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BigBear58

Blues Newbie
Played about an hour yesterday...backing tracks, Am and Bm.....it was pretty good.....thought to myself, "Hey maybe, just maybe, I can play this thing."

Tonight, I spun up a Quist blues in C backing track, and I was a mess. Am pent sounded wrong. Cmaj pent sounded wrong. Everything sounded wrong.

Holy smokes, if I can't fake a decent blues in C.....

Sigh.....
 

BigBear58

Blues Newbie
Yeah...except the track was C/F/G, with a G7 in the turnaround. Cm pent across major scales?

Clearly I need to go to school. Minor key blues make sense to me with the common root minor pent. Am pent over an Am blues.
 

ronico

rainyislandblues
Try a box 5 minor pent starting on the 6th string C (8th fret) Paleo as usual I believe to have nailed it!? (y) just tried box 1 Cmin pent and find box 5 tastier. YMMV. Few more boxes to go:eek:
 
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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
I spun up a Quist blues in C backing track
the track was C/F/G, with a G7 in the turnaround

Well therein lies the rub.

A Blues in "C" and a progression actually in the Key of C are two different animals.

C-F-G7 are the I, IV and V7 chords in the Key of C Major.


However, the chords of a "Blues in C" are not actually all in any one key.

They are all Dominant 7 chords: C7-F7-G7, which are each from a different Major key.

Here's the I, IV and V7 in the 3 Major keys involved:

C7 comes from F Major : F-Bb-C7
F7 comes from Bb Major : Bb-D-F7
G7 actually does comes from the Key of C : C-F-G7.

In a blues we still refer to the 3 Dom7 chords as the I, IV and V for convenience, even though they are actually V7, V7 and V7 from three different keys.

(
You will often hear Griff say "All 7 chords are V chords". This is what he is referring to. ;))


Using the C minor pentatonic over all 3 Dom7 chords in a Blues In "C" is the most commonly used approach.

Playing over the C-F-G7 progression you would use the C Major scale over all 3 since you are actually in the Key of C Major.

In a C minor blues, Cm-Fm-Gm (i-iv-v), you are actually in the Key of C Minor and you would use a C Minor scale over all 3.


Here's a Blog post by Griff:

https://bluesguitarunleashed.com/blog/a-blues-key/
 
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Paleo

Student Of The Blues
Here's the track
Aha.

I noticed that the keyboard is only playing the "basic" Major triads, i.e. no 7's until the last G7.

The bass is sometimes only playing the root, sometimes outlining the triads.

There is a guitar playing the "Blues in C rhythm", C5-C6, etc.

So it is actually in the Key of C (C-F-G) and you can play C Major Pentatonic throughout.

(So is this "truly" a Major blues? Is a blues any progression that follows the 12-bar form? :unsure:)

Anyway, I quickly found myself bending the D up to the b3 (Eb) for the minor sound.

And treating the progression as if they were all 7 chords and adding the minor sound by playing the C minor pentatonic throughout.

Playing minor pentatonic over a Major progression is a pretty common way to create a more "bluesy" sound.

And I played C Major over the C and C minor over the rest, following Griff's "rule". (**This is what sounded best to me.**)

Tried "chasing" the chords playing C Maj pent, then F Maj pent and G maj pent.

Chased them with the Mixolydian of each.

There are even more more options to try. :eek: (see attachment)

I've experimented with most of them over the track and they all "work".

Just depends on what kind of sound you want.

I didn't realize it at first, but this is actually a very good track (staying with all Major triads:sneaky:) for trying out a lot of different options.

Good luck on the job hunt. :)
 

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