This Barney Kessel blues comes from a 1974 BBC TV program called The Five Faces of the Guitar, later released on the album Live & Rare. The track is simply titled “Blues“. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to play the theme of this blues and part of the intro.
The theme employs half-diminished (m7b5) and half-diminished 11 voicings as substitutes for the dominant chords of the blues, outlining 9 and 13 chords.
| Em7b5 Chord | E | G | Bb | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played over C7 | 3 | 5 | b7 | 9 |
C9 (= Em7b5)
| Em11b5 Chord | E | G | Bb | D | A |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played over C7 | 3 | 5 | b7 | 9 | 13 |
C13 (=Em11b5)
The riff in bar 8 is built on the C major pentatonic scale.
Backing Track
Listen & Play-Along
Blues in C – Intro
Barney Kessel opens the intro with a C13 arpeggio, followed by three dominant voicings:
C13 → Db13 (tritone sub for G7) → C9 (Em7b5 voicing)
He then plays the same idea transposed to F, the IV7 in a blues.
The intro ends with a blues cliché in sixths.
Listen & Play-Along
Brilliant. Exactly what I am after
You are continually publishing lessons that I like and are right on for where I am at. Brilliant stuff
Thank you,
Your website continually surprises me with its depth and quality.
Absolutely excellent as always – keep up the great work!
Great teacher and lesson! – Thanks Dirk
Great!
Thank you so much!
Grazie per tutto quello che fate per me Buon Natale
Interesante tema, su armonización y acompañamiento. Solo: estudiarlo.
While in Navy Band San Francisco, I went to Yoshi’s to see Barney…an amazing guy! He autographed a five dollar bill. Later when I went to pay for the bus I really learned ‘Take Five’. It was all I had in my wallet! Thanks for keeping the music alive !
Thanks so much for the lesson!
Great lesson as always.
Always great content, very much appreciated!
Your website is awesome. The posts are great for jazz practice. Thank you
Magnífico. Muchas gracias maestro.
Sounds great. I have a question about the close voicing to the open voicing. I’d probably play the Db13 and the Gb13 as open voicings [drop-2] to keep each individual voice moving in steps, as I might write for any individual instruments. Is that perceptible on the guitar? Am I over-thinking it?
Superbe, je le voulais celui là, très belle intro…dans cet esprit blues, j’adore…
Just great to have your posts and website
I don’t think it’s a Dbsus4. Just Db13. Great lesson and chords sequence though, thanks.
Thank Dirk!
I think blues is part of my origin, and this lesson covers that so well…
Love it!
Gonna learn it!
Gonna work it out to work for me!
Thanks, Dirk!