Blues shapes microlessons

[greg505]

I’m working my way through Brian’s great lessons Blues in the CD (etc) shapes and learning new chord shapes all the way up the neck is a good step forward.
I’d like to be able to improvise these rather than just learn the lessons verbatim and while I’m fine with the pentatonics for playing solo stuff, I find I’m having (and always have had!) a problem with when to move to the next chord in the sequence.
I.E. when to go from 1 to 4 then 5. I’ve tried a metronome with mixed success. I don’t think when you’re playing you can be expected to count bars as well as playing!
Does anyone have tips about this? At the moment I’m afraid to say I’m guessing a bit. Hope this makes sense

[Michael Krailo]

All songs have a time signature and are played in bars of whatever the time signature is. Knowing where you are at in any given song is something that you develop over time, but if there is a backing track, you can simply listen to the track and count through it. Usually they are in 4/4 time, sometimes 6/8, 12/8, or 3/4 time. Practice hearing when the chords change. Do this with any song you listen to on the radio. The more you work on it, the better you get at it.

You could play the rhythm part for whatever lesson you are working on assuming it is not a standalone piece. Then get your bearings that way. There are several variations of blues structure, and to play the blues, you have to get real good at learning all the basic structures of the blues. The last bar can be a fancy turnaround or be very simple.

Basic blues in A:

A7 A7 A7 A7

D7 D7 A7 A7

E7 D7 A7 E7

Quick Change in A:

A7 D7 A7 A7

D7 D7 A7 A7

E7 D7 A7 E7

There are a few other common ones and may ways to vary it to make it sound interesting. Either way, you should learn all the basic one’s.

Usually there is one phrase or lick per bar and some form of repetition with a landing note variation of some kind. Start with a simple phrasing idea and build up ideas around it.

As far as improvising, you have to be a good listener first. Hearing phrases that you like or have heard before or the one’s in your head. The more clearly you can hear them, you can then work on playing them with various forms of articulation.

If you just use the pentatonic scale, there are only five notes, but hundreds of ways to vary the sound of those notes.

1. Change the rhythm or timing of them. Especially the beat you come in on for the phrase.
2. The dynamic level of notes.
3. Legato is great for most of the notes and end on a short note. Legato is making each note ring out to it’s full value of time.
4. Slides from notes within the scale or even outside of the scale into a chord tone or scale note.
5. Bend to major or minor, or micro tonal bend on b3’s. You can bend to any scale note or chord tone. There many ways and techniques for bending so it’s a large subject.
6. Use of chromatic or passing notes.
7. Harmonics
8. Harmonized 3rds, 4ths, 6ths or use of shell chord notes (two or three note chords)
9. Muted notes for a more percussive sound.
10. Pick raking into notes for dramatic effect.
11. Chord stabs
12. Hamer-Ons, Pull-Offs
13. Percussive string scrapes
14. Walk ups and walk downs into chord changes.
15. Hybrid picking
16. Finger picking
17. Almost forgot Arpeggios

The most important one is the rhythm of phrases have to be in time to sound musical. The better rhythm player you become, the better your lead playing will be. Just learning to play the phrases that Brian comes up with in good timing and rhythm is going to add to your bag of licks over time, so don’t discount learning them. That’s what I did for the first few years until I built up an arsenal of licks. If you find one that seems hard for you, make it a goal to work on it over a period of time and teach your fingers how to move through it at a speed you can play it smoothly. Once you do get it down, that’s just the beginning. Playing that same lick over and over hundreds of times is how to make it your own and have it naturally come out when you begin to improvise.

Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.

[charjo]

I agree with Michael, the more you listen and practice the 12 bar variations the more you will feel the chord change coming. I know this wasn’t an automatic thing for me. Keep your foot tapping and you will become aware of the 4 beat measures without counting.
One thing Griff Hamlin always says is never start a lick on beat 1, you either anticipate the change or come in somewhere after.
John

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