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

1. About the lesson
2. Introduction
3. The lesson
4. How to implement the lesson
5. Last words

1. 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

2. 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)

3. 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.



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).

4. 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!

5. 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

Awesome man. Very nicely structured with great explaination. Well done

Very cool lesson, well done Roger! Only one little correction: you named the chord "C# E G B" an A9 chord. It´s actually a C#m7(b5) chord. The same goes for D7 9- which is a Dm7( chord.

Sounds great Roger. 12 bar Jazz blues with turnaround at the end. I like how you used tensions in your chords.
Nice lesson man !

Thanks, tried to do my best


Thanks Tolek,

Of course that chord can also be seen as a C#m7(b5), however in this progression it is meant as an A9 chord without the root note A (as that is played by the bass).

Regarding the D7 9- chord: it contains the notes: F# A C Eb, which is not a Dm7 chord as it contains the major third (F#) but a regular D7 with an added b9 in it. Again here the root is omitted and played by the bass.



Cheers, means a lot from our Jazz master

Ok, I see. I didn´t notice the A-note-in-bass-possibility.
But for the D7 9- chord, there´s still a problem. You should´t write a D# in it because it wouldn´t be a b9 but a 1st augmented.

You are absolutely right ... it should be Eb (edited my post )

That D7 - 9 chord is actually Eb diminished 7th chord, in this case passing diminished chord

Edit to make it all clear here is more detailed explanation :

Eb dim 7 chord : Eb Gb(F#) A(Bbb) C (Dbb).

You have exact same chord just order of notes is different.

Eb A C F#.

So the chord is Eb diminished 7th using drop 2 voicing on guitar (2nd voice from top dropped down an octave

Thanks for the clarification Pedja, added a note to the main text as well regarding this

No problem Roger. Your labeling is also correct since all the notes are actually D7b9 without D in the actual chord.
The only thing that I didn't like very much is labeling of the chord, D7b9 is much more preferred method to me at least. Minus and plus signs just take too much space

Yeah, for me it's exactly the same, but in Guitar Pro it is standard - / + so I kept that for now

So you exported these from Guitar pro ?
Interesting, I have never done that

Awesome lesson Roger, congratulations!

Thanks Coffee

Excellent lesson! Quality of is really good!

Excellent lesson Roger! Sounds really great and very well explained!

Thanks guys, means a lot

Very nice lesson Roger!

Thanks Kris, and also for the badge

Cool lesson Roger! I'll add it to the SI wiki portal later

One more thing: Roger, I believe you post the same one in video 3 & 4.

I guess the third part is this one, found it on youtube




Ok, just featured the lesson at the SI Portal, you can see the actual lesson here.

Thanks Fran, changed the youtube link