Guitar stuff for Ethan (31st March)

Right… I’ve written you a lot of text here, you don’t really have to read it, it’s not that important.

If you like, go straight to 1st heading half the way down and start from there. You can always read the rest some other time, or just not at all! Music is much more important that words. In fact, music is much more important than anything in the whole stupid world.

Having said that, first things first: what I told you was a 12 bar blues was wrong, I wasn’t counting properly so it was more like 9 bars which isn’t really a thing, sorry!

My musical theory isn’t great. That makes me not such a great musical communicator but the thing is that when you’re making music it’s what you play that counts not what you think the theory is.

Second thing: Tune your guitar! Tune it every time you pick it up and then tune it again.

If you tune from the lowest string to the highest string you might find that the lower strings go slightly out of tune by the time you tune the highest string. That’s why it’s best to tune twice. It’s annoying but the more you do it the quicker you’ll get.

You can’t develop a good ear if your guitar is out of tune and it’s much more rewarding to play when you’re perfectly in tune.

If you can’t find your old tuner then use an app on your phone or just buy this simple one on Amazon: Boss TU1, keep it clipped to your guitar always.

Eventually you’ll learn to tune by ear rather than using a machine, we’ll deal with that later though.

Third thing: buy a pack or two of strings - they will break and you’ll need spares, also new strings sound nicer than old strings. There’s nothing worse than breaking a string and not having a spare to replace it with.

When you get good you’ll have your own favourite makes of strings but anything will do for now, I like these: Martin M140 Acoustic Guitar Bronze Strings Set - 012 Gauge: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments

I’m sure you can find a video of how to change strings on youtube.

OK, that’s the boring stuff out of the way, I hope you didn’t read all of it?

12 bar blues using on just one string

We played a blues on just one string in 2 different keys, E and A.

The fret positions and principles are exactly the same in each key it just depends which string you play on.

In the key of E

We played 2 bars of E, that is the lowest string, played open but really we should have played 4 bars cos I told you wrong!

We call the first note in the sequence the first interval or the root or the tonic or the key. In music there are lots of different words for basically the same thing. It’s annoying.

We write intervals in Roman numerals. The intervals you need to play the blues are: I , IV & V

So…

4 bars of E (Lowest string, played open, this is the I interval)

2 bars of A (5th fret, the IV interval)

2 bars of E again (open string, the I interval)

1 bar of B (7th fret, the V interval)

1 bar of A (5th fret, the IV interval),

1 bar of E (open string, the I interval)

1 bar of B (7th fret the V interval)

4 + 2 + 2 + 1 +1 +1 +1 = 12 bars, which is why it’s called the 12 bar blues.

That final bar of B is called the turnaround. We call it that because it ends the sequence and turns us back to the beginning.

When you get to the turnaround make sure you do go back to the beginning, and keep playing through your mistakes. Try to play the sequence 4 times in a row. It’s more important to keep playing and keep the rhythm going than it is to play every note perfectly at this point.

Here is that sequence written out in a chord chart:

In the key of A

You can play the same pattern in the key of A just by playing on the 2nd lowest string rather than the lowest. In that case the notes and intervals would be:

4 bars of A (open string, I interval)

2 bars of D (5th fret, IV interval)

2 bars of A again (open string, I interval)

1 bar of E (7th fret, V interval)

1 bar of D (5th fret IV interval)

1 bar of A (open string, I interval)

1 bar of E (7th fret, V interval)

Notice that the notes are different, but the intervals are the same regardless of the key.

Power chords or Fifths

This is where things get fun…

A Fifth or power chord is a simple chord with 2 notes in it. We call it a Fifth because the 2 notes are always the I interval (or root) + the V interval.

So… An E power chord will be made up of an E (the root) + a B (the V interval in relation to an E note)

You’ll often see it written as “E5” on a chord chart.

The chord shape looks like this:

(The open circle means play the open E string. Don’t play the strings with the Xs obviously)

To play an A5 simply use two fingers and slide the shape up to the 5th fret:

And to play a B5 just slide the same shape to the 7th fret:

Get it? Now you know 3 chords and you can play the blues on more than just one string:

12 bar blues in E using power chords:

To keep things simple I’m not going to write the chord at the start of each bar if the chord doesn’t change, it makes the chart clearer.

If you see an empty bar, just keep playing the chord you’re already playing:

Notice that it’s the same as just playing using a single note, only this time we’re using 2 fingers. It really is that simple!

Again, when you get to the end, go back to the beginning and keep playing through your mistakes. Try to play the sequence 4 times in a row and try to keep in time.

12 bar blues in A using power chords:

You can play the same in A using the 2nd and 3rd strings, only this time it’s harder cos you need to make sure you don’t play the low E string. Here are the chords:

And here’s the chart:

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Ok, that’s probably enough for the time being. Now that you know how to play a power chord feel free to experiment. You don’t have to play the chord changes that I’ve written down. Just play whatever sounds good and is fun.

Concentrate on building the strength in your fingers and the rhythm in your strumming hand - at this point those are the most important things.

I’ll try to get you some example recordings done tomorrow cos it’s much easier if you have something to listen to rather than having to read all my bullshit.

For the time being though you should listen to Jimi Hendrix play a 12 bar blues instead, he’s much better than me anyway:

https://songwhip.com/https://music.apple.com/us/album/red-house/344799413?i=344800100&uo=4&app=music