Chords for Play Blues Harmonica in 5 minutes - Lesson 2

[G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ [G] _ _ [D] _
[E] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ [C] _ [D] _
_ [Gm] _ [G] _ Welcome to part 2 of Play the Blues in 5 minutes.
We'll use a little bit of the cupcakes from [F] session 1 of Play the Blues in 5 minutes.
So if you've [G#m] got time to have a [C#] look at that, that would be great.
That's that little riff that goes, I want cupcakes.
So once you've brought yourself up to speed with that, we'll move on to _ playing the blues
in single notes.
In this session you'll learn how the blues is put together.
How the whole 12 bars comes where the chords [G] change and what we can do with that.
So for the first 8 bars we're going to play the single notes of the chords and the first
chord will be G on the draw and C on the blow.
And that will sound like this. _ _ _
_ _ _ There's your G chord, 1, 2, 3, 4 [C] notes.
And here's the C chord. _ _ _ _
[G] When I say chord of course, that's the single notes.
If we played it all together it would sound like this.
_ And we'll do that later on in this session.
So as it's made up of 12 bars, and I haven't got 12 fingers so you'll have to imagine,
we're going to play 4 bars of the G chord, 1 note at a time.
And the reason for this is to help you learn that there are 4 beats in each bar, we're
going to do the first 4 bars, like so. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] OK, that was the G chord and it went for 4 bars, 4 beats each, so 1 note equals 1 beat.
Which makes it quite easy to work it out.
[C] When we come to the next change, next chord change, it's a C chord, but we're only going
to play this for 2 bars.
So it'll _ go_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ So there you've got 2 bars of [N] 4 beats each, so now we've done 4 bars and 2 bars, we've
done 6 bars of it so far, and now we go back to the G chord, but this time only for 2 bars,
not for 4.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ OK?
_ When we come to the D chord, there's a little bit of a problem with the wonderful little
C diaponic harmonica, in that it won't play [C#] a full D chord.
So we use a little trick about playing a phrase over that end part while the guitar or the
piano play the full chord, and it doesn't sound half bad at all.
In fact, this is pretty much what everybody does.
And we've used that cupcake from session 1, so you will have already learnt that, saves
time, [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] that little phrase.
So we're now up to 8 bars, so if we do that one twice for 2 bars, that's 1 2 3 4 2 2 [G] 3
4, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G#] we now have 10 bars.
I know you can't see the other finger, but it's there.
Ten bars of it.
And we need to have the last 2 bars, so we're going to use a little bit of cupcakes and
then put a tail on that so that it finishes up exactly on the 12 bar count.
And it'll sound, that last bit, the last 2 [E] bars will sound like this. _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [N] And to get that into your memory, we could say, can you really hear that blue note?
And you've got it.
So, once we've done all that, and I'll do it over the backing track, and it'll sound
like this going right through.
OK?
Don't forget to blow out a little bit of air after that first 4 bars, or after the first
2, maybe after every 2 bars might be a good little rule to stick to.
Otherwise, because we're drawing in, we'll fill up our lungs too much and there won't
be any room for any other air.
OK?
So here we [G] go. _ _ _
[C#] Blowing out.
_ [G] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Dm] _ [E] _ [G] _ _ _
_ [C] _ [G] _ _ [C] _ [Dm] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ [G] _ _
[Am] _ [G] _ _ _ [F] _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ [D] _
[F#] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Made it.
12 bars.
OK?
[G#] So have a little go with the backing track.
Now you know how a 12 bar blues is put together, and you can have a little play around with that later.
But there's also another little trick to add to this to give it a bit of colour, to make
you develop your own sound, and that's to use a mixture of the chord.
[G] So if I play the chord through, say for the first 8 bars like this, _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
[G#] so you chop it 8 bars,
[G] and then you can put your little end phrase on the end of that, so you're actually using
the chord this time.
And then, as most players do in the blues, to develop your own style with a mixture of
whatever you like, you can play some notes, you can play some chords, you can leave a
little bit of space, which is always a good idea.
So don't play too much in there, but let's say you were doing the little cupcakes thing,
just for instance, with a chord. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [N] Like that.
Mess around.
Have a little blow here, a little draw there.
And suddenly, you're jamming.
_ _ _ _ Thanks for making it a [G] success for [A] part 1, let's hope we do the [G] same thing for part 2.
[C#] [E] There'll be a few more [Gm] things on offer this time.
If you care [D] to [Gm] email us on the email [G] you'll see on the screen or down below, there'll
be the backing track from the first [F#] one if you don't have it already, a slower version
[F#m] while you get used to [G] these extra notes, and [D] also one in the key of E for [G] E for those of
you who like to play guitar and you were A for A for harmonica.
So [G] get in [Gm] there, mix it up, have some fun, and we'll see you at the next one.
Cheers.
[A] _ [G] _ _ _ [A] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ [F#] _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ [C] _ [N] _