Guitar II: The Blues and some new chord shapes

We are going to experiment with the blues progression and soloing over a blues progression using the pentatonic scale. In this instance we were experimenting with the key of A (a very guitar friendly blues key).

First here is the basic chord structure of the blues:

A7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |
D7             A7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |
E7    D7     A7
| / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / |

What you will learn (if you keep playing and studying the blues) is that this is a real basic progression of chords within the blues and you can create many, many variations on chord choice and position.

We can use the A minor pentatonic scale for soloing over this progression. We can also use the A Blues Scale. Here are examples of those 2 scales:

A minor Pentatonic:

A Blues Scale:

I wanted to also introduce a couple new chord voicings that can be useful when playing the blues.


Playing the blues becomes a sort of puzzle in which the pieces can fit in a number of places. This can lead to near endless variations on what you can play and how you choose to express yourself.
Here we scratch the surface...

Chord Families: It's Primary Season

We can play quite a few primary chords within a number of chord families. Remember the primary chords are the I-IV-V of any given key. We can play chord families in Major and minor keys. Here is a rundown of what we can do...

Guitar 1:

Key of G

G-C-D7

Key of A

A-D-E7

Key of D

D-G-A7

Key of E

E-A-B7

Key of Em

Em-Am-B7

Key of Am

Am-Dm-E7

Guitar 2: All of above and...

Key of C
C-F-G7

Key of F
F-Bb-C7

Key of Bb
Bb-Eb-F7

Key of Eb
Eb-Ab-Bb7

Key of Ab
Ab-Db-Eb7

Key of Db
Db-Gb-Ab7

Key of Cb
Cb-Fb-Gb7

Key of B
B-E-F#7

Key of F#
F#-B-C#7

Key of C#
C#-F#-G#7

These examples are all listed in Major tonality. Guitar 2 students should play all of these chord families in both major and minor. In minor, the 1st and 4th chords would use a minor shape.

GHS Guitar- Joining Google Classroom

To help facilitate work flow, I am going to begin using a Google Classroom page.

Our class content will still appear on our blog, but occasionally we will collect some work through Google Classroom.

Here is some information about joining the classroom...

The class code can be found on the board.

Thanks!

Guitar 1: Self-Reflection and Evaluation

Please complete the following self-reflection and evaluation for Qtr. 3.

Thank You