Everyone Loves the Frontman

Since John has apparently issued me a challenge of responding to his daily music blogging, and since the breadth of my musical knowledge is far less impressive than his, I've decided to post a little explanatory response to something he might have mentioned off hand recently, but I may have just imagined, and didn't want to take the time to confirm it, either way.

So, what are the twelve-bar blues? The twelve-bar blues is a chord progression, or rather a family of slight variations on a chord progression, common in jazz, blues, and rock, that is, unsurprisingly, twelve measures (or bars) long. Behold my comma usage! You could just look this stuff up on Wikipedia and probably get more for your money, but please waste blogger's bandwidth instead.

The basic chord progression goes like this: 4 measures of I, 2 measures of IV, 2 measures of I, 1 of V, 1 of IV, and 2 of I. For those of you without any music theory, I, IV, and V refer to the major triads built on the first, fourth, and fifth steps of a major scale. There are plenty of variations on this. Usually, triads are too pedestrian for jazz, for example, so everything needs to be a seventh, especially the V (that is, it would almost certainly be replaced with a V7). The I chord would likely be made more colorful with the addition of a 6. The second measure (a I chord) would often be replaced with something like a iv7 chord. Sometimes the 1oth measure (a IV chord) is left as a continuation of the V(7) from the previous measure.

So, what's it sound like? I'm pretty sure you'd recognize it if you heard it, if you didn't follow all that chord symbol garbage. Try giving the jazz standards "In the Mood," or "Woodchopper's Ball" a listen. If you like the Beatles (that is, pretty much if you are human), their version of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," George's original "For You, Blue," and the aptly named "12 Bar Original" are all good examples. Dylan's "Outlaw Blues," from the album Bringing it all Back Home has a nice blues sound to it. Of course, so does just about every blues song ever, but I'm not knowledgeable enough about that to make recommendations. Edit: I'm going to go ahead and suggest Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues" anyway. His album, Modern Times, which is basically a tribute to old style music like 50's rock and 40's balladeering (?) features the twelve-bar blues in the tracks "Thunder on the Mountain," "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "The Levee's Gonna Break." I'd be remiss not to mention Elvis, who built his career on twelve-bar blues tracks like "Hound Dog," which is just an awesome song, even if you think you are too good for Elvis.

Want to be a rock musician? Don't know how to play any instruments? Here is how you play the twelve bar blues. First, locate the C (any will do, but I suggest middle C) on a keyboard type instrument. It's the white one just below any of the pairs of black keys (not a trio of black keys). That is your first scale step, the tonic pitch, the base note of a I chord. Learn to play that note for four measures, or goof around with some other notes (best stick to the white ones for now), but stick around that one, because rock music isn't supposed to be complex. Now, you need the IV, so what do you do, well, if the C is the 1st step, count up the white keys till you get the the 4th step, the F in this case. It should be just below a block of three black keys. That's the subdominant tone, if you are curious or prefer words to numbers. Play that one for a couple measures, then go back to the 1st step. You'll probably know intuitively and won't have to count measures. Now count back up, but this time go one more to the 5th step, the dominant tone, a G in this case. Then down one, then down to your starting place. Bam, twelve-bar blues! You're almost as good as the Big Bopper.

If playing one note is beneath you, how about this, play the fifth above each of those notes at the same time. That is, play a perfect fifth interval (still not a chord; chords require at least three notes). If that doesn't make any sense, what I mean is, when you play a C, play a G with it; when you play an F, play a C with it; and when you play a G, play a D with it. Always put the fifth above the root of the chord. It's not strictly necessary, but since this music isn't exactly filled out, it won't sound right if you start inverting your "chords." If you are totally bayd at piano (that is, you have been using one hand to do this, like a pro), you can try adding the third step of each of the chords, which you should be able to figure out by yourself, but be warned, playing straight up triads like that, without inverting or anything, makes you sound like a square.

For "advanced" playing, you can color up your chords. For example, when playing the I chord (suggest just a perfect fifth interval in the left), alternate with each beat between the fifth (a G on C) and a 6th (an A, the note above that). You will notice a very familiar bass line by doing this. Slightly harder is going G-A-Bb-A. You are now using a C6 or even a C7 chord. Keep it up, Mingus! You can basically do the same thing with the other chords and become a jazz master. Now, just learn how to play with two hands, and you are well on your way to opening for Jerry Lee Lewis.