Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Getting the Blues...

While I can play a bit of blues shuffling rhythm, I don't really know why I play what I do aside from I can tell, subconsciously, it fits the same pattern of chords that I've heard a thousand times before in songs from Muddy Waters to Elmore James to Buddy Guy to Stevie Ray Vaughan...

So, yesterday was all about looking into the patterns of the blues - although it was more of a quick peek in their general direction as I tried to work out what all this I, IV, V chord notation meant. 

From what I understand, the Roman numeral corresponds to the 'numbers' of the notes in the Major Scale in relation to the root note of the scale. 

E Major Scale = E, F#, G#, A, B and D#

Therefore, the I, IV, V progression is E would be E, A and B (which ties in with what I did know about playing a blues progression!).

Of course, what gets confusing are all the variations of those I, IV, V chords that are possible within a 12 bar blues while still being a blues! I am working on this today!

In other news, I've been looking into just how I'd manage to get about in the USA and it looks like a combination of trains and buses would be a pretty economical choice. I have to admit, I quite like the idea of using a train - gives me time to relax and have a chat; I think if I drove everywhere I'd end up knackered. Although perhaps spending 12 hours driving from one part of the USA to the other would be enough to really give me the blues...

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