Why do most blues musicians only play three chords?

[kris]

I honestly admit that I like blues music.
I am a free man as I improvise on three chords.
What are your feelings and thoughts....?

[dot75]

I have a John Lee Hooker album I've yet to digitise so I can't post the track, but the final cut on side two is him riffing on one chord (actually it's mainly one or two notes) & talking - 'throw those fancy chords away, you don't need nuthin', just the beat...'

The sleeve notes say he was asked for another tune to make up the time & wasn't happy...the favorite block of wood ihe brought nto the studio to stomp on gets a credit for the tracks it's on. He was apparently very particular about the way it was miked up.

I listen to lots of music that stays on one harmony for long periods...Fela comes to mind.

[Alter]

There are numerous blues progressions and variations, it's just that the well known 12bar I IV V one became the most popular, especially to people not really into blues.

And even if improvising on just these three chords, blues vocabulary combines at least minor, major pentatonic and the blues scale, so it 's much more intricate than what people give it credit for.

[darkwaters]

“Heard that hoot owl singing
As they were taking down the tents.
The stars above the barren trees
Was his only audience.
Them charcoal gypsy maidens
Can strut their feathers well,
But nobody can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell.”
- Bob Dylan

[mr. beaumont]

Space is a beautiful thing...

Sometimes I feel like my whole life playing jazz is spent adding chords to songs that only have a few and simplifying tunes with a lot of chords back into 3 or 4...

But blues? You gotta play the blues. It's the root of the tree.

[Stringswinger]

Years ago I saw John Mayal's blues band play at the Telluride jazz festival. When Mayal announced that Larry Coryell was going to sit in for a few tunes, Mayal's guitar player stepped up to the mike and said " this is going to be great folks, Larry knows the 4th chord".

Blues can have more than three chords. But a three chord blues played well is often all you need. If it ain't broke, why fix it?

[kris]

There are numerous blues progressions and variations, it's just that the well known 12bar I IV V one became the most popular, especially to people not really into blues.

And even if improvising on just these three chords, blues vocabulary combines at least minor, major pentatonic and the blues scale, so it 's much more intricate than what people give it credit for.

I wonder if every jazz guitarist can play blues stylishly on three chords...?

[deacon Mark]

I am not very good at playing blues in the 3 chord thing but I know it is because I lack the drive for the right blues lines. To me it is as much about rhythm and placement as it about notes and chords. It is hard to say much about it because I am pretty sure I could easily play a lot more guitar and chords in Elvis Presley recordings, than Elvis did but he clearly made more money playing the guitar that I did in playing.

[nyc chaz]

I wonder if every jazz guitarist can play blues stylishly on three chords...?

Larry Carlton,Robben Ford,Scott Henderson seem to do more than ok.In fact i would say guys like them take blues to a whole nother level.

[kris]

Larry Carlton,Robben Ford,Scott Henderson seem to do more than ok.In fact i would say guys like them take blues to a whole nother level.

But they are not mainstream jazz musicians.
In my opinion, they are more into blues or fusion-blues.
They all play brilliantly.
Scofield can play blues and jazz brilliantly - he is a giant.

[MarkRhodes]

I wonder if every jazz guitarist can play blues stylishly on three chords...?

Herb Ellis said that if you couldn't play blues, you couldn't play jazz.

[deacon Mark]

Larry Carlton,Robben Ford,Scott Henderson seem to do more than ok.In fact i would say guys like them take blues to a whole nother level.

These guys are truly great players of huge caliber, interesting enough I don't listen to them much but certainly great.

[Hep To The Jive]

For me blues is about feel not the notes. Millions of guitar palyers can noodle on pentatonics and kinda sound like blues, but not really, none of them are BBKing or any blues giant. The real giants play the same 3 chords with the same licks night after night and still you never get tired of listening and buying new albums even though you know you 've heard it all before. What's the secret? I'm not sure, I can only compare to, like a beautiful woman takes of her clothes, and you know you saw it all beofre and you won't see anything new, but boy, aren't you excited as ever! Sorry ladies if you're here reading.

[AllanAllen]

I wonder if every jazz guitarist can play blues stylishly on three chords...?

You want to look the other way, jazz guitarists with blues gigs. Guys like Duke Robillard, Charlie Baty, going back you have Lonnie Johnson and T-Bone Walker. Benson, Montgomery and Burrell with Jimmy Smith. Bill Jennings.

[RLetson]

In a pinch, you can get away with just two--I-V. And of course, John Lee's boogie, which I first heard on a Newport Folk Festival LP, where John Lee's feet were prominently featured. (As were Quebec fiddler Jean Carignan's on "La Bastringue" and "Le Reel du Pendu. ") A lot of slack key tunes come down to I-V figures as well.

But "Stormy Monday" just doesn't feel right without all the walkup and back chords and that +5 at the turnaround.

[joe2758]

one chord ftw

[kris]

It seems to me that jazz guitarists would have to use thin strings to play real blues.
I think John Scofield once mentioned this.
I once heard L. Carlton on a guitar with thin strings - he played the standard in a non-jazz way. He actually played blues and used bending a lot.Great stuff!

[wolflen]

The three chord form ( I IV V) is the heart of western music..yes even classical-though its disguised very well.

If you take that form away .. well..we would not be on this forum.

Can you remember..the first E chord..the magic sound..how it echoed back hundreds of years..and you felt it...and knew.

[Strat-itis]

I've honestly been wondering about a bluez form deep dive. Since there is way more complexity to it than 1, 4, 5 between all the tunes. But it is more colloquial knowledge than anything formalized. DawgBone probably knows a crap load of different ways to play the bluez. I wish there were summarized material on it since I'm not such a bluez head to pick it all up naturally. Maybe there is.

[Jimmy Mack]

I would highly recommend listening to Blues players. From the "jazzy" Kenny Burrel on "Blue Bash" and "Midnight Blue", switch over to some Stevie Ray Vaughan. Include Elmore James, Mike Bloomfield and then of course BB King.

I prefer the older Blues masters. Lately, the blues is getting too much like overblown "rock" blues.

[DawgBone]

You want to look the other way, jazz guitarists with blues gigs. Guys like Duke Robillard, Charlie Baty, going back you have Lonnie Johnson and T-Bone Walker. Benson, Montgomery and Burrell with Jimmy Smith. Bill Jennings.

I call that the T-Bone wannabe syndrome. There are some guys doing that really well...Anson Funderburgh, Kid Ramos, and several guys I know locally but it's all geared around sounding like T-Bone and I get sick of it tbh. It's cool when it's done right but damned if it's not purely throwback, lacking any forward thinking. Somehow the downgrading of larger blues fests in conjunction with the swing revival invited that lower volume throwback style into the limelight because that is what is the most popular right now IME.

I grew up in the era of loud, large, borderline rock festival blues so that's basically how I like to play it. Not blues-rock, rocking blues. Straight blues with the power and volume of rock music. Think Freddie King in the late 60's and 70's or Buddy Guy's touring group in the 90's. Unfortunate that it is in a great decline. My timing is wrong I guess.

[wolflen]

From the: You had to be there Dep't.

its 1967 -- Jimi just hit the US at Monterey Pop..Clapton had Cream..Bloomfield was with Buterfield

I was helping out some local blues/rock bands 16/17 yr olds doing Hendrix and Bloomie tunes and licks.

I was into Black music AM stations doing artists not on any major (white) stations The main star DJ - Frankie Crocker - was playing
some very hip stuff:

Dyke and the Blazers - Funky Broadway and So Sharp
Irma Franklin (yeah-her sister) Take another piece of my heart. (Before Janice) and many others

and this guy--*I had a 45 record player in my car at the time--The Jimi/Bloomie players said after hearing it.."..who the kcuf is this..

[MarkRhodes]

You want to look the other way, jazz guitarists with blues gigs. Guys like Duke Robillard, Charlie Baty, going back you have Lonnie Johnson and T-Bone Walker. Benson, Montgomery and Burrell with Jimmy Smith. Bill Jennings.

I like Duke Robillard a lot. (And Bill Jennings is one of Duke's heroes.) Charlie Baty was a swinging blues player too. I think Charlie told Tommy Harkenrider (-who posts here from time to time) that he, Charlie, learned a lot from the first Mickey Baker book. Ground zero for a lot of "hot" guitar players.

A bit of Herb Ellis by some swinging blues.

[DawgBone]

From the: You had to be there Dep't.

its 1967 -- Jimi just hit the US at Monterey Pop..Clapton had Cream..Bloomfield was with Buterfield

I was helping out some local blues/rock bands 16/17 yr olds doing Hendrix and Bloomie tunes and licks.

I was into Black music AM stations doing artists not on any major (white) stations The main star DJ - Frankie Crockett - was playing
some very hip stuff:

Dyke and the Blazers - Funky Broadway and So Sharp
Irma Franklin (yeah-her sister) Take another piece of my heart. (Before Janice) and many others

and this guy--*I had a 45 record player in my car at the time--The Jimi/Bloomie players said after hearing it.."..who the kcuf is this..

The guy who booked me into some of the Arkansas events I went to a few weeks ago was a former drummer for Albert King. He recounted some stories about Albert. He wasn't very nice to the band guys, lol, which isn't surprising. The drumming up around Helena/Clarksdale was awesome though.

[ragman1]

Why do most blues musicians only play three chords?

Because it's easier? Also because the sound is more raw, which suits the style.

But the real genius of the blues isn't the chords, it's the minor-over-major sound. What an innovation.