Okay, I've read a little about blues today. After finishing the reading, I tried to write an outline for a simple blues song.
Read on, this is how I thought:
Progression to be used: 1-4-5
Key: A
As the chord progression is 1-4-5, the chords will be A-E-D. However, I convert them to 7th chords, and this is how I converted them:
(ie. the A7 chord.) I started off finding out the notes of the A major chord (formula: 1-3-5), and the results were:
A-C#-E. Then I added the 7th from the A major scale, the G#, but I flatted it (I'm not quite sure why I did, but it both sounds bluesier lowering it, and I -think- the note fits the A blues scale when I lower it, PS. not sure on this!) and ended on the G note. This gave me the A7 chord: A-C#-E-G. Then I used this method for the two other chords as well, but I got the notes from the corresponding major scales of course (didn't use the A major scale to get the notes of D major, for instance).
Allright, so the 1-4-5 progression is ready: A7-D7-E7. Then I thought: "The blues scale should be a nice choice for soloing, I think"
Then I found the formula for the blues scale:
1 b3 4 b5 5 b7
If we connect that with the A major scale, we get these notes: A C D D# E G.
Now, look at the notes of the three backing chords:
(If I got it right)
A7 = A-C#-E-G
D7 = D-F#-A-C
E7 = E-G#-B-D
Now, I reacted on the fact that EACH chord has got one note that isn't in the A minor blues scale. The A7 got the C#, the D7 got F# and the E got the G#. Is is supposed to be this way?
If not, then I have a few ideas, at least, what we could do.
A) Could it be that we should rather use the A major blues scale for soloing?
B) Do something with the backing chords to match them with the notes in the blues scale
C) We should do nothing, because it will work quite good the way we've got it already?
A few comments on this, please, and I'll be happy!