Chords for Easy Texas Blues (Part 1)

_ [C] _ _ [Db] _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Alright, so in this lesson we're going to look at learning to play Texas [F] Blues, verse 1.
[G] Now Texas Blues is a little tune that I wrote to help beginners get used to using the blues scale.
The blues scale [C] is the single most _ useful tool for learning to improvise.
And although it's predominantly blues music you're playing,
it's the foundation for many other forms of music as well,
including rock lead guitar, country lead guitar and so on.
_ So, what's nice about this little tune is it sounds pretty smart,
it sounds quite difficult, but actually it's quite easy to play.
So bear with me, I'm going to start off just by showing you the end result,
and I'm going to play it against the backing track.
_ 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, [G] 1.
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Bm] Alright, so there we go, that's the first verse.
[A] _ First off, let's just [D] look at the chords we're using.
If you don't know these chord shapes already,
just spend a few minutes now getting to know them and just practice changing from one to the other.
So pause the video while you're doing that and then once you've got the hang of them, get back to us.
Okay, _ so here's our E7 chord, and what we want you to do is play it with this rhythm.
[E] And _ _ _ _ _ _ you do that in response to the first lead line, which for the time being I'm going to play.
So I'm going to play_
_ _ _ You're going to play_
_ _ I'm going to play_ _ _
You're going to play_
_ _ Alright, let's just have a couple more goes at that.
[G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
[A] _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ Alright, and then we do a very similar thing _ with the A7 [A] chord.
So you get that chord ready, and again you play this rhythm, _ _ and you do that in response to this.
_ _ [Bm] _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Alright, so I play_
_ _ _ _ _ _ You _ _ [Em] play_
Alright, let's have a couple of goes at that.
_ _ _ [Bm] _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Alright, [E] when we get to the last line, we've got a slightly more difficult change from B7 to [Db] A7.
So we hit the B7 chord for the first three [B] strikes, _ _ _ and [Em] then jump [A] across to the A7 chord.
So all together that sounds like this.
[B] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ And the tip here is to, when you're playing A7, to use those two fingers.
If you [B] look at the B7 shape, _ if we lift the outer fingers off, [Em] the first and fourth fingers, we're left [B] with these two fingers,
which we can just slide across, hop [A] across to the next two strings, [Em] to give us the A7 shape.
So that minimises the amount of movement, which is when you've got to do quick changes, [B] very important.
_ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ Okay, so that's in response to this [Em] lead line.
[Bb] _ _ [Bm] _
_ [B] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _
[Em] So I _ [Bb] [Bm] play_
_ [B] You play_
_ [Em] _ _ Alright, let's give that a few goes.
_ [Bb] _ [Bm] _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
[Bbm] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Alright, so [Em] repeat those changes as often as you need to, to feel like you've got them up to speed.
_ _ Right, so now I'm going to play through the whole verse, and I'm going to play the lead lines,
and I'm going to very faintly play the rhythm lines for you to play over.
_ So, count me in.
2, 3, 4, 1
[Bb] _ _
[Bm] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [Bm] _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Okay, _ [Em] let's try that again, and this time I'm going to leave the rhythm parts to you entirely. _ _
_ 2, 3, 4, 1 _ _
[Bm] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ 2, _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Bm] _ [A] _ _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ [A] 3, 4, 1 _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ Alright, so I would expect for [A] most people that they're going to have to run through that several [Eb] more times
to get it up [Fm] to speed and get used to putting those changes right in the right place.
So take as many times through that as you feel you need, [E] and then we'll move on and look at the lead [B] part of it.
_ [Bb] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _