PeterBaird
Blues Newbie
One of the things working on Griff's stuff has gotten me doing is listening for how different people slice up the 12-bar form, and there are some truly inventive things out there. My latest obsession is "Shape I'm In" from the Reese Wynans and Friends album (which is a great addition to anyone's library).
When you hear it the first time, you think, "yeah, fast boogie, 12-bar form doubled up to 24 bars" but then it takes a few really fun turns. Here's the form:
Intro: 8 bars C boogie
Verse 1: 8 bars I, 4 bars IV, 4 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 6 bars I
Cool, huh? You expect the V chord and IV chord to be 2 bars each, but it's like they suddenly chopped up the form to be 12-bar instead of 24-bar. The other cool thing is the added bars after the V-IV turn keep the whole phrase 24 bars long.
Verse 2: 8 bars I, 4 bars IV, 4 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 4 bars I
Nearly the same as Verse 1, but this time they cut out the last two bars and climb up to the--
Bridge: 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 2 bars IV, 2 bars I
Another cool thing here--we always expect a V chord at the end of a IV-I bridge, but they go on back to the I chord to reinforce the vocal hook.
Piano Solo: 24 bars I
Just Reese playing hell out of the piano on the I chord.
Bridge 2: 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 4 bars V
I'm calling this Bridge 2 because the IV chord kind of comes out of nowhere. The V is a "Twist and Shout" build, and leads to the
Guitar Solo: standard 12-bar format, twice through. I think the solo is Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
Re-intro: 4 bars C boogie, sounds like someone electrocutes the drummer
Verse 3: same as verse 2
Outro: 28 bars I
YMMV. Great tune, and the whole album has really decent sonics.
Peter
When you hear it the first time, you think, "yeah, fast boogie, 12-bar form doubled up to 24 bars" but then it takes a few really fun turns. Here's the form:
Intro: 8 bars C boogie
Verse 1: 8 bars I, 4 bars IV, 4 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 6 bars I
Cool, huh? You expect the V chord and IV chord to be 2 bars each, but it's like they suddenly chopped up the form to be 12-bar instead of 24-bar. The other cool thing is the added bars after the V-IV turn keep the whole phrase 24 bars long.
Verse 2: 8 bars I, 4 bars IV, 4 bars I, 1 bar V, 1 bar IV, 4 bars I
Nearly the same as Verse 1, but this time they cut out the last two bars and climb up to the--
Bridge: 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 2 bars IV, 2 bars I
Another cool thing here--we always expect a V chord at the end of a IV-I bridge, but they go on back to the I chord to reinforce the vocal hook.
Piano Solo: 24 bars I
Just Reese playing hell out of the piano on the I chord.
Bridge 2: 2 bars IV, 2 bars I, 4 bars V
I'm calling this Bridge 2 because the IV chord kind of comes out of nowhere. The V is a "Twist and Shout" build, and leads to the
Guitar Solo: standard 12-bar format, twice through. I think the solo is Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
Re-intro: 4 bars C boogie, sounds like someone electrocutes the drummer
Verse 3: same as verse 2
Outro: 28 bars I
YMMV. Great tune, and the whole album has really decent sonics.
Peter