Here are two well known descending chord patterns:
Diatonic seventh chords.
Sequence of dominant seventh chords.
The voice leading is smooth in both and basically each voice just steps down to the next closest chord tone.
If I do something similar, but on a blue chord pattern I7 IV7 I7 I7 | IV7...
, I get this...
Does anyone play voice leading like that in blues, does it work?
Parts of it obviously work. The I7 IV7
moves are just segments of the sequence of dominant seventh chords and the I7 I7
change is just an exchange of voices. IV7 I7
is then the odd move.
For a "classical" ear IVb7/4/3 Ib7/4/2
doesn't make sense, they would be called irregular resolutions, but all the voices - except the "alto" - move by descending step so it is relatively smooth.
I'm stuck between thinking it sounds OK - blues style isn't concerned with classical concepts of irregular resolution even if it does sometimes conform to those concepts - or worrying that no one plays blues this way so idiomatically it's bad blues playing.
Personally, when I play this way - descending or ascending - the root position and 2nd inversion chords (fifth in bass) sound stable and the 1st and 3rd inversions sound unstable. The classical voice leading would basically resolve the chord thirds up by step and the sevenths down by step. With this pattern I don't follow those conventions and just keep moving in the same descending/ascending direction to the next closest chord tone. If I do that and start and end the whole 12 bar blues on either root position or 2nd inversion chords, it seems OK to me.
In terms of rhythm I'm just playing the whole chord on the beat or simple broken patterns between the two hands, just vampings.
| Ⅰ | Ⅰ | Ⅰ | Ⅰ7 | Ⅳ...