The Guitar Resource » Composition

Playing the eight bar blues

Joe — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:16:56 +0000

Now that you have an understanding of the basic 12-bar blues, let’s talk a little bit about the 8-bar blues format. Unlike the 12-bar blues format, the 8-bar blues is much less defined. And that’s part of the fun of playing an 8 bar blues-you can experiment with the chord changes.

Typically in 8 bar blues changes the IV chord come in the 3rd bar (it comes in the 5th in 12 bar blues). Here is probably one of the more typical 8 bar blues changes:

Note that in bars 7 and 8 there are 2 chords per bar. So each chord in those bars is only played for 2 beats.

But by no means is that format the one you need to stick to. You can mix and match the chords in any way that suits you. You can even play one 8-bar blues format for the verse and then play a different one for the verse. Here are some examples of some other eight bar blues changes to get you started:

"Key to the Highway" (variation with the V at bar 2):
I V IV IV
I V I V

"Walking By Myself" (somewhat unorthodox example of the form):
I I I I
V IV I V

Now start experimenting with your own eight bar blues compositions.
Next blues lesson will begin to talk about the “shuffle”, which is the key to playing blues rhythm. Then we will go on to soloing over the blues. Stay tuned!

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Modes – applying the major scale modes

Joe — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:15:04 +0000

Understanding modes
Understanding how to apply modes is one of the tougher concepts for guitarists new to music theory. Before you even try and understand how to apply modes on guitar you have to first make sure you understand what modes are and how they are created. If you are not crystal clear on those concepts than read my post Modes- An introduction to learning modes before reading any further.

Why you should use modes
Before we start talking about how to use modes, lets talk about why you should use modes. One reason of using a mode is to melodically outline the harmonic changes of a song. What do I mean by that? Well by outline the chord changes of a song is your solos it makes your solos more interesting and relevant. It helps the listener hear the chord changes and keeps your melodies in sync with the harmonies.

Another reason to use modes is for composition. If you harmonize notes of a mode by stacking 3rds the same way you would with the major scale, you will have unique chords and the diatonic harmonies would be a lot different. (If that is confusing just keep reading).
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An Intro to the Blues- the 12-bar blues

Joe — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:56:55 +0000

Many of you are already familiar with the 12-bar blues, but since I plan on doing more advanced blues and jazz lessons in the future I wanted to start of with the basics to make sure everyone is up to par (or should I say “up to bar”:)) on the 12-bar blues. I am not really going to go into the history of the blues. You can always go to Wikepedia for that. I want to dive straight into how to play the blues.

The 12- bar blues format
As the name indicates, the 12-bar blues is a blues format with 12 bars in 4/4 time. (4/4 time means that there are 4 beats per measure. So if you are practicing with your metronome, every 4 beeps is one bar). The 12 bars are made up of 3 different chords: the I, IV and V. (See my post on diatonic harmony if you don’t know what those roman numerals mean). Many times the I, IV, V chords are played as dominant chords so the symbols may look like I7, IV7, V7. Using dominant chords will create more tension and sadness, which is what the blues are all about.

In the 12 bar blues those chords are almost always arranged in the same format. Here is what a standard 12 bar blues chord format would look like. The red Roman numerals indicate the name of the chord that should be played for that bar (I wrote in what the chords would be if we were in the key of E. You can change the chords to match whatever key you want to play in). I also wrote the bar number in blue under each bar:

So those are the basics to the 12-bar blues. Now you can write your first blues song. I’ll get you started: “Well since my baby left me…” Take it away!

Stay tuned for lots more blues lessons to come!

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Creating tension and resolution—the V7 to I chord change

Joe — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:03:00 +0000

(Before you read this lesson you should make sure you understand Diatonic Harmony and Buliding 7th chords)

Good composition is about creating music that has movement. Music that has peaks and valleys. If your chord progressions don’t go anywhere, they are just boring. The best way to create music with strong movement is to create tension and resolution in your compositions. How do you do that? Well the easiest and most common way is with V to I (“Five to One”) chord changes.
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Diatonic harmony- the building block of composition

Joe — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:02:00 +0000

Note: Before you read this post it would help you if you read my post on notes, the major scale, and building chords.

As discussed previously a diatonic scale is a scale consisting only of the 7 notes which fit within a givins scale's formula. The most famous and useful (at least in western music) is the major scale (i.e. The major scale is diatonic b/c is consists of all 7 notes derived from the W-W-H-W-W-W-H formula). If you recall, major chords are built from the major scale by taking the 1,3, and 5 notes of the scale and the minor chord is made by taking the 1, 3b, and 5 notes of the major scale. These notes are chosen because chords are made by stacking either major or minor 3rd intervals (See my post on intervals if you don’t know what major and minor 3rds are)
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