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
Comments
My feedback thread is here.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Thank for posting!