blues Headlines: swinging Chords
Richard Barrett’s in-depth lessons in blues playing technique will make you a better player – with full audio and backing tracks
In a three-piece line-up of guitar, bass and drums a lot of harmonic and melodic responsibility falls on the guitarist. While this can seem like an onerous task, it actually frees us up to experiment with chord voicings, dynamics and improvisation in a band context. By this, I mean exchanging a look to agree on extra choruses, endings and so on.
Although backing tracks can’t (yet) offer this kind of flexibility, it’s great to put yourself in situations that stretch your ability – that’s how we improve, after all. Players such as SRV, Jimi Hendrix and, more recently, John Mayer have used the electric guitar as a great ‘engine’ for the power-trio format. These examples take a little from each and hopefully demonstrate possibilities for those looking to fill this kind of space in a band context. Using the key of A provides a ‘safety net’ of the open 5th string, but you’ll see that it isn’t really used in the examples/solo, as the bass guitar covers the low-end. Leaving the bass notes out gives us more freedom/fingers to experiment with chord voicings and solo lines. It’s also a wise idea not to establish a precedent for booming bass notes that we would struggle to keep up without being tied solely to chords (or certain keys).
Although the rhythmic upstrokes on the open strings fit well with the home key of A major, they can function just as well in other keys. The phrase that comes to my mind is ‘sleight of hand’ – this is a trick to create the illusion of a fuller chord accompaniment, building on the expectation set by other chord fragments. Phew! I didn’t realise this was going to get so cerebral... Hope you enjoy the licks and see you next time.