Playing through chords


Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Beeker has taken to sleeping right next to my feet regardless of the hour, morning, noon and night.

Yesterday, the 27th I played my first 12 bar blues with my music teacher, Jimmy Kershaw.  Only a few minutes, he played lead and I played rhythm, then we traded back and forth a few times.  Maybe about 5 minutes as most.  Played in the key of  "A" using the pentatonic scale that he was teaching me. First blues as 74, what a hoot.  Learning to play through the chords, not just over them. 

See, there are different ways to play a song using chords.  One way is to play the melody using the notes in the chords.  The other is to play the notes around the chord, the way jazz and blues musicians play songs.  Start out with the melody and once that is established, start to improvise by playing notes not necessarily associated with the melody or notes in the chords making up the melody. At the same time keeping the phrasing or chord progression the same.  

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