Questions tagged [blues]
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States around the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.
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12 bar Blues in Bm scale
The first four bars of the Bminor blues are
Bm7 / Em7 / Bm7 / Bm7
What does the 7 mean? Does it indicate that the 7th note of the Bminor scale (A) needs to be included in the chord and the same for ...
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How to solo over diminished triads in a bluesy style?
I play the guitar and I like throwing in diminished triads.
They can be easier to finger than the full diminished seventh chord or seventh chord if you're doing country or jazzy less fully voiced ...
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Modulating to new keys in blues
I found many threads and YouTube videos on modulation in general, but not specific to blues.
I’m getting pretty good at the basic I-IV-V progression in blues, playing some old delta-style or BBking ...
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Why when playing 12 bar blues why does the min7th note seem to set up the change to the 4th chord
When playing a 12 bar blues progression, playing a min7th note over the I chord seems to naturally set up the change to the IV chord. Why is this?
For example: in the key of A, it sounds good to ...
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I don't like my voice
I’m a 51 year old pro bass player – I play mainly blues and jazz – well that is where my passion is at.
I got sick and tired of hiring guitar players that can sing and play really well but were ...
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What should I practise to reach my guitar goals and stay motivated?
I have been playing guitar off and on since I was 12 [6 years ago].
Originally I started playing guitar because I desperately wanted to be like my hero Tom Petty. So, for about two years I studied ...
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When to use Blues scales in jazz
I looked it up and found that the key shows you what blues to use during solos. But I find songs with a key of C but using A blues. Does this mean the key doesn't show when to use specific blues ...
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Strange chord notations in piano sheet: Twisted by Annie Ross
I have to play Twisted with a jazz singer and I came found this lead sheet where the chords are written strangely. Is this the standard notation? Eg., is B'6 = Bbmaj7?
Does anyone know where I can get ...
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Why is minor blues called "minor" when it has notes from the major scale?
I have actually been tuning a Bangla language song strictly on B Minor Blues notes so far both the melody and the chords are concerned. I'm done with the tune now. All the minor blues songs I listen ...
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How to use diminished scale over I IV V changes in blues
I want to spice up my solos over a Blues progression. I already can play a variety of scales but the Diminished scale is something I would like to add because of the particular sounds it creates. In ...
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Why do the notes of a blues scale sound good with the I, IV, and V chords?
If you are playing the blues in the key of C, any note in the blues key of C should sound good in the melody with either of the C, F or G (I, IV or V) major chords in the bass.
Why is this and how do ...
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R&B Album 2016 poss. 2015 [closed]
I’m trying to find out what album is was/is…young African American singer, sounds a lot like Robert Cray, the album cover was black & white with him smoking on the cover…..anything? This album ...
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What is distinctive about the Hammond B3 organ?
Reading the credits of a jazz or blues album you might come across a musician who played using a Hammond organ (not just any organ, but a Hammond). I know that the Hammond has a long and storied ...
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How is rock founded from blues if they have different scales?
I heard that rock was created from blues. But most of the scales in rock are either major or minor. But blues scales are created from adding chromatic notes to a pentatonic scale.
Isn't rock more ...
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Playing Am pentatonic scale over A blues chord progression
I had a guitar entrance exam yesterday regarding improvisation. The guy put on a A blues backing track and told me to improvise.
As I'm not a blues guy myself, I went and improvised on the A major ...
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Why do people play notes outside of the scale when playing the blues
I am watching a tutorial and he is playing C Blues and he is playing in the bass C and G and C and A. Now the C blues scale is C Eb F Gb G Bb. So how is he playing that A in the bass and it sounds ...
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How to get started learning blues guitar? [duplicate]
I am totally new to blues guitar and I am keen to learn blues guitar and form my own blues band.
However, I am confused where to start. I look up youtubes and the lessons are all over the place. Not ...
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Can the voice be trained to sound tremulous when singing?
I was inspired to ask this after I've listened to some KALEO, whose lead singer's voice has an interesting tremor that compliments the blues-inspired style.
I'd like to give this live performance as ...
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Which type of harmonica is the best suit for country music?
I want to play harmonica but I am not sure which type of harmonica is the correct choice for country music ? Everyone talks about blues but is same type of harmonica fits for both blues and country ?
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How is an "eight-bar blues" different from just eight normal measures of music?
Just about everyone knows the twelve-bar blues, a common example of which would be something like:
I | I | I | I |
IV | IV | I | I |
V | IV | I | I ||
I completely understand how this can be ...
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Which Blues notes are deliberately flattened?
@slim mentioned in this answer that:
In Blues music for example, some notes are deliberately flattened -- but others are not, and a listener with experience of the Blues would still spot badly ...
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Questions on Chord progression in "Cocaine Blues"
In the song "Cocaine Blues" (in the style of Townes Van Zandt) the opening chord progression (transposed to C) is C - E7 - F. That is a I - III7 - IV or a V - VII7 - I, depending on what ...
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Why Does Blues Have the first 4 Bars on the I chord?
Why is it so common to hold the I Chord for 4 bars?
See other variations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-bar_blues
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Piano parallel chord jump technique?
Trying to learn blues piano, there are lots of times both left and right hands make the same jump, say from I to V.
Besides "keep practicing", are there any helpful tricks to landing in the ...
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Keeping fourth finger up when playing thirds
Help please. When playing thirds (blues riff), using the third and fifth fingers, the fourth one sometimes goes down as well, particularly when I speed up. Are there any exercises I can use to correct ...
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How to determine whether song is 16 bar blues or 32 bar form?
I'm analyzing blues in the Mississippi Delta tradition and the hardest/most subjective aspect I am running into has to do with songs with measure numbers divisible by 8. For example, we can use "...
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Is it possible to play "Juke - little Walter" on a diatonic harmonica key of C?
My harmonica is a marine band key of C, and i have another cheap Chinese key of D. Little Walter played Juke on a key of A harmonica and i can't find the tabs for a key of C harmonica, so is it ...
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What is going on in this left hand comping by McCoy Tyner (Bb minor blues)?
I understand the basics of fourth-voicings and mccoy's style, moving fourth voicings diatonically through a scale, and occasionally using chromaticism to shift and play out.
I find this though very ...
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Making Sense of Blues Soloing; differentiating major/minor pentatonics
Quarantine has allowed ample time for musical exploration. I'm a classically trained pianist studying music in college, and I'm using this extra time to be immersed in and learn how to play the blues.
...
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Guitar blues soloing- Minor/Major
I've been trying to get myself into blues improvisation.
Main thing to hold on i found were the 5 boxes
Main box with root on 1st (Minor box)
Albert king box (Minor box)
BB-king box (Major box)
...
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How do I learn to improvise outside of the jazz realm?
I'm a classically trained pianist and I've spent a lot of time in the last year or two really learning the blues. I've worked through some of my favorite pieces and it's safe to say I can now rip a 12 ...
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How did "Mary had a little lamb" become popular blues?
"Mary had a little lamb" had long been a popular choice for blues musicians to jam and solo on stage. Ever since watching the rendition by Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, it also had been ...
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Harmonic sense of an Eb7 in a blues in E
In this image a blues ends with the tonic chord (E7) preceded by Eb7. Beyond the chromatic effect that can be perceived, is there any way to harmonically define such an Eb7? In other words, what is ...
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Blues progression: are those changes of key?
Suppose we have a simple blues in E with the following chord progression
E7 A7 B7 E7
and that we have to play
Over E7: Em penta scale
Over A7: mix of A major and A minor penta scale
Over B7: B ...
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Learning to play what you're thinking on the guitar
I'm a beginner guitar player with a passion for the blues, jazz and funk. When I say beginner I mean that I just know a few chords, have some basic technique on how to handle the guitar (I had classes ...
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Learning path advices
I played guitar for a while 10 years ago, but I never learned music.
I was only playing the songs that I wanted to play by following YouTube videos.
I know I have to learn music to be able to ...
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Different scales for chords and melody
I haven't had any real education in MT so I might ask the wrong questions or my confusion might be based on lack of fundaments so please bare with me and I will try to explain.
Starting to learn MT ...
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How can I transcribe 'Fine and Mellow' by 'Jose James' on the piano?
I am trying to transcribe 'Fine and Mellow' by 'Jose James' and at 3:25 the piano plays a short solo. I am finding it difficult to transcribe this however as even slowing the song way down it still ...
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Boogie Woogie in another keys what are the limits?
I'm a pianist and I play boogie woogie very well in C and G. Everyone knows that these are the easiest to play on, but guitarists like E and A and maybe D. I started to learn some riffs in A and E but ...
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What is the name of that widespread blues lick and how to play it? [closed]
I would like to improve my guitar solos and to add a lick to them. The one I'm thinking off is used in many blues songs, but also rock'n'roll, punk rock, etc. One example that I can find is the whole ...
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Critique on Composition I made [closed]
I was hoping someone with a solid background in jazz music theory to give me a solid critique on a jazz blues composition I made last month. Here's the link:
https://musescore.com/user/6040626/scores/...
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What harmonic resources underlie on Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" song which make it so beautiful?
Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" is in the key of DMaj (I) , but the second arpegio chord (and perhaps the one that gives to the song his special sound) is G7 (IV7), whose 7th is a note that ...
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What fingerings are used for the minor and major blues scales?
It's my understanding that for the diatonic scales, there's a consensus of which fingerings are optimal for most people. They are not a hard rule, some pianists use other fingerings, but they are ...
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Beginner Confusion Over Guitar Scales
New guitar player here trying to learn music theory and guitar from the ground up. I have somewhat of a two part question. Trying to wrap my head around the first part.
So far I have learned the basic ...
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soloing over I-IV-V blues progression (E-A-B)
First of all I would like to say that I have absolutely no musical education whatsoever, I have been studying alone and in the past with a guitar teacher. However, I am really into blues, watching lot ...
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extended chords to use for 12-bar blues [closed]
I'm wondering if the following two variations of 12 bar blues I'm using work for an arrangement for Mr. PC:
| Cm9 | Cm9 | Cm9 | Cm9 |
| Fm11 | Fm11 | Fm11 | Fm11 |
|Ab13(#11)| G9(#5) | Cm9 | Cm9 |
| ...
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How do you notate a blues scale?
I understand the concept of a blues scales and its structure. For example, the one I've been trying to write on sheet music is D Major blues. The scale contains the following: D E F F# A B
Now ...
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How bluesy is Ravel's Blues actually?
The second movement of Maurice Ravel's second Violin Sonata (1922-1927) is titled Blues (example performance). Wikipedia claims it is inspired by jazz and blues music, and that Ravel had first-hand ...
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Why aren't there "fake books" for blues?
A lot of jazz is heavily improvised, and I know that many musicians typically rely on fake books and their progressions to build improvisation on top of. My question is, why aren't there fake books ...
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Piano recomended fingering for blues scale [duplicate]
Is there an 'official' or best practice fingering for blues scales for the piano?
Fingering for the C major scale as described by the exam boards (for at least the one I did) is:
RH 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 -...
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