Are Music Theory And The Blues Somehow Related?

Good morning, this is Duane. Today, I’d like to talk about music theory and the blues. Music theory is behind all kinds of music because all kinds of music can be broken down and analyzed and put into particular forms. Nothing is more true of that than the blues. The 12-bar blues is the basis for boogie, whether you’re playing [playing piano], that kind of blues or all kinds of different things. Rhythm and blues, jazz and a lot of rock songs are based on the blues as well. Let’s take a look at the form of the 12-bar blues because it is the basis for all those genres of music.

First of all, the basic blues only uses the primary chords in each key. In other words, if you’re in the key of C, you would just use the primary chords, C, F and G. Now, it ends up sounding a lot more sophisticated than that, and I’ll show you why as time goes by but that’s the basics. It’s just the one-, four- and five-chord. Musicians, of course, use substitutes for those chords, but it started off this way and is often played this way too. In the key of F then, that would be the one chord would be F. The four-chord would be B-flat, and the five-chord would be a C.

If you were playing the blues in B-flat, based on the scale of B-flat, then the one-chord would be B-flat, the four-chord would be E-flat, and the five-chord would be F. When we’re playing the blues : That was B-flat, this is E-flat, B-flat. That’s E-flat. Back to B-flat. Now, back to F, B-flat, and back to B-flat. I just played the 12-chord blues. I played all 12 measures. Now, I’m going to switch to the key of C, and count out those measures so you can see how many measures each chord gets. The one chord gets four measures.

It goes like this, one-two-three-four, two-two-three-four, three-two-three-four, four-two-three-four, five-two-three-four, six-two-three-four, seven-two-three-four, eight-two-three-four, nine-two-three-four, 10-two-three-four, 11-two-three-four, 12-two-three-four. Then it repeats another 12 bars, and it keeps going around and around like that. Now, I play just the primary chords, one, four and five. I had four measures to the one-chord, followed by two measures of the four-chord, followed by two more measures of the one-chord, followed by one measure of the five-chord, one measure of the four-chord, and then back to two measures of the one-chord. That gave us 12 bars. Bars and measures mean the same thing.

In the blues, in addition to the chords, they almost always use the seventh in the blues. In other words, you have the one chord, but you’re playing the seventh also. You have the four-chord but you’re playing the seventh also. You have the five-chord but you’re playing the seventh also. You have that element that you’re playing a seventh. [Playing piano] : two, three, four-two-three-four, five-two-three-four, six-two-three-four, seven, eight-two-three-four, nine-two-three-four, 10-two-three-four, 11-two-three-four, 12-two-three-four.

I played the same thing as I did the first time, except I just added the seventh. In the blues, a lot of blue notes are used. In other words, [inaudible 00:04:41], sometimes sliding off the flat fifth. We have [playing piano]. See that? I slid out the flat third, the flat fifth on the C chord. When I got to the F chord, I slid off the flat third and off the flat fifth. When I got to the G chord, I think I slid off the third : Yeah. You can create a melody out of just playing with those flat thirds and fifths : can’t you : on those three chords.

That’s really all there is to it because then, it just becomes a matter of different kinds of forms such as rhythm. You can have a New Orleans kind of beat. You can have a Kansas City kind of feeling : all kinds of things in the blues. The rhythm can change and so on. You see the format of the one, four and five progression stays the same, and almost always includes those elements such as the seventh of the chord being used, and playing around with blue notes playing off the flat third and off the flat fifth.

That’s the music theory behind the blues. I don’t mean that’s all the music theory, but that’s the basic music theory behind the blues. From then, it’s just applying different rhythms and chords, substitutions and so on. When a modern jazz group plays the blues, you may have a little trouble following it because so many chords substitutions are being used. Say you’re in the key of F. They may move from the F chord to a half step to the B chord sliding into the B-flat chord. Then when they get to the B-flat chord, they may use the suspension, so you don’t really recognize it. The same on the one-chord.

Donald Fagen particularly uses a lot of those kinds of suspensions. Sometimes, he doesn’t even resolve them : Very clever use of voicing in the blues but there’s all kinds of variations for that. Enough said about that. If you enjoy this kind of thing, these free piano tips, come over to Playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tip because they’re free. You’ll learn a lot over the course of time. Thanks a lot, and we’ll see you tomorrow with another tip. Bye-bye for now.

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXSJh3s1KGw&feature=youtu.be

Here is more about the blues: https://www.playpiano.com/101-tips/31-12-bar-blues.htm
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