Tuesday, May 19, 2015

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 402 #447)

Stormy Monday Encore!!!

Thinking about and absorbing the chord structure and learning how to play over our study song, Call It Stormy Monday, is challenging enough that Joe felt it warranted hammering home again. So, both for the sake of repetition (hat tip to Martin Lang for stressing that) and because a few people missed it, Shoji again stepped through the chord structure and how substitutions are made to make a song "fancy".

He worked this time from the tune Oh Susanna, showing us the straightforward chord progression first, then adding in possible substitutions and slowly building the song up to a much more sophisticated sound. It was a great example and parallels what's happening on Stormy Monday.

The idea is to demystify and help you play over the tune - taken simply, you can start by playing blues scale over bars 1-6 and 10-12 and playing the major pentatonic over bars 7-9.

We covered this well in a previous YMM issue, so do go re-read this: May 6 Issue.

And for your listening pleasure:
  • Stormy Monday, Bobby Blue Bland Live On Beale Street - Bobby Rush on harp
Class Notes
  • No class next week. Flip something on the bar-b and practice your blues and major pentatonic scales!
- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew