In Praise of the Blues

  My musical journey thus far, like most musicians, has had it's ups and downs. It has been filled with moments of achievement, failure, exploration, and monotony. Through, all of this, my perception of music has changed quite a bit over the years. And just like my feelings about Pop Music with only three chords has changed, so have my feelings about the Blues.

 Unbeknownst to me for many years, I actually began my musical experience in Blues based Rock and Roll. I say unbeknownst because I really had no idea how much the Blues has influenced my playing. And now as I analyze Classic Rock Bands such has Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as well as many forms of Jazz, it's easy to see this. But at some point, the idea of playing and practicing the Blues seemed boring to me. Perhaps it just seemed too familar or just not as exotic as the Jazz I was studying. Whatever the reasons were, I'm glad to say that I've come full circle and love playing the Blue regardless of the setting (ie. Traditional Blues, Jazz, Rock, etc). And, here's why:

• Improvisation- While a standard Blues may only include three chords and 12 measures such as in a Blues in C (ie. C7 F7 C7 / F7 / C7 / G7 F7 C7 G7),  a more sophisticated Jazz version might involve many more (ie. C7     F7     C7     /     F7     F# dim7     C7     Em7A7     D7     G7    C7 Eb7    Dm7 G7). So you can rock out with your pentatonic scales or practice with making the changes with arpeggios, melodic minor, and the dimished scale.

• Musicality-  When learning to hear musical form, you'd be hard pressed to find something more useful than the 12 Bar Blues. When it comes to Pop, Rock, Country, and Jazz, the 12 Bar Blues shows up more often than not and is simply a must for any serious Student. 

• Connection- We've all heard the phrase, "Music is the Universal Language",  right? Well, it's true. And for Blues music, it's especially true. Given the popularity of Blues based music throughout the world, it's no wonder that musicians everwhere often know how to play a 12 Bar Blues. In fact, I've been in situations where I couldn't even speak to the people I was playing with due to language barriers, but when we started playing the Blues, everyone knew what to do and we could communicate through the music. Very powerful indeed.

  Hopefully that gives you some reasons to seriously consider studying the Blues. Even though it appears to only have three chords and twelve measures, there's A LOT you can do with it. And you may find like me that it's really not so simple after all. What it is however, is a beautiful, powerful, style of music that transcends musical genres, language, and even geograhic boundaries. Without Blues, Rock and Roll, Jazz, and many other forms of music may never even have developed. So what are you waiting for? Let's get to it!


Tune in next week for the next installment of Have Guitar Will Travel.