The MLP Blues Guitar Course

[sliding tom]

Ever heard of the so-called “Devil’s interval”?
That’s what the tritone is being called. A tritone is an interval of three whole notes (full steps) or six half notes (semitones), thus dividing the octave exactly in half. This interval sounds very dissonant and full of tension and that’s the reason why it’s called the “Devil’s interval”. So how does this relate to blues playing? (Blues is The Devil's music )
I have already mentioned that all chords in blues are of the dominant 7th variety. If we take a closer look at a dom 7 chord we will find that the interval between the (major) 3rd and the (dominant) 7 is three whole notes - voila: here’s our tritone! In an A 7 chord this would be C# and G. Since G and C# make a tritone, too (a tritone is symetric), these two notes would also be the major 3rd and dom 7th of a D# chord, respectively. (Can you follow me?) This would be called a “tritone substitution” . We don’t want the D# chord in our 12 bar progression (except as a passing chord), but we need the D a half step below and the E a half step above. Before things get too complicated and you get a headache, here are some chord shapes to illustrate how we can apply this:

Here’s a 3-note A 7 (I) chord:




The tritone is on the D and G strings (7th and 3rd), the E on the B string is the 5th here. The D and G strings are fingered with your index and middle, respectively.

Here’s a 3-note D 9 (IV chord):



The tritone is still on the D and G strings, just moved down one fret from A 7, but the 3rd and 7th are reversed, the E on the B string is the 9 of the chord.

Here’s a 3-note E 7 (V chord):




Tritone still on D and G strings, moved up one fret from A 7,the E on the B string is now the I in the chord.

Notice that the note on the B string didn’t change? We have a “pedal tone” here.
Instead of the E7 we can use the E9 with the same tritone movement but this time the topnote changes to an F# (9 of the E 9 chord):



You can use these chord shapes for a stripped down backing adding a lot of suspense and tension to a simple chord progression.

Omitting the B string and only fretting the tritones on the D and G strings you can use these double stops very effectively in lead playing, marking your changes between single note lines.






.

[5F6-A]

Originally Posted by sliding tom

Try the backingtrackforum - there's a few good backing tracks for practicing available as mp3 files. Here's the link:

FREE Guitar Backing Tracks - Browse Downloads

Some reasonable stuff also on youtube - search for "backing tracks".

cheers!

[Splattle101]

Originally Posted by sliding tom

Ever heard of the so-called “Devil’s interval”?
...

Here’s a 3-note A 7 (I) chord:



Here’s a 3-note E 7 (V chord):

Nicely explained.

Another nice aspect of these two shapes is that you can fret the 9th on the B string as a passing note or part of a melody. This lets you add a little sugar to the vinegar of the tritone.

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but this thread is excellent, Tom! Keep it up.

[sliding tom]

Thanks, splattle - yeah, right.

[PapaSquash]

Originally Posted by sliding tom

Hi there!
Judging from the few views that the tabs got we seem to be a pretty exclusive club here!

some of us got late to the party and haven't caught up yet.

Thanks for this.

[River]

Thanks, Tom. I am sans guitar this week, but I promise I'll do my homework next.

If this thread goes dormant again, I'd be happy to bump it every day or two. That can really help, especially with what seems like 100 new members a week!

[Big_dawg]

tom do you have any examples of songs that contain the 'devils interval'..??

[sliding tom]

If you are familiar with a slow Muddy Waters type of Blues - there's this D7 shape chord, that's being moved down one fret for the "quick change" and then back up. Let's put it in the key of E for convenience:

------4----
------3----
------4----
-----------
-----------
-----------

that's an E7, move it down by one fret and you'll have an E dim or change to this shape:

------3-----
------2-----
------2-----
------------
------------
------------

that's an A7. Anyway you have the tritone on the top two strings.
Another example is "Kindhearted Woman Blues" by Robert Johnson, where the A7 and A dim are being played on the D, G and B strings. This change from a dom 7 to a diminished and back to the seven occurs a lot in blues accompaniment.

Some other more prominent examples would be the chromatically descending opening phrase of "Red House" or the first chords of "Purple Haze" where you can hear those clashing interval very prominently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IcvVF-p_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IcvVF-p_k

FF to 8:00.

Also, Black Sabbath uses the devil's interval in the song by the same name (how fitting is this? ) It's in the recurring slow ostinato riff of the song.

[Big_dawg]

thank you...

[sliding tom]

Originally Posted by River

If this thread goes dormant again, I'd be happy to bump it every day or two. That can really help, especially with what seems like 100 new members a week!

Originally Posted by PapaSquash

some of us got late to the party and haven't caught up yet.

Thanks for this.

Thanks, but it's all good! Even if only a handful would hang around, I'd still be doing it. I have it in my signature anyway and since I'm posting on a regular basis everybody who is interested can follow the link and join.

[sliding tom]

To make the use of the tritone in a lead chorus more accessible and clear to you I have tabbed a series of licks that I often play in a slow blues to shift the mood up a notch. I like the drummer to play the triplets here with me on the snare (preferrably rimshots). Fill the spaces with your own little licks as you please.

[5F6-A]

fantastic
thank you

[BluesZep]

Thanks, Tom!
I'm learning a lot here.

[sliding tom]

Thanks all!


Hope y'all had a Happy Easter! here's our next part:

Listen to some classic blues :

YouTube - LIGHTNIN HOPKINS " GOIN DOWN SLOW"

YouTube - LIGHTNIN HOPKINS " GOIN DOWN SLOW"

YouTube - Freddie King - She Put a Whammy On Me

YouTube - Freddie King - She Put a Whammy On Me

YouTube - Muddy Waters - Blow Wind Blow

YouTube - Muddy Waters - Blow Wind Blow

Do you notice something these have in common? Except that they are 12 bar blues and have the usual I - IV - V changes? Oh, yeah: the lyric formula: the first line being repeated once and then answered with a concluding line that rhymes with the first.. An A - A - B pattern.

12 bars divided by 3 makes 4 bars, but the singer doesn’t sing over the entire duration of four bars (16 beats).

If you examine this more closely, you will find that the vocal line in blues songs almost always covers two and a half bars (= 10 beats) and one and a half bars ( 6 beats) are left for an “answer” to the vocal, very often this answer being covered by an instrumental (guitar in our case) fill.

This is a very unique pattern in song and much more characteristic of blues than the I - IV - V change or the 12-bar form. You can find this pattern in other blues with differing changes and more or fewer than 12 bars per chorus. This is one of the major and oldest building blocks of the music we call blues today.

Put on your favourite blues record and listen - I’m sure you will find this pattern again and again. It’s so universal in blues that it mostly goes unnoticed, but not only informs the vocals of our beloved classic blues heroes but also their instrumental work.

Most probably this pattern comes from a Christian hymn (now check this out: a Christian hymn as one of the roots of the “Devil’s music”) with the title of “Roll Jordan”, composed by the celebrated composer Charles Wesley (1707 - 1788), who wrote several hundred hymns but never used this type of four-bar phrase with the typical pattern of 10 / 6 beats again in any of his other compositions ( in “Roll Jordan” the 10 beat vocal line is answered by a choir singing a refrain).

This is the archetypal “call and response” pattern.
At some point around 1820, a white planter or missionary taught this hymn to a group of southern slaves. Seems like this pattern stuck with Afro-Americans and spilled over into secular music. All the other ingredients like the I - IV - V chord changes, the A - A - B stanza and the 12 - bar song form came much later. Very early “ blues” were one-chord vamps and didn’t have a concluding rhyming third lyric line. Some of these were even in circulation at the time when blues was recorded starting in the 1920s.
Enough for history here - does this have anything to do with lead guitar playing? Yes, it does!

If you structure your leads after this 10 / 6 pattern you will be able to make more sense in your playing and stop just jamming and noodling around. . As I have told you before: try to tell a story with your lead playing - don’t think like an instrumentalist - think singer!
Ever heard that famous quote by B.B.King? “ I sing and then Lucille ( his guitar) sings!”?

Emphasize and say something with those first 10 beats in your playing and follow them with a fill that answers your first line - maybe subdued a bit. Or: just leave space! Don’t play at all! This will give your listeners a chance to cherish what you just played and let it sink in and they will be curious what you will come up with next. Keep them on their toes!

[Kuroyama]

Bookmarked.

Im late for school again, but Ill be eagerly snapping up these lessons! Im only on the third post but Im already stumped with "dominant 7th" chords!! Did I miss a post?? How did we get from I, IV, and V... to dominant 7th?? Anyway, Id google more but its already 130am and I do have work in the morning... will be back soon! count on it, and me getting caught up in short order. Ill be looking forward to these episodes as much as I was Battlestar Galactica.

[dwagar]

Fantastic stuff ST.

One thing, you may have covered it and I missed it

I find lots of players are very comfortable in the 1st form (E) and the 2nd form (A) barre chords, but a lot don't bother to learn the 3rd form (D). This also includes that C7 and C9 that ST is using. Being comfortable with these shapes will help as ST motors on.

[sliding tom]

Originally Posted by dwagar

Fantastic stuff ST.

One thing, you may have covered it and I missed it

I find lots of players are very comfortable in the 1st form (E) and the 2nd form (A) barre chords, but a lot don't bother to learn the 3rd form (D). This also includes that C7 and C9 that ST is using. Being comfortable with these shapes will help as ST motors on.

Thanks, not exactly sure what you're talking about here - would you elaborate, please? Are you talking chord shapes? Might be something that will be covered later. I think I still have some aces up my sleeve.

[PapaSquash]

Maybe referring to the factthat the C9 you give in post #41 isn't in (mine anyway) Mel Bay's encylopedia. There are alternatives though.

[sliding tom]

Originally Posted by PapaSquash

Maybe referring to the factthat the C9 you give in post #41 isn't in (mine anyway) Mel Bay's encylopedia. There are alternatives though.

There's a lot of chord shapes you won't find in the books and chord encyclopedias. That's why I have to make my own diagrams sometimes because I don't find the shapes on the web to embed them here.

Like this one:



It's a variation of your basic G "cowboy chord" used as a G9 with the major 3rd (b) in the bass. A very common fingering in blues. Interestingly this could also be used as a Dmin6 with the 6 in the bass. I only learned this recently when playing a big band arrangement by chart. Goes to show you never cease to learn and that's one thing I really enjoy about playing music and my instrument: learning...

[PapaSquash]

It's cool stuff indeed. And I may have been wrong about what he was referring to, but it was a guess based on my own unfamiliarity with that particular C9 chord shape.

I had to practice at it to avoid choking off the D string, so at first I pulled out Mel Bay and found an easier substitute so I could hear that "uptown sound" you were referring to.

[The baron of norsworthy]

Originally Posted by sliding tom

If you are familiar with a slow Muddy Waters type of Blues - there's this D7 shape chord, that's being moved down one fret for the "quick change" and then back up. Let's put it in the key of E for convenience:

------4----
------3----
------4----
-----------
-----------
-----------

that's an E7, move it down by one fret and you'll have an E dim or change to this shape:

------3-----
------2-----
------2-----
------------
------------
------------

that's an A7. Anyway you have the tritone on the top two strings.
Another example is "Kindhearted Woman Blues" by Robert Johnson, where the A7 and A dim are being played on the D, G and B strings. This change from a dom 7 to a diminished and back to the seven occurs a lot in blues accompaniment.

Some other more prominent examples would be the chromatically descending opening phrase of "Red House" or the first chords of "Purple Haze" where you can hear those clashing interval very prominently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0IcvVF-p_k

FF to 8:00.

Also, Black Sabbath uses the devil's interval in the song by the same name (how fitting is this? ) It's in the recurring slow ostinato riff of the song.

I missed that series !!!!

[dwagar]

Originally Posted by sliding tom

Thanks, not exactly sure what you're talking about here - would you elaborate, please? Are you talking chord shapes? Might be something that will be covered later. I think I still have some aces up my sleeve.

Sorry, what I mean is this barre chord (D):
(if I can draw in text)

======
| | | | | |
t | | x | x
| | | | r |
| | x | | |
| x | | | |

and the 7th shape

======
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | r |
| | x | | |
| x | x | |

and the minor (which becomes really important as the 'box')

======
| | | | | x
| | | x | |
| | | | r |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |

etc

I didn't mean to step into your lessons here, but I know a lot of guys don't use this barre form.

[sliding tom]

Originally Posted by dwagar

I didn't mean to step into your lessons here, but I know a lot of guys don't use this barre form.

No - that's O.K.
Your first two shapes are based on the C form (guess you had a typo in your post because you were referring to the D form). The C 7 wouldn't be played as a bar chord. Your third shape (D min) is based on the basic D chord shape and is therefore different from the other two Ds.
But I agree with you: most players only learn to move the E and A chord shapes as bar chords up the neck and miss out on a lot of possibilities. That doesn't mean that you will play every other shape as a full barre but there are a lot of partial barres or shapes that are derived from these basic chords moved up the neck that are extremely useful. Basically all chord shapes come from the five open chord shapes C, A, G, E and D which brings us back to the CAGED system which in my book is a great tool for learning your fretboard.
Thanks for your question and don't hesitate to ask again if anything should be unclear. I appreciate the feedback.

[dwagar]

Sure, C or D, with the barre I always think of it as the D form. I think it's important to get guys thinking of the chord shapes that work off the root on the B string.

Excellent course man, I am enjoying it.

[sliding tom]

Originally Posted by dwagar

Sure, C or D, with the barre I always think of it as the D form. I think it's important to get guys thinking of the chord shapes that work off the root on the B string.

Excellent course man, I am enjoying it.

Thanks!
But with the moveable shapes you shouldn't be referring them by any root note on any string but (according to the CAGED system) like for example C form / 2nd position and then naming it D. There's a reason for this: take the C9 for example: if you would have referred to the chord above by its root note on the b string, it's not there anymore in C9), thus you may not be able to refer to the C9 as a variation on the basic C chord shape which can make things more complicated than necessary.

[dwagar]

lol, the CAGED system came in long after I learned. I have to admit I've never even looked at it. In my world, the difference between a C chord and a D chord is merely the position on the fretboard.

What I'm referring to is taking that Dm shape, planting the root on the 10th fret A (so Am) and you're in the Albert King box. Or I like to take that full D barre up into the country rock major side of the coin. Thinking in those D shapes I find quite important.

But, we digress, let's get back to the show in progress.

[sliding tom]

I see what you mean and I will cover positions like these later in the course and you might be surprised!
Looks like I have hijacked my own thread!

[BOBBO]

[specflec]

I am enjoying this thread, Tom. Looking forward to more. I am glad you are using what I call "functional theory" - yes, a contradiction in terms - because putting the theory in an understandable context gives us a way to put it to use, and will, without a doubt, make us all better players simply by giving us an idea of what we actually are doing. It can be liberating to gain this knowledge. We all need to be able to see the benefits in understanding the building blocks of our musical language so we can make it work for us.

And, thanks for doing the homework to find the great musical examples.

Cheers!

[sliding tom]

Thanks, BOBBO!
specflec: Thanks also and I think I know what you mean.