Basic Blues Progression

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From the course by University of Rochester

The Blues: Understanding and Performing an American Art Form

305 ratings

University of Rochester

The Blues: Understanding and Performing an American Art Form

305 ratings

The blues is an American art form and the most important musical form in jazz. Although there are other formal paradigms of the blues, such as 8-bar or 16-bar, this course focuses on different incarnations of the 12-bar blues. There are considerable differences between Early Jazz blues, Swing blues, Bebop blues, Modal blues, and Post Bop blues. Each type has its unique harmonic syntax, melodic vocabulary and, associated with them, improvisational techniques. While other aspects of jazz performance practice have been constantly changing from one stylistic convention to another, the blues has never lost its identity and expressive power, and continues to exert a powerful influence on the harmonic and melodic syntax of jazz. This seven-week course explores important aspects of the blues, blues improvisation, basic keyboard textures, jazz harmonic and melodic syntax. Topics include: (1) Blues Progressions; (2) Blues and Other Scales; (3) Improvisational Tools, and others. This course will also cover valuable theoretical concepts enabling the student to master the art of jazz improvisation. Each topic will be introduced from a practical perspective with the clearly stated goal: to improve one’s improvisational skills. Jazz improvisation is rooted in spontaneity, creativity, self-expression and, at the same time, self-control and order. A unique pedagogical approach based on a one-to-one musical interaction conducted with different instrumentalists will help to reinforce many of the concepts introduced in this course and realize its stated objectives.

From the lesson

Blues Progressions – Theory and Practice

Lesson 1 focuses on foundational aspects of the blues, examining its history, innovation, and evolving harmonic structure. At the end of this lecture, students should have a firm understanding of the harmonic structure of the basic, generic, and minor blues forms, as well as a familiarity with the A A’ B phrase-structure of the blues.

Lesson 1 Introduction4:14

Historical Overview (12:00)11:59

Generic Blues (6:25)6:25

Basic Blues Progression8:53

Minor Blues (6:49)6:48

AA’B Phrase Structures (5:54)5:54

Meet the Instructors

Dariusz Terefenko
Associate Professor of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media
Eastman School of Music

Now, we are going to talk about the Basic Blues Progression.

We can easily transform the generic blues, which as you might remember

featured very slow harmonic rhythm, into the Basic Blues Progression.

So the Basic Blues Progression is the most common type of the blues.

One that you'll probably encounter when playing with other jazz musicians.

So, let me play you a Basic Blues Progression in time.

One, two, three, four.

[MUSIC]

So, when you compare the genetic groups, in the Basic Groups Progressions,

you notice that in the basic groups there is more cords.

Instead of a single cord occupying measures one through four.

You have four additional chords.

So let's discuss how they came about, and what is their harmonic function and

tonal function.

Remember, the first phrase of the blues is occupied by the tonic harmony.

But we can add additional chords in order to enhance that harmony.

We call, we label this a substitutions.

So for instance, instead of staying on the tonic for

four bars, [SOUND] we can prolong that chord with a chord on E

flat [SOUND] on the sub-dominant and return the tonic.

[SOUND] Now, check out the chord progression in measure four.

You have F minor and B flat 7.

What is the role of the F minor?

We know that B flat 7, that's where the chord occurs to begin with.

But the F minor is an interesting chord.

When you look at the behavior of B flat 7 and

its role, in relation to the next chord E flat 7.

It does what?

It functions as the dominant,

[MUSIC]

Of the sub-dominant, right?

So, it's like five, to one.

So, imagine for a moment that the E flat is a new key earlier, local key earlier.

And it's our chord that we need to get to, in a most forceful way.

So the most forceful way to approach that chord is through its dominant.

So the B flat chord in measure V is dominant.

But jazz musicians like to speed up the harmonic rhythm.

By adding the two chord prior to the local dominant.

So, the F minor chord in relation to E flat 7, it's a local tone.

So it's like, F minor 2, 5, 1.

So when I play the first four bars,

listen to the accumulation of harmonic tension you measure for.

[MUSIC]

Measure two.

[MUSIC]

Measure three.

[MUSIC]

And measure four.

[MUSIC]

See that faster harmonic rhythm, the arrival of the E flat 7 chord or

the sub-dominant in measure five is more inevitable.

And it's very important concept of adding embellishing chords.

So we refer to these progressions as embellishing chords.

Because the structural codes remain fixed on fixed occasions.

But we can enhance these progressions by adding auxiliary chords or

embellishing chords.

And that's precisely what happened in my historical overview of the blues.

When later Blues Progressions were completely unrecognizable, if you would

look at them without knowing that these are actually Blues Progressions.

The same thing happens at the very end of the four.

In measure 12, you have another two, five,

one progression in the key of B flat major.

So again, the dominant F goes back to the top of the form B flat 7.

But, we can emphasize that motion.

By expanding the dominant into a local two, five progression.

For the C minor, two, five, one.

That's another expansion,

which makes the arrival of the top of the form more inevitable.

Also, look at the chord progression in the generic blues in measure nine.

You notice that, that chord is your dominant F7.

In our basic blues progression, there is no F7.

It's a C minor chord, but the very next chord is the F7.

So what we've done here is to expand the two measure chime,

controlled by the dominant into a two-five-one progression.

C minor for one measure.

So do you see how we can, by adding very simple technique

of expanding local dominance or structural dominance in two, five, one progression.

We can expand the harmonic rhythm of the blues and

by extension of other tunes as well.

Jazz musicians love the two, five, one progression.

They like the fact that their structural or

local dominance can be expanded into two chords,

therefore making chord progressions more active, and more fun to improvise, so.

There's one chord that doesn't quite fit into

on the chrome of the overall progression.

The chord preceding the C minor chord in measure nine,

you can see that there is a G7 chord.

[MUSIC]

But again, when you think about C minor chord as being the structural

chord that we need to get to.

Jazz musicians, frequently would add the local

dominants of these chords in order to make the arrival more inevitable.

So the G7, when you think about it, this is a dominant

[MUSIC]

Of C minor.

See, it's like a secondary dominant.

That's the technical term, secondary dominant.

Five of two, right?

So, listen once more to the whole progression.

I'm going to play with the walking bass line.

So you can hear a faster harmonic rhythm,

but especially pay attention to measure.

Measures four, measures eight, measures nine and ten, and the final measure.

I want you to be able to hear a faster harmonic rhythm and

the presence of chromatic chords.

One, two, three, four.

[MUSIC]

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