Jazz Blues Concepts

So, a 12-bar blues, in the sense of a jazz 12-bar blues, is obviously a lot more complex than a basic 3-chord blues in standard blues playing. The thing about it is that it's completely drawn from the same concept of the 1-4-5 chord, three 4-bar phrases, just like we'd have in a standard blues. What I was actually just playing was more of what we'd call a Charlie Parker or Parker blues. There's definitely a whole lot of chord changes in what I was just doing, but ultimately it was the same 12-bar context. It was kind of up-tempo and I was doing a bass line with chords, which we'll talk about in a minute. What I want to do in this podcast is kind of give you an overview of what a jazz blues entails and the differences that a jazz blues would have between the chords in a jazz blues and a straight 1-4-5 blues, just like a typical blues. So, we're going to use the key of F as an example, and I'm just going to step you through the 12-bars. I'm sure you are familiar with these 12-bars of a basic F blues. One bar of F, a bar of B-flat, two bars of F, two bars of B-flat, two bars of F, bar of C, B-flat, F, and then bar of C on the turnaround. Obviously, a straight blues in F. The thing about jazz is it's harmonically complex most of the time, unless you're talking about modal jazz, which is part of the sound. It's like cooking. If it just had a lot of ingredients, that's kind of what jazz is. So, the thing about a jazz blues is that we've got a lot of extra changes in there. I'm just going to step you through a basic jazz blues in the key of F. First measure is going to be an F chord, F7. Second measure is going to be B-flat 7 to B diminished, two beats apiece, and then a measure of F7 again. Then C minor 7 to F7 in the fourth bar. So again, slowly, the first four bars of an F blues in jazz chord changes. F, B-flat, B, F, C minor, F. Slowly, one more time. And I'm kind of showing you these block chords with the bass notes before we talk about some other chord voicings you could use. Just to get the point across with the bass notes and you can really hear the harmony. So, when you get to the fifth measure, you're basically on a B-flat 7 chord. Sixth measure is going to be that B diminished for a whole measure. The seventh measure will be an F7. And then in the eighth measure, this is an important one, you're going to actually go to an A minor 7 and then to a D7. So again, and then in the ninth measure, a full measure of G minor 7 to a full measure of C7 in the tenth measure. And then the last two bars, two beats a piece. F7 to D7, G minor 7 to C7. So the whole thing slowly would be like this. So now that we've looked at the chords that you would play in a jazz blues in F with the bass notes, the roots of the chords. Let's think about what that would mean if we were playing in a group with a bass player, where his role really is to play those roots of your chords, more or less. At that point, it's time to not play the roots of the chords in the bass. So you'd play things that would sound a little thinner like this. So those chords really have the thirds and sevenths in them, and in most cases a tension, or I guess in all cases. But let me step you through what these are. Of course, these are in the chord diagrams in the beginning of the video as well. F13, F9, to a Bb13 chord, to a B diminished 7. Back to F, F dominant 9, C minor 9, to F7 sharp 9 flat 13. And now we're into the four chords. This is Bb13, and then the B diminished chord. And the thing about diminished forms is you can move those in minor thirds. So you can move those just at will up and down three frets a piece, and that's kind of the same chord, just inverts. Back to F. And after that, after the F chord, you've got the... It's kind of setting up for the turnaround here. A minor 11, to D13 flat 9, then the turnaround, G minor 11, C13 sharp 9, and then the true turnaround, last couple bars here. F9, D7 flat 13 flat 9, G minor 9, C7 flat 13 flat 9, and then up to the F13 sharp 9. So some of those chords are pretty bold sounding, but that's the kind of stuff that you'd hear in a modern jazz kind of context. And in most situations, the point of that really is to get away from playing the roots and the bass if you're playing with a bass player. So really that is drawn from the same elements that make up a 12-bar blues as we know it. Really those same basic idea of the one chord, the tonic sound in that first phrase, the four chord in that second phrase, and then ultimately a turnaround in that last phrase. And you can do a ton of stuff with that. All of the chords and all of the stuff I'm playing is outlined in the beginning in the tabs and the chords. You can check those out. I want to step you through that, what I was playing originally in the beginning there. That definitely was drawn from that same F blues concept, but it's more of what we call a Parker blues or Charlie Parker changes on a blues. And there's some very interesting differences here. What I'm doing just as a technique, just so you understand, is I'm playing a walking bass with a thumb like this, kind of getting a real smooth legato sound with the thumb. And the chord is basically being plucked with the first and second fingers. In most cases, the guide tone is the third and seventh of the chord like that. You want a short staccato sound. See, I'm just pulling them up and muting. While the bass note rings out, you kind of get a real short muted offbeat chord sound. So let me play through it again slowly. Real slowly. To B flat seven. To G minor seven. C seven. So let me show you slowly what those chords would actually be. Of course, this is all tabbed out in the beginning too. F major seven in the first measure there. Just walking up the bass and quarter notes. E minor seven flat five. To A seven. To D minor seven flat five. To G seven. To C minor seven flat five. To F seven. And then into, we're now in measure five, a B flat seven chord. Walking up. B flat minor seven. To E flat dominant seven. A flat, or A minor seven rather. To D seven. A flat minor seven. To D flat dominant seven. To G minor seven. Now we're at the ninth bar. G minor seven. And then to C seven. And now the turnaround is a little tricky. But what that is, is if we looked at the turnaround as we talked about it in the other Jazz Blues, the basic Jazz Blues, it went, the basic turnaround was one, six, two, five. So it went F seven to D seven to G minor seven to C seven. All we're basically doing is putting dominant seventh chords in front of each of those changes. So like F seven, E flat seven sliding into D seven. Then A flat seven sliding into G minor seven. Then D flat seven sliding into C seven. Then G flat seven ultimately resolving back to the F chord. So those are some ideas for Jazz Blues changes. My name is Pierre Vinsuzon. I would like to play for you a tune dedicated to Michael Hedges, which I wrote some years ago. I'm going to put my index on that 15th fret. And I'm going to pick that string either with my ring finger or with my little finger.