Rack em up

DavidLylis

Aspiring Bluesman
I have been having a little fun with this Jonny Lang song. A cool blues tune). It is in the key of C and there is a turnaround that I have looked up and found to be I - VI - II - V. For the life of me I cannot figure this out to make it sound right. Any help?
 

DavidLylis

Aspiring Bluesman
In the key of C that should be I vi ii V or C Am Dm G
Yes, I understand that, but the turnaround in the song does not sound like that and yet all the tabs for that song say that's what it is. I "think" it may be the voicing. If you have a moment listen to it. Thanks for responding.
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
I only listened to it once, so not sure if this is what he is doing, but this is what I would do - partial little chords where the motion of the middle note (3rd string) provides the characteristic sound in the voicings.
X X 8 9 8 X
X X 11 12 10 X
X X 10 11 10 X
X X 9 10 8 X

Until you play it a few times, the fingering may seem odd, but it's really quite simple to move between these voicings.
Use your 3rd finger for all notes on the 3rd string, and switch the other two fingers back and forth as needed on the other chords.

The I - VI - II - V - I changes and variations is a subject that you can spend weeks studying.
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
Try all Dominant 7's.

C7 A7 D7 G7

Yes, that is exactly what I wrote out above.
If you want the complete voicings that the little chords come from, add the bass as follows
C7 8 X 8 9 8 X
A7 X 12 11 12 10 X
D7 10 X 10 11 10 X
G7 X 10 9 10 8 X

These voicings give a nice motion in the bass line as well.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
You may want to check out Griff's "How To Build A Blues Song" pp. 55-58 in "Section 3: The 12 Bar Blues Form".;)

(Video Examples 3-11, 3-12 & 3-13 online or on DVD 3.)
 
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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
@OG_Blues

Way cool.

Gotta admit you threw me for a loop at first.

I didn't know what the heck you were talking about. Until....

I figured out that the C7 and D7 are "little" versions of the E shape.

And the A7 and G7 are "little" versions of the C shape.

So "shape-wise" it goes E7-C7 from 8th position to 10th position, then E7-C7 back from 10th position to 8th.

A nice little "self-contained" progression of its own that could be "looped" forever.

Thanks for the "new" perspective.:)
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Time out. Wait a minute.

The "little" C7 and D7 are like an open D chord shape and the A7 and G7 are like an open Dm chord, only all moved down a string.

That just made the fingerings a whole lot easier to move around.:whistle:
 
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OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
Yes, Paleo, you are exactly correct. Once you "get it", it is very easy to play, even at a pretty good tempo.
This comes from viewing the guitar more like a keyboard player views chord voicings. I always try to find chord inversion sequences that allow one or two of the voices to move in half steps wherever possible. Leaving out the bass root note often makes the chord shape a bit harder to "see" and also sound more ambiguous, but that's the beauty of its sound. The 4 note E shape fingering I show is much more commonly used in jazz than in blues, but once you become comfortable with fingering it (no barre!!!) it is a quick grab and being sparser than the full barre chord, is more useful. Then leave out the bass note, and you have a true little chord.
Learning to think like a keyboard player opens up lots of neat things on guitar.
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
yes - that's it!
That skinny E shape fingering feels pretty unnatural at first, but it will probably become a favorite way to play 7th chords after a while.
When playing the little chords (in my first post), plant the 3rd finger on the 3rd string, and then for each successive chord, swap the 1 and 2 fingers. The little chords can be played quite quickly and smoothly in this fashion.
A while back, I did a fairly deep dive study of the I - VI- II - V - I sequences variations including chord substitutions - mostly jazz voicings with a lot of major 7 and minor 7 and diminished chords thrown in with a few dominant 7ths. I wrote out 7 pages of different variations of how to sequence them with different voice leadings that I liked. It was a very interesting study.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
As usual I get a little excited (read that as obsessive) when I'm learning something new.

I always want to get as much out of it as I can.

So just for fun (?) here's a bit "deeper" look at what @OG_Blues has been laying on us.

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/4bet2zr2n2114g7/Further Analysis.mp4?dl=0

I meant to mention, when discussing the 2nd string (@3:18), that the first G is the 5 of the C chord up to A, the root of the A chord. Then A back to G is the 5 of the D chord to the root of the G chord. Same 2 notes up and back, but different scale degrees/functions in their corresponding chords.

I also said 4 fret area at the beginning, but meant 5 frets.
 
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OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
Nice! Now figure out the 50 or 60 other ways to play the same thing (requires chord substitutions)!! ;)o_O
If you want, I can send them to you.
Just playing through them will take a while. Doing this same type of analysis will take a very long while!

BTW, what are you using to make the little videos?
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
We haven't heard back from David, the OP on this thread.
I'm guessing he got more information than he really needed. :ROFLMAO:
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Now figure out the 50 or 60 other ways to play the same thing
I think I'll pass (for now). I spent all day on this, as it is.

That reminds me of a Christmas "freebie" from TrueFire: 100 Ways To play a C Major Scale.

I didn't get through all of those, either.

I just use iMovie on my MacBook with its internal camera and mic.

Really simple, low tech.

I just hit record and away I go.:)
 

OG_Blues

Guitar Geezer
Paleo, A while back I wrote an 11 page document on playing dominant 7th chords.
In that document, I note that in Ted Greene's "Chord Chemistry" book, he shows 51 different ways to play a G7 chord.

I hear ya. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

DavidLylis

Aspiring Bluesman
We haven't heard back from David, the OP on this thread.
I'm guessing he got more information than he really needed. :ROFLMAO:
No! I am here. This has been like drinking from a fire hose for me. You guys are way ahead of me, but this is good stuff. Thanks so much! In addition, I have been doing renovations on my condo in hopes of having it done for the holidays so I have been delinquent in my guitar. I now have something other than painting to do tonight so. . .Thanks so much))
 

DavidLylis

Aspiring Bluesman
I only listened to it once, so not sure if this is what he is doing, but this is what I would do - partial little chords where the motion of the middle note (3rd string) provides the characteristic sound in the voicings.
X X 8 9 8 X
X X 11 12 10 X
X X 10 11 10 X
X X 9 10 8 X

Until you play it a few times, the fingering may seem odd, but it's really quite simple to move between these voicings.
Use your 3rd finger for all notes on the 3rd string, and switch the other two fingers back and forth as needed on the other chords.

The I - VI - II - V - I changes and variations is a subject that you can spend weeks studying.
You listened to it once? I listened to it so many times my cat started complaining)
 
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