This Round Is Done!

In this round, we're going to get away from the simple setup-for-solor style of composition and get into some very nice Jazz and Blues chord structures. By the time you're done doing this round, you will hopefully have learned:

• At least three or four weird chords.
• How to replace common chords with more complex ones.
• Ways to alter a basic blues into more involved structures.
• Some Jazz chord theory.

However, we don't want to blast your brain quite yet. First you need to get started with just "a blues". Four of them actually.

Beginner To Advanced

This round is going to be run differently from the previous rounds in that there's a composition for every level of player. In fact, you could submit multiple submissions in this round if you so desire.

Indefinite Articles Matter

There's "the blues" and then there's "a blues", and that subtle "the" vs. "a" matters quite a lot. If you crack open the sheet music PDF you'll see there's 4 blues numbers I've composed. What you should learn from these four pieces of music is how your basic 12 bar blues can be "meta programmed" into less and more complex forms without losing its original structure.

Now, your first one is nothing fancy. It's your typical "quick change" blues progression in Bb. What I've done is I've written a few "guide tones" to the composition so you can see how they chords might relate to a melody or solo. You could play a simple Bb pentatonic over this and be done with it. But, to make this piece of music interesting, you should try to solo such that the guide tones appear in your solo at the given beats.

Next up we have the simplest "proto blues" you could have as "Blues #2". This is actually the basis of Boogie Woogie blues and most later rock and blues forms. Notice that this is also in Bb, but it's in 2/2 time. Notice also that it doesn't have a turn-around like you're used to. Later in the week, I'll throw up how this kind of blues is turned into a fast moving 16th note boogie woogie.

Blues #2 could also be a very good ballad, or slow mean and dirty old blues with some modifications.

Blues 1 And 2 Challenges

In both Blues #1 and #2 your goal is to solo so that these guide tones land on the "strong beats" of 1 and 3, and that your other notes and phrases build around them.

You could stop there, and those could both be very fine submissions.

Blues 3 And 4 Meta Blues

Let's say you've nailed 1 and 2, or it's too boring for you. Now we'll step into two advanced forms I've composed for Round 4 and advanced players.

In Blues #3 you have almos the same structure as Blues #1, except I've added some new fancy Jazz chords you might not know and changed the structure just slightly. The guide tones are now adjusted to fit these new chords, but since the guide tones are on the strong beats, they aren't that much different from Blues 1.

In Blues #4 I've gone off the deep end in interpreting and "meta programming" Blues 1. I've replaced almost everything with alternate chords and II-V or II-V-I progressions. I've adjusted the guide tones to match each chord, and there's two chords per bar. On top of that I've thrown in some really out there Jazz chords. We're talking Alts with #5 and b9 and b5 all over.

Blues 3 And 4 Challenges

Over the course of this week I'll be showing you how to play these chords and hopefully how to solo over them. If you stick with it, by the time you get to the end of Round 4 you'll have learned all of these chords and how to play them.

Your challenge with Blues #3 and #4 is to first play the chords, with a good comping style, and then to solo over it.

I'm pretty sure there are players who can already do this, which means you can also take these ideas and compose your own rendition of this. Remember, that's compose, not "jam". If you don't play these chord changes, then I wanna see sheet music in your submission.

ABC, MIDI, PDF Attached

I've included all the source material used to make the sheet music. There's an ABC file for you, if you want to do your own rendition. There's a PDF, and there's a midi file for Blues #1 and Blues #2.

Over this week I'll be posting shed posts that show you how to play these chords and include my playing the music to show you how.

P.S. Notify me if the sheet music is wrong.