Minor blues suggestions

nickp

ok i've decided to try to really play "nicely" so treating each chord as a key change and therefore change the scale that I'm using.  Am also practicing arpeggios (effectively harmonized arps on the Aolian scale) and CAGED chord fragments - all minor at the moment and sloow coz it takes a lot of processing and thinking.

What I'm after is some examples of slow minor blues tunes please if you can suggest them - I'll spend time listening to the phrasing and stuff so I really make the effort to get the vibe.

once i've done this the next thing is to move onto dominant progressions, but one thing at a time as they say!

so suggestions of nice slow blues tunes to listen to please (and artists playing them)

ta muchly

nick

fields5069

It's not super-slow, but Robert Cray's "Phone Booth" springs to mind, mostly because it was used in an instructional book I had years ago.

viz

Gary Moore's slow stuff is beautifully melodic. Btw I wouldn't recommend treating every chord as a key change though, as your melodies will become very clunky, like short sentences. A melody that carries, over a shifting background of harmony, is far more effective. 

nickp

fields5069 said:

It's not super-slow, but Robert Cray's "Phone Booth" springs to mind, mostly because it was used in an instructional book I had years ago.

ta!

nickp

viz said:

Gary Moore's slow stuff is beautifully melodic. Btw I wouldn't recommend treating every chord as a key change though, as your melodies will become very clunky, like short sentences. A melody that carries, over a shifting background of harmony, is far more effective. 

thanks Viz.  I guess it's going to be an (extreme) shift towards recognising chord tonalities rather than ignoring them, then hopefully a drift back towards a middle ground once my ear becomes accustomed to recognising the (say) b3 of the individual chords and the sound that makes as it shifts on the 1 1v and v chords etc   that's the plan anyway

stratman3142

The Thrill Is Gone by BB King.

I have to confess, I don't think in terms of a new scale for every chord, I just select notes from the basic key scale to create melodies I hear that fit over the chords as they change and adapt the scale as necessary. For example, over The Thrill Is Gone in Bm, my thinking is essentially Bm Aeolian throughout, but I also adapt the scale to play a major 7th (which creates Bm harmonic minor) in places. Plus I chuck in the b5 and some chromatic stuff, if it feels/sounds right.

nickp

stratman3142 said:

The Thrill Is Gone by BB King.

I have to confess, I don't think in terms of a new scale for every chord, I just select notes from the basic key scale to create melodies I hear that fit over the chords as they change and adapt the scale as necessary. For example, over The Thrill Is Gone in Bm, my thinking is essentially Bm Aeolian throughout, but I also adapt the scale to play a major 7th (which creates Bm harmonic minor) in places. Plus I chuck in the b5 and some chromatic stuff, if it feels/sounds right.

the eventual goal is to move to playing more what seems right but with far more reference to underlying chord structures, so i thought it best to go for a more systematic approach to practice then over a few weeks ease off so it all becomes more natural, i hope.  but need to get the sounds in my head properly with a better  understanding of what's where 

nickp

fields5069 said:

It's not super-slow, but Robert Cray's "Phone Booth" springs to mind, mostly because it was used in an instructional book I had years ago.

just listened to a live clip - some nice stuff and no wasted notes !

stratman3142

nickp said:

stratman3142 said:

The Thrill Is Gone by BB King.

I have to confess, I don't think in terms of a new scale for every chord, I just select notes from the basic key scale to create melodies I hear that fit over the chords as they change and adapt the scale as necessary. For example, over The Thrill Is Gone in Bm, my thinking is essentially Bm Aeolian throughout, but I also adapt the scale to play a major 7th (which creates Bm harmonic minor) in places. Plus I chuck in the b5 and some chromatic stuff, if it feels/sounds right.

the eventual goal is to move to playing more what seems right but with far more reference to underlying chord structures, so i thought it best to go for a more systematic approach to practice then over a few weeks ease off so it all becomes more natural, i hope.  but need to get the sounds in my head properly with a better  understanding of what's where 

Yes I can see that would be good as an exercise. Also, people have different ways of thinking about things (often with similar end results) so I'm not saying my way is the right way.

An exercise I've found useful is to pick out (and be aware of) the arpeggios of the underlying chords within the home key scale.

nickp

stratman3142 said:

nickp said:

stratman3142 said:

The Thrill Is Gone by BB King.

I have to confess, I don't think in terms of a new scale for every chord, I just select notes from the basic key scale to create melodies I hear that fit over the chords as they change and adapt the scale as necessary. For example, over The Thrill Is Gone in Bm, my thinking is essentially Bm Aeolian throughout, but I also adapt the scale to play a major 7th (which creates Bm harmonic minor) in places. Plus I chuck in the b5 and some chromatic stuff, if it feels/sounds right.

the eventual goal is to move to playing more what seems right but with far more reference to underlying chord structures, so i thought it best to go for a more systematic approach to practice then over a few weeks ease off so it all becomes more natural, i hope.  but need to get the sounds in my head properly with a better  understanding of what's where 

Yes I can see that would be good as an exercise. Also, people have different ways of thinking about things (often with similar end results) so I'm not saying my way is the right way.

An exercise I've found useful is to pick out (and be aware of) the arpeggios of the underlying chords within the home key scale.

precisely - witgh the arps - so i've just tabbed and am playing up the arps of the underlying chords and then down the scale, and similarly up and down the arps of the underlying chords in one position - so say Cm D dom, Ebmaj 7 and so on - just in position 1 at the moment but will move to all 5 caged positions and look at 3nps approach as well - it's a feck load of learning but almost invaluable I guess if I want to move from being a one dimensional blues rocker to something more sophisticated.  Albeit I'll be dead before I get there probably

Roland

nickp said:

... suggestions of nice slow blues tunes to listen to please (and artists playing them)

When I started playing I used Black Magic Woman. There are loads of versions, but the two classics are Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green) and Santana. 

EricTheWeary

Roland said:

nickp said:

... suggestions of nice slow blues tunes to listen to please (and artists playing them)

When I started playing I used Black Magic Woman. There are loads of versions, but the two classics are Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green) and Santana. 

There's a Fleetwood Mac one reminiscent of BMW but is a minor key 12 bar ( IIRC) which is I Loved Another Woman. 

A lot of the Otis Rush songs were in minor keys, Double Trouble comes to mind which was also covered by JoBo and probably many others.

A lot of minor blues don't do the strict I IV V minor chords, someone mentioned the Thrill has Gone which doesn't for example.

Kenny Burrell's Chitlins Con Carne is a minor key 12 bar ( IIRC there's an intro section before it becomes a 12 bar) which is ambiguous on the chords. The SRV cover of this is good too. 

 All Your Love by Magic Sam is in a minor key but has majors in parts ( so long since I played this but as I remember it). Not the same song as other songs of a similar name! I think as you descend back through the V IV they are majors but I may well be wrong. 

All your Love ( I miss loving) was by Otis Rush, the John Mayall cover is well known and there's a great version by Buddy Guy. Minor blues but it changes to major for the fast parts ( I've a feeling the Guy version stays minor all the way through). IIRC there's a Gary Moore version too.

jpfamps

Otis Rush did some great minor blues. Check out Double Trouble and You Know My Love.

Kenny Burrell is a great way into jazzier minor blues styles; his phrasing is amazing.

In Chitlins Con Carne Kenny Burrell employs a C7#9 on the I chord, so it contains both the major and minor 3rd in the harmony and is thus a Erictheweary says is ambiguous.

The blues scale works over this, and the head is all derived from the blues scale, although during the improvisation Kenny varies between minor and major tonality over the I.

Kenny Burrells Midnight Blue would be a good tune if you want to try something a bit more uptempo.

Trouble Blues by Charles Brown is an interesting progression. There is a great version by Buddy Guy backed by Double Trouble. Sam Cook's version is, as you would expect, stunning.

A key for me when playing through chord changes is to anticipate the chord movement in your lead lines rather than playing each chord as a separate entity, ie you make the chord change appear obvious under your playing. This approach is why jazzers avoid the V to IV change as it's difficult to inject any harmonic resolution into your improvisations over this change compared with I to IV, II to V, and V to I, which of course are to all intents and purposes the same change.

bigjon

Stevie Ray Vaughan's version of Tin Pan Alley has lots of treating each chord as a separate key centre.

bigjon

Ditto Diamonds by Carl Verheyen

nickp

thank you folks.  lots of homework for the weekend

viz

I'll add to your homework; I'd buy "best of santana", best of gary moore playing the blues" and "best of stevie ray vaughan" if such albums exist. 

notanon

Oh My God! Sooo many ppl think stuck in the blues is bad but friggin awesome those @bigjon ;

Thank for posting! 

lukedlb

Great nominations so far. May I nominate 'as the years go passing by' by Albert king, the live version. Rory Gallagher plays the solo and it is exceptionally good. 

nickp

bigjon said:

Ditto Diamonds by Carl Verheyen

loved this @bigjon ;