Minor Blues Soloing In Five Steps
Published: Wed, 10/18/23
But before all that – why "Minor Blues & Bebop" at all? Most often, we just kind of think of blues as "blues;" if we stop and think about it at all, blues seems sort of major. But not entirely, because all the chords are usually 7th chords. You can play minor pentatonic over it, but if you want to start getting more of a swing or bebop sound, those minor pentatonic licks may be the first thing to go, in favor of sounds that give you the major third on each chord. My The Swing Scale workshop last spring covered a lot of that ground, and its followup, Bebop For Beginners added altered and diminished sounds into the mix.
But there is a distinct category of minor blues progressions, not all of them twelve bars long – everything from "St. James Infirmary" (eight bars) to "The Thrill Is Gone" (twelve bars), from "House of the Rising Sun" (eight again) to "Summertime" (sixteen bars). And at first glance, they seem easier – minor pentatonic is definitely welcome over the minor blues, all day long. But that, in a way, almost makes it harder to get out of the pentatonic straightjacket, or at least, there's less motivation.
There is just as much opportunity, however, to expand your vocabulary on the minor blues as on the major progression. By taking the basic chord changes – i, iv and V – and approaching each one with a V7 chord of its own, you can lay the foundation for more sophisticated moves like altered scales and chromatic licks. Here are the five building blocks we'll be covering in Minor Blues & Bebop to help you diversify your minor blues vocabulary and develop a jazz-inflected fluency with the minor blues progression. Throughout the workshop, we'll stay in one key, G minor, to make it easier for you to compare, contrast, mix and match all of the material we cover.
1. We'll start with some fingerings for the most important minor scales, clarifying (and simplifying!) what makes them different from each other, before getting into the most important thing about using scales: how to phrase them. Without a strong rhythmic foundation, your scales will just sound like scales, not licks, so we'll go over some essential soloing rhythms and then see how they actually work over the course of three twelve-bar model solos.
2. Next, we'll look at the most important chord substitution on the minor blues – how to add extra V chords to the progression – and follow up immediately with some simple altered arpeggio and scale ideas to play over them. Using one of the three model solos we've just learned, we'll look at how to add those new arpeggios and licks into a minor pentatonic solo.
3. With the i and V7 chord spelled out, we'll look at how to approach both the iv chord and the V chord with altered sounds of their own, learning a couple of simple scales and arpeggios for spelling out the iv chord and the bVI chord along the way. At each step, you'll have a model solo to try that incorporates the ideas we've just covered into a tabbed-out twelve-bar example.
4. Now for the fun part! For each four-bar line of the blues (bars 1-4, bars 5-8, bars 9-12) we'll check out three different ways to play through that part of the progression, using a mix of classic blues phrasing and our new altered licks vocabulary. I call these four-bar examples "permutations;" each one is similar, but different, so you can mix and match them, line by line, to start creating new solos of your own.
5. To make it completely clear how to practice this material, I've taken a handful of these permutations and written out a couple of additional twelve-bar solos for us to go over, so you can see exactly how all the pieces fit together. You can even switch examples every two bars, creating even more possibilities for coming up with ideas of your own.
2. Next, we'll look at the most important chord substitution on the minor blues – how to add extra V chords to the progression – and follow up immediately with some simple altered arpeggio and scale ideas to play over them. Using one of the three model solos we've just learned, we'll look at how to add those new arpeggios and licks into a minor pentatonic solo.
3. With the i and V7 chord spelled out, we'll look at how to approach both the iv chord and the V chord with altered sounds of their own, learning a couple of simple scales and arpeggios for spelling out the iv chord and the bVI chord along the way. At each step, you'll have a model solo to try that incorporates the ideas we've just covered into a tabbed-out twelve-bar example.
4. Now for the fun part! For each four-bar line of the blues (bars 1-4, bars 5-8, bars 9-12) we'll check out three different ways to play through that part of the progression, using a mix of classic blues phrasing and our new altered licks vocabulary. I call these four-bar examples "permutations;" each one is similar, but different, so you can mix and match them, line by line, to start creating new solos of your own.
5. To make it completely clear how to practice this material, I've taken a handful of these permutations and written out a couple of additional twelve-bar solos for us to go over, so you can see exactly how all the pieces fit together. You can even switch examples every two bars, creating even more possibilities for coming up with ideas of your own.
And that's it! So, to sum up: we'll start with basic blues elements, spell out the i, iv and V, approach each of those chords with altered licks, see how they sound in actual blues solos, and learn a method for practicing improvising and building your own vocabulary.
If you've already taken last month's Minor Blues Chord Substitutions, you'll have a jump start on some of the ideas involved, but even if you haven't, I'll be reviewing the most important concepts from that workshop in this one. (If you missed the Minor Blues Chord Substitutions live stream, it's still available as an on-demand replay.)
You can sign up for Minor Blues & Bebop, the replay of Minor Blues Chord Substitutions, the upcoming Kenny Burrell Chords, or the entire series, at the link below:
Minor Blues Workshop Series
For a short lesson on what it looks like to start outlining the chords of a minor blues, check out today's Youtube video:
If You Know The Chord Progression, You Can Play The Changes
More soon,
David