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I have been ignoring the Major Pentatonic Scale in my improvising. A recent thread brought it to the forefront for me.
Could you please recommend a nice mid-tempo major jazz blues standard for me to learn?
When I encounter a Major chord, I normally just use the major scale or major arpeggios with or without upper extensions.
I would love to bring in the Major Pentatonic scale and try it over the Major and Dominant chords, as has been suggested by others.
Thanks.
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08-24-2014 11:04 PM
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I think that nice George Benson CD cut that is on another thread - Low Down and Dirty - is pretty nice, AR.
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Surely you can play the major blues scale in any (non minor chord) blues? At least over the I chord.
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Straight No Chaser
Blue Train
Blue Monk
Bessie's Blues
Freddie Freeloader
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Tenor Madness
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Thanks for all the suggestions.
Tenor Madness is a good one and I am familiar with it already!
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I will definitely try and work it into my other songs.
Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
I just want to concentrate on it alone until I internalize the feeling it imparts.
To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of Jazz Blues, but when I am in the mood for it, I love it and it feels the immediate need.
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I am sure I have all of these in my CD collection, CG. Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
I will check them out and see if one really grabs me.
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Blue Monk is the best that comes to mind... simple changes.... and the melody presents every type of melodic embellishment of the chord tones (passing tones, double passing tones, neighbor tones, triple enclosure, leaping tones...). It's a textbook example.
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Ellington's "C Jam Blues" is a good example too.
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Fee Fi Fo Fum.
...kidding...All Blues or maybe just practice over a static I7 vamp...or Watermelon Man. Just going through the jazz blues changes in all keys would do too.
i think the most suitable tune for you is The Chicken. Only five dominant chords, mostly two bars for each one.
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Route 66
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Now I am getting a little confused about the term, "Major Blues."
I was thinking it was a progression in the basic blues form, in which there are more chords that a major.
As I looked up the changes to the songs suggested above, the ones with only a few changes did not have any major chords.
So is a Major blues song just a case of using Major "tonality" scales over Dominant chords?
Could you give me a nice Major Blues progression (if there really is such a thing) so I can plug it into my Band-In-A-Box?
Forgive my ignorance, but as you can see, this is one topic I have not tackled.Last edited by AlsoRan; 08-26-2014 at 08:42 AM. Reason: spelling
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AlsoRan this will help Jazz Guitar Chords: Jazz Blues Chord Progression
Tom..
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That is a good resource but I still don't see where the difference is between a Major Blues progression and a Minor Blues Progression. Originally Posted by oilywrag
It does show how most Blues progressions are based on that humble I7 - IV7 - V7 progression. I don't understand, how this becomes major or minor in tonality.
Could it be that the soloist just choosed to use major pentatonic on the various chord changes instead of using minor pentatonic?
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AlsoRan, think of the difference being in the 3rd of those chords. A major blues (dominant blues) like Tenor Madness uses the dominant 7th with a major 3rd. A minor blues like The Thrill is Gone, Impressions, use minor 7th chords with a minor 3rd. The V chord can be a dominant7 in both types of blues and sometimes is a v-7 in a minor blues.
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Here's a minor blues discussion:
Minor Blues | Jazz Guitar Chord Progressions
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If a blues is in, for example, C, the three basic chords are C, F and G, all majors, and all sevenths. In such a blues, you can play the minor blues scale OR the major blues scale - both will work with varying degrees of success, and most people mix them up, a bit of both scales.
A minor blues, on the other hand, in C, would have the basic chords of Cm, Fm, Ab7, G7. You can't play a major blues scale over the Cm chord, but the minor blues scale will feel at home.
I don't know if this is of any use to you, but I thought I should mention it.
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AlsoRan here The Major Blues Scale For Jazz Guitar is something else that might help you out.
To answer your last point, NO, the chords used dictate Maj or Min Blues. As Rob explains above ^^^^^ very nicely.
Tom.
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This wraps things up for me. Originally Posted by oilywrag
And now I know about the Major Blues scale. Thanks.
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I think I posted it before: Originally Posted by AlsoRan
The Blues Scales by Dan Greenblatt | Sher Music Co.
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Originally Posted by woland
I checked it out and played the sample track. Very nice.
I am going to add this to my collection to assist in my blues studies. I have a very nice Fishman book that has me humming many different lines that sneak into my playing. This blues book might just do the same for me.
Thanks for your suggestion.
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The earliest recorded examples of the blues I've ever heard are by W.C. Handy's Memphis Blues Band recorded around 1917. Listening to the songs, one can hear in the first four bars three measures of I followed by a measure of I7 leading to the IV.
This is also true of many blues songs during the 20s and 30s. The I and IV chords would be major or sixths while the V and any secondary dominants would be sevenths. The only time the I7 would appear would be immediately before the IV.
During the 30s, more songs appeared with I7 as the tonic but this harmonic style didn't fully bloom and take root until immediately after WWII with T-Bone Walker and his descendants. By the time most of the baby boomers started picking up guitars the I7-IV7-V7 harmonic blues style was firmly entrenched due as much to rockabilly and early rock & roll as anything. Listening to post-war blues and R&B up to about 1955, one can still hear the I and IV chords being played as triads or sixths.
Most of the boomer guitarists I know think of the blues as a style of playing or as a musical form. This thought train almost always involves minor pentatonic scales and three chords, I7-IV7-V7. This is where aspiring jazz guitarists begin to have major problems. The stuff that we think of as The Blues is a recent stylistic development that has little to do with the type of blues that became a part of jazz in the early 20th Century.
The blues compositions of W.C. Handy were the songs that were being played in New Orleans along with rags and pop tunes when jazz was in its infancy. Most of the blues tunes that that were written and recorded during the first three to four decades of the 20th Century were SONGS. It wasn't three chords and a minor pentatonic scale! They were songs with recognizable melodies and, in many cases, some pretty slick harmonic structures.
Listening to swing and bebop guitarists or even the majority of post-war R&B guitarists play the blues and you'll hear them nailing the changes. No minor pentatonic blanket scales but real change playing on songs. Listen to people play Handy's tunes, the Louis Armstrong Plays W.C Handy album is a great example or listen to the Kansas City bands like The Count Basie Orchestra or The Blue Devils. You'll hear the kind of blues that that was the Mother of Jazz and you'll hear soloists playing blues melodies not pentatonic scales.
Regards,
Jerome
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Amen. But I think it is a law in popular music that simpler music replaces more refined one. Originally Posted by monk
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I had interpreted the term major blues to mean one that uses the major third in the melody, rather than minor third. So this would include Tenor Madness but not Bag's Groove. The chords could still be dominant.
Last edited by ohlcv; 08-27-2014 at 10:57 AM.
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