24th Jan

24th Jan – Today in music we used a chord chart to learn a 12 bar blues in A. The chords for a 12 bar blues are the 1st, 4th and 5th degree chords of the major scale. These are called primary chords. These chords are A, D and E. At first we played around this progression together without solos so that we could all get familiar with the chord pattern. We then tried jamming over it, taking turns using the major and minor pentatonic scales to improvise (12 bars each). I focused on using lots of different licks from the a minor pentatonic scale including different receptive patterns and runs across all six strings.

Here is an example of a run I practised over the chords as it makes use of the notes of the A minor pentatonic scale  and has a very bluesy sound to it. I also added in the flat 5th interval, d# (the blues note) when playing different licks over the chords. I set myself the challenge of learning as many different blues phrases and licks as I could over the next week so when we practised the 12 bar blues next week I would have a lot more different patterns to use and blend together with over patterns from the A major scale. I will do this by listening to lots of different blues guitarists and learning what they do and learn the licks they often use through out a 12 bar blues.