I'm trying to put a 12 bar blues to paper but the notes don't add up. It will be C/F/G and I have the rhythm like so (just the C here):
but something isn't right (and what's more, my baby done left me!)
Can you tell me what am I doing wrong? Wrong time signature?
Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LLA69qHa8bQmdCtgm4R1IR0FpU7Iys1Z/view?usp=sharing
Here's version 2. It adds up now but the rhythm isn't quite right. It doesn't swing.
Not knowing your intended rhythm, I'd bet your dotted sixteenth notes are incorrect; these demand thirty-second notes, which result in a "more correct" notation of the following, which I can't imagine is what you intended:
After hearing your recording, your intended rhythm is:
So as it turns out, your rhythm is actually correct—at least, once you remove the dots!
Otherwise, I'd recommend re-spelling the chord to include a B♭ instead of an A♯. This note is the seventh of the chord, and since the root is C, we prefer to spell it as the note a seventh above C (that is, some kind of B) as opposed to some kind of A.
After hearing the audio and seeing your examples, the written example 2 is rhythmically accurate BUT I would suggest this rhythm be written in quarters and eighths, not eighths and sixteenths. My reasoning for this is it doesn’t FEEL like 8ths and 16ths, it feels like a faster 4/4 with a backbeat on 2 and 4 as opposed to a slow 4 with the back beats on the off eighth notes. This groove is more easily read and felt this way:
Notice the 8th rest on beat 4. You need this to get the right feel, the preceding note should not be sustained. In order to show the sustained bass notes without writing out a polyphonic staff I used slurs on the C and G to indicate they should be sustained.
Also, since it’s in the key of C it’s better not to use an F key signature but instead use C and put in the Bb accidentals.
