Velvet Roger

Introduction

Hey guys, this is my 3rd S.I. video lesson. My name is Roger, am 33 years old and living in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I've been playing the guitar seriously for almost 2 years now (with also some less serious playing back when I was 16-17). Besides playing the guitar, I have always been involved in playing music (piano, keyboards, drums), which certainly is helpful for rhythmic feeling etc. About 5 months ago I started my own band together with two other persons, which gives a nice boost in my playing abilities as well.

I hope you will like my 3rd S.I. video lesson.

Structure

About the lesson
Introduction
The lesson
How to implement the lesson
Last words
Files

About the lesson

This lesson is primarily aimed towards those who would like to gain knowledge on the following aspects:

- Advanced chords & use of tensions
- Blues progressions

Introduction

Today, we are going to explore a Jazz Blues progression, which is somewhat different compared to the standard I – IV – V 12 bar blues progression you all probably know.

I have chosen to play it for this lesson in the key of A (A, B, C#, D, E, F#, G#, A) using some more advanced chords with tensions in order to make it more jazzy and have more variations in it.

The progression looks like this (in brackets the number of measures are shown):

I (1) - IV (1) - I (2) - IV (2) - I (1) - VI (1) - II (1) - V (1) - I (1/2) - VI (1/2) - II (1/2) - V (1/2) - I (2)

The lesson

Video 1: complete progression with backing

I am using fingerpicking for this lesson, in a constant straightforward pattern together with the neck pickup to make the sound more smooth. Try to be as relaxed as possible to increase the smoothness even further.

Video 2: 1st part of the progression slowly (I - IV - I - I)

In this first part of the progression the following chords are used:

The 1st bar starts of with an A9 chord without the root (A). As the bass will normally play the root for you, this is often used in Jazz. The A9 chord is followed by D9 and back to the A9 chord (NR). The 4th bar I chord is played using a #9 and #5, followed by the D9 chord again (see next video).

Video 3: 2nd part of the progression slowly (IV - IV - I - VI - II - V)

In this second part of the progression the following new chords are used:

This section starts of with the D9 chord, followed by a D7 b9 chord again without playing the root note (this chord is actually a Eb dim passing chord - thanks Pedja user posted image ). The progression continues playing the A9 (NR) again. Now it continues playing the VI degree using the often called 'Jimi Hendrix chord (used in songs like Foxy Lady and Purple Haze)', which is the F#7 9+ chord, followed by the II degree (Bm7) and finally the V degree (E7 9+).

Video 4: 3rd part of the progression slowly (I - VI - II - V - I) - the turnaround

In this last part of the progression no new chords are used.

Instead of playing the I - VI - II - V part each 1 measure, you should now only play the chords for 1/2 measure each, which is the turnaround. The progression ends with the I degree again (I played here only 1 bar, but normally it's 2 bars duration before repeating the complete progression).

How to implement this lesson

The most important about the progression above is the use of advanced chords in your playing and hopefully a couple of the chords are new to you, so your chord vocabulary is enlarged. Also, this progression is quite common as a jazz blues progression, so it can't hurt to remember that as well.

Try to variate with other slight variations of chords using the backing provided, and use different playing patterns (using arpeggiated shapes, strumming, pick use, etc etc.).

I have provided the Guitar Pro file as attachment as well as 3 backings (80, 100 and 120 bpm).

Finally, it's good to transpose this lesson into other keys as it will definitely improves your playing a lot!

Last words

I hope you liked my lesson, and any comments, points for correction and/or suggestions for improvement are more than welcome! I would also be more than happy to explain in more detail any of the aspects covered above of course :)

Roger