but the chords are from the E major family. A mixolyidian progression lends itself to playing the major pentatonic as well as tossing in those minor pentatonic licks all in that B tonality. It also really lends itself to mixing the major and minor pentatonics which is pretty much what the mixolydian mode is (just minus the b3).
John -
Thanks, John, for the explanation. See, this is what happens when you’re stuck in the I-IV-V blues mindset. Even though Brian titled the lesson as a blues lead, it wasn’t, in my limited perspective. In fact, it was more like an old fiddle tune with an AABB format. <sound of head exploding>
The biggest hurdle won’t be in the learning of this piece, but the explaining to family members that are bound to the I-IV-V progression as THE blues (not to mention the key of B). I took the backing tracks and transposed them to the key of A for convenience. I may not play Brian’s arrangement verbatim; rather, I’ll experiment with mixing the major and minor pentatonic scales over the BT.
Thanks for your timely reply.
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