Module 6: The bluesLesson 5intermediate⏱ 90 min, then 20 min a day for two weeks

Minor blues and bird blues

Learn the minor blues form with its iv7, bVI7 and altered V7, analyse the bird-blues changes made famous by Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice" by Roman numerals, and choose a soloing approach for each.

Why two more forms

When someone calls "a blues" at a session, the twelve bars you have been playing in this module are what they mean nine times out of ten. The tenth time it is one of two variations. The minor blues keeps the shape of the form but puts it in a minor key: "Mr. P.C.", "Equinox", "Chitlins Con Carne" and "Footprints" (in 6/4) are all minor blues. The bird blues keeps the key and the landmarks but replaces almost every bar with a ii–V, so that the form becomes a chain of cadences: Charlie Parker's "Blues for Alice" is the model, and "Freight Trane" and many later tunes use the same changes. Both need their own voicings and their own soloing approach; neither is hard once you see how it relates to the jazz blues you already know.

The minor blues

The form

The minor blues is usually written in C minor (or G minor and F minor); the examples below are in C minor. The I and IV chords become minor 7ths, so the bright I7–IV7 pull of the major blues is replaced by something darker and more static, and the cadence in bars 9–10 becomes the only real motion in the form. There are two standard versions of that cadence, and you will meet both:

• Bars 1–8 are i7 and iv7, with the quick change to iv7 in bar 2 as an option.
• Bar 9 is the bVI7: a dominant chord on the flat 6th of the key. It sits a half step above the V7 and slides down into it. This is the sound of "Equinox" and "Mr. P.C."; the alternative is iiø7 (the half-diminished ii chord of the minor key) in bar 9.
• Bar 10 is the V7, nearly always played altered (with a flat 9th, sharp 9th and flat 13th) because it resolves to a minor chord. The plain V7 of the major blues would sound wrong here.
• Bars 11–12 are i7 and a turnaround back to V7alt, with the iiø7 in the first half of bar 12 as an option.

Voicings for the minor blues

The drop-2 shapes on strings 5-4-3-2 cover the i7, iv7 and bVI7 between the 1st and 5th frets. For the altered dominant the library's rootless shapes are good, but the simplest useful voicing is a dominant shell with the flat 13th added on the 2nd string; the second custom shape, higher up the neck, replaces the flat 13th with the sharp 9th. Both are verified against the altered chord's tones.

Play the chorus below with the Charleston plus a hit on beat 4 (the rhythm from the comping lesson). Keep the altered chord short and quiet: it is the tensest moment of the form, and tension needs no help.

\tempo 110
.
\ts 4 4
(3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d ch "Cm7"} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4{d ch "Fm7"} (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d ch "Cm7"} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4{d ch "Fm7"} (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4{d} (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 3.4 1.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d ch "Cm7"} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 4.4 1.3 4.2).4{d ch "Ab7"} (3.5 4.4 1.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 4.4 1.3 4.2).4 | (3.6 3.4 4.3 4.2).4{d ch "G7alt"} (3.6 3.4 4.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.6 3.4 4.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4{d ch "Cm7"} (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).8 r.4 (3.5 5.4 3.3 4.2).4 | (3.5 3.4 1.3 3.2).2{ch "Dm7b5"} (3.6 3.4 4.3 4.2).2{ch "G7alt"} |

Soloing on the minor blues

The good news is that the C blues scale works over the whole minor blues with no friction at all: its flat 3rd is the 3rd of the i chord, not a blue note against a major 3rd. The price is that the form can sound static. Two scales give you more:

• C Dorian on the i7 (and F Dorian on the iv7) adds the 9th and the natural 6th, which is the "Mr. P.C." sound. It is the same set of notes as Bb Mixolydian, so the shapes are ones you know.
• The altered scale on the V7alt. The G altered scale contains the root, 3rd and 7th of G7 and every altered tension (b9, #9, b5, b13); it is the seventh mode of Ab melodic minor. Its notes are the ones that make the V chord of a minor key sound right.

\tempo 110
.
\ts 4 4
:8 8.6 11.6 8.5 9.5 10.5 8.4 10.4 8.3 | 10.3 11.3 8.2 11.2 8.1 11.1.4{d} | :8 11.1 8.1 11.2 8.2 11.3 10.3 8.3 10.4 | 8.4 10.5 9.5 8.5 11.6 8.6.4{d} |

The lines below are the bar-10-into-bar-11 moment of the minor blues: a G altered phrase that resolves to Cm7. Every note of the first and third bars belongs to G7alt (the engine lists the root, 3rd, 7th, b9, #9 and b13 as its tones) except the flat 5th (Db), which is also in the altered scale and is allowed here; the text points it out so you can hear it. The first phrase resolves to the root of Cm7; the second lands on its 5th and finishes on its 3rd.

\tempo 100
.
\ts 4 4
:8 10.3{ch "G7alt"} 9.2 11.2 9.1 11.1 9.1 11.2 7.1 | :4 8.1{ch "Cm7"} :8 11.1 8.2 :2 11.2 | :8 7.1{ch "G7alt"} 9.1 11.1 9.1 :4 11.2 :8 9.2 10.3 | :8 8.2{ch "Cm7"} 11.2 :4 8.1 :2 11.1 |

The bird blues

The changes by numerals

"Blues for Alice" keeps the three landmarks of the F blues (I in bar 1, IV in bar 5, ii–V in bars 9–10) and connects them with descending chains of ii–Vs. The melody is Parker's and is not reproduced here; the chord progression is common property and is what you need. Here it is in F, bar by bar, with the function of each chord:

Three things to see in the table:

1. Bars 1–4 are a chain of ii–Vs whose roots descend by whole steps: E, D, C. Each ii–V resolves into the next ii chord instead of into a I chord, which is why the music keeps moving. It arrives on the IV chord in bar 5, so the whole chain is really an elaborate way of getting from I to IV.
2. Bars 6–8 are another chain, now descending by half steps: Bbm7–Eb7, Am7–D7, Abm7–Db7, landing on Gm7 in bar 9. Bar 8 replaces the Am7–D7 of the jazz blues with a chromatic ii–V a half step above the Gm7 it resolves into: the whole bar slides down into bar 9 (Db7 is also the tritone substitute of G7, which is why it sounds so natural a half step above the ii chord).
3. Bars 9–12 are the ordinary jazz blues. If you lose your place in a bird blues, aim for bar 9 and the rest of the form will come back.

Guide tones through the bird blues

Because almost every bar is a ii–V, the guide-tone line is a continuous chromatic descent, which is the easiest way to hear the form and to comp it. Play the exercise below with half notes, one guide tone per chord, and listen for the half-step steps between each pair of chords.

\tempo 100
.
\ts 4 4
:2 10.2{ch "Fmaj7"} 9.3 | 7.3{ch "Em7b5"} 6.3{ch "A7"} | 5.3{ch "Dm7"} 4.3{ch "G7"} | 8.4{ch "Cm7"} 7.4{ch "F7"} | 6.4{ch "Bb7"} 7.3 | 6.4{ch "Bbm7"} 5.4{ch "Eb7"} | 5.4{ch "Am7"} 4.4{ch "D7"} | 4.4{ch "Abm7"} 3.4{ch "Db7"} | 3.4{ch "Gm7"} 3.3 | 2.4{ch "C7"} 3.3 | 2.3{ch "F7"} 4.4{ch "D7"} | 3.4{ch "Gm7"} 2.4{ch "C7"} |

Soloing on the bird blues

The blues scale will not carry you through a bird blues: too many of its notes clash with the fast-moving ii–Vs, and the sound the tune asks for is bebop, not blues. The approach is chord tones on the changes: arpeggiate each chord, connect the arpeggios by step where you can, and save blue notes for bars 1, 5 and 9–12 where the plain blues harmony is still underneath. The four-bar example below arpeggiates bars 1–4 (Fmaj7, then the three ii–Vs) and lands on the 3rd of Bb7 in bar 5. Every note is a chord tone; there is nothing to allow.

\tempo 110
.
\ts 4 4
:8 8.5{ch "Fmaj7"} 7.4 5.3 9.3 :4 5.1 :8 9.3 5.3 | 5.4{ch "Em7b5"} 8.4 7.3 9.3 8.2{ch "A7"} 5.2 6.3 7.4 | 6.2{ch "Dm7"} 7.3 5.3 7.4 6.2{ch "G7"} 7.3 4.3 5.4 | 5.4{ch "Cm7"} 8.4 5.3 8.3 7.4{ch "F7"} 5.3 8.3 10.3 | :2 7.3{ch "Bb7"} :4 r r |

To practise this: play bars 1–5 as written, then do the same thing for bars 5–9 (Bb7, Bbm7–Eb7, Am7–D7, Abm7–Db7 into Gm7) using the same idea, two notes of each arpeggio per chord. Then join the two halves and finish with any of the ii–V and turnaround phrases from the vocabulary lesson, which fit bars 9–12 unchanged.

Quiz