The Memphis Blues

Description

Now that we know the chord progression and song form, let's learn the melody! This is where the rubber meets the road because, the melody is the essence of the song. I can't stress this enough, the melody is the core of the song. If you want to play any song, you can strip away everything but the melody. Without the melody you don't have the song. You might have some recognizable part of the song, but not the fundamental essence of it.

In this lesson we will learn how to play the single note melody of the intro. This is the line that was traditionally or historically played on the trumpet, often by W. C. Handy, or any number of classic blues or jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong! If you find any performance of the song by a jazz band chances are this is the first thing you will hear in their arrangement.