{"id":17444,"date":"2025-09-09T19:15:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/?p=17444"},"modified":"2026-02-15T21:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T20:44:09","slug":"blues-connotation-ornette-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jazzguitar.be\/blog\/blues-connotation-ornette-coleman\/","title":{"rendered":"Blues Connotation (Ornette Coleman)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blues Connotation (aka P.S. Unless One Has) is the opening track of Ornette Coleman’s fifth studio album This Is Our Music<\/em> (1960). In this lesson, you will learn how to play the melody on guitar. It\u2019s a fun tune to play and sits easily under the fingers, making it very approachable on guitar.<\/p>\n

\"Blues<\/p>\n

Blues Connotation shows how Coleman could take familiar jazz structures and mix them with his own unique harmonic and rhythmic concepts.<\/p>\n

The song follows a traditional 12-bar jazz blues progression<\/a> in Bb, but with a twist: bar 11 is shortened to 2\/4 (during the theme). This rhythmic shift is typical of Coleman’s music, respecting jazz traditions while pushing the boundaries.<\/p>\n

The original recording is fast at about 264 BPM, but for this lesson, I slowed it down to 180 BPM, making it easier to hear the phrasing clearly and play it comfortably on guitar.<\/p>\n

Recommended listening:<\/strong><\/p>\n