I feel like im missing too much music theory


danielrusu7
Registered User
Joined: 09/04/11
Posts: 3
danielrusu7
Registered User
Joined: 09/04/11
Posts: 3
12/10/2011 4:49 am
I'm learning how to play blues right now using the excellent Blues lessons with Anders. But i feel like I'm missing something. I know a bit of music theory, but what I want to be able to do is take a song like "Jingle bells" in C, and turn it into a blue song. I just dont know how to do this. Is there a good section on this site for music theory?

I want to be able to write my own songs, is there a good song writer section?
# 1
Chayakorn
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Joined: 11/21/11
Posts: 51
Chayakorn
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Joined: 11/21/11
Posts: 51
12/13/2011 10:27 am
In this case, you may want to change the straight rhythmic feel into the shuffle feel and add some techniques of guitar phrasing like bending, slides, etc..as well as add some extra note like b5 into the song, but still maintain the core of melody and feel.

Hope that makes sense to you.
# 2
Douglas Showalter
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Joined: 09/15/08
Posts: 817
Douglas Showalter
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Joined: 09/15/08
Posts: 817
12/16/2011 6:48 am
Not all songs will transfer over to blues that easily. In the case of "Jingle Bells" though, you can get away with this being that there are only a few chords.

The chords in "Jingle Bells" are I, IV, and V; just like a blues. If you play it in C, you simply make C into C7, F into F7, and G into G7. You should also add more a shuffle feel to it and you should be good to go.

For songwriting, Lisa McCormick has a ton of great stuff on the site. Check this out;
The Magic of Chord Theory
Douglas Showalter
# 3
54Rigger
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Joined: 08/08/08
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54Rigger
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Joined: 08/08/08
Posts: 8
12/16/2011 9:18 pm
I'm gonna echo Douglas a bit.

among the major things that make the blues the blues are:

~definitive 12, 8, or 16 bar chord patterns
~heavy accents on the I, IV, V chords of the scale (the major chords of the scale)
~the I,IV, V chords are typically played as 7th chords (adding 7th note or replacing 5th with 7th )
~the "blue notes" the pentatonic scale is typically accented with flattened 7th and flattened 3rds (i.e. the note between the 6th and 7th or the note between the 2nd and 3rd).

this is fairly basic list but it addresses the major music theory aspects of the blues.

Musical theory is a lifelong exploration, in order to understand how the Blues style relates to Musical theory you will need to understand the foundations, but it's well worth the effort.
# 4

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