my ukulele progress

As I promised myself, I am going to be annotating a few of my favorite blues progressions. I originally found these in the Glen Rose workbooks I purchased a few years ago. The first one is unique to the workbooks (that is, I haven’t run across it but I don’t imagine that it was invented for the workbook), whereas the second one I’ve seen on other jazz websites.

As an aside I need to mention that the Glen Rose books are great, but I outgrew the methodology. Rose’s pedagogical stance is to keep things simple so that there is no intimidation to approaching jazz. However I wanted a little more depth in terms of why we play what we do. I don’t mean to belittle Glen. I have spoken with him and I know he has been, and is, a musician and educator for decades. He knows everything I want to learn...he just hasn’t put that knowledge into the workbooks.

At first, this progression looks hard just because the shapes are different. We are used to our dom7 shapes, but when you ponder it...it has know harder to make one shape as it is another (aside from the stretch of some shapes).

This progression only uses two shapes, whereas a typical blues progression in C uses three.

Bar 1: I dom13. This patently sets up the progression by establishing the root to which the deviation of the IV chord and the V chord all long to resolve to. I have heard it whimsically said that the IV and V are separated from and desire to return to the I chord just as in a life buffeted by the blues we long to return to god. I don’t know if that’s true but it is a pretty thought. Technically speaking, to play the dom13, I use the shape that has its root on the A string, except on the A string I play the tonic versus the 9th which results in a different voicing of the chord; I do it because it is easier.

Bar 2: IV dom9. This is the “quick change” that is a staple of jazz. Normally the first 4 bars are all the I chord. But this quick change has its benefits. First of all, it previews the deviation which is to come in bars 6 and 7. Also it presents a different narrative. In the normal blues progression the first 4 bars are the I chord which establishes the sound to which we deviate from and ultimately return to. In the quick change narrative, instead of the I chord asserting itself in a straight forward manner, the I chord announces itself, the IV chord intervenes, then the I chord re-takes center stage. This represents more of a tension and a conflict. The I chord and its solidity is interrupted by the IV chord and only with difficulty re-establishes itself...but the IV chord is still there and it will re-emerge just as self-doubt can obtrude itself on our confidence. Technically, I use the dom9 shape which is rooted on the E string.

Bar 3 and 4: I dom13. Technical note—since I don’t use the pinky in my inversion of the dom13 chord it is free to spice things up a bit by playing the 9 or the #9 or the b9 on certain beats to create some variations of sound.

Bar 5 and 6: IV dom9. Here the IV does finally take over and pulls us away from the root chord

Bar 7 and 8: the walkdown from the I. You play the I dom13 chord for half a bar, then descend a fret and play the shape to complete bar 7, and then for bar 8 you descend another fret and play the chord and then descend again and play the chord. In a traditional blues progression these bars are normally devoted to the I chord. In that traditional narrative, the I establishes itself for 4 bars, the IV interrupts for 2, and then the I re-takes control for 2. In that narrative, there is a conflict but it is rather black and white with either the I or the IV in command. In this alternative narrative, the I chord briefly regains its primacy for the first half of bar 7, but then for a bar and a half the shape moves away from the root as if the situation is slipping from the power of the I chord. Again this musical narrative resonates with our own lives. We often find that something, like the IV chord, shakes our foundation from its solid moorings. We take action but for whatever reason that action is ineffectual or at least only temporary and the situation slips between our fingers.

Bar 9: II dom13
Bar 10: V dom9

These two bars are going to require some explication and I hope I actually have the power of articulation that is required. As far as the story line goes, bar 9 is the darkness before the dawn. It is farther away from the I chord than any other chord in the progression. And bar 10 is the beginning of the return to the I chord and that resolution. Again, this works as a reflection of our life. I have often been involved in a crisis which seemed to get worse and worse, and when I despaired that things couldn’t work out, then suddenly something happens to change everything.

Here’s how this works musically. The II chord seems random, but it isn’t. A normal blues progression involves the I, the IV, and the V chords. In the key of C that would be C, F, and G. Now, focus on the G. In the key of G, what is the V chord? It is D. Therefore D is the V chord of G, which is the V chord of C. D is also the II chord in the key of C. So the II chord is the V chord of the V chord. However alienated the V chord is from the I chord, the II chord is even more removed. And so bar 9 represents a great distance from the I chord and bar 10 shows progress toward the I chord, which is to be realized in the next bar

Bar 11: I dom13, for half the bar. Then move up three frets and play the dom13 shape.
Bar 12: Another walk down. For the first half of the bar move down a fret and play the dom13 shape. Move down another fret and we are back at the I chord where we play it again.


I don’t know if this way of looking at the blues is orthodox or heterodox. I don’t really talk to others about this. Either my views are so universal that they deserve no comment or they are a bit outlandish. Again, I don’t know.

However, I commit them to writing because I wanted to illustrate how I get around being a robot.

In a recent thread about the blues, beginners were cautioned against being robotic in playing the blues. As my writing shows, I totally agree with that but I think it is completely inappropriate advice for a beginner. We don’t expect a beginning keyboard student to be Scarlatti and we shouldn’t expect a beginner in the blues to be accomplished.

However, once a beginner is ready to put some nuance in the structure that he or she has been playing, this bunch of writing shows one way of doing it. By making the blues progression a narrative, you as a player can invest certain chords with an appropriate emotion by using tricks such as triplets or a masterful use of silence or whatever. Taken in this light the progression is: I chord (the perfect situation where you are centered and nothing is wrong), IV chord (something bad), V chord (something worse), and II (the worst thing).

And if that is still too abstract to work, you can certainly vivify the progression with a concrete situation. Most people use love and its betrayal as the theme of the blues. However, my wife is a wonderful person; I mentally appreciate the love angle of the blues, but I don’t feel it. But something that does make me blue is how unfair and capricious life is. I have done everything I was supposed to do. I was a good person, I received my education and training, I worked hard...but I didn’t get my reward. It is as if I fulfilled my end of the bargain, but reality welched. I wasn’t in the right place at the right time or I didn’t know the right person, and because of that I am not living the easy life. However someone else may think of it, that’s what gives me the blues. And what I would do musically is think of three levels of dissatisfaction that I have with this topic and associate those dissatisfactions with the IV, V, and II chords. Then when I play those chords I try to play them in a way that invokes my attitude.

I should mention that most people do this with words; they express their feelings with their song. I don’t like to sing. I try to do it with the chords. However this can’t really be done with the chords since chords are just chords. So I loosen up the structure. Instead of 12 bars, I think of it as 12 parts of a story. And sometimes I take liberties with the timing of the bars and extend them with finger picking or other techniques which lend themselves to what I’m trying to do. Since this is all a bit improvisational, sometimes it doesn’t work. Music after all, needs to have a certain modicum of repetition to be significant to an audience. This improvisation is sort of like pre-writing and if I going to actually publish it as a song, I would definitely narrow the scope of my whimsies to give an audience some footholds to use.


There we go. That is just my attempt to show to myself that the I IV V progression isn’t so simple and boring, and that it is worthy to be the most frequent progression in jazz. And I haven’t even touched upon muddying the waters by using different chord qualities such as add6’s or maj7’s. Nor have I alluded to using different voicings for the chords. This aspect, in particular, is very interesting. Different inversions have different pitches and those pitches seem to have associations of their own. After all, the difference between a question and an indicative statement is merely a question of pitch and a higher pitch seems to connote a “big finish” at the end of a song. However I am getting into a barrel of monkeys which should probably not be disturbed right now.
 
I am preparing for a move, so I have been a bit pre-occupied but I have been trying to systematically pursue my current interest in making chords all over the fret board.

I was wondering how high I could go and for me it depends on the sort of chord. Chords having the index finger barre stop working at the fifteenth fret. Until then all my notes ring out, but after the 15th it gets muted. I suppose my finger is too big. I can do those circus tricks like twisting my hand to get the bony part of the pinky to (maybe) play the chord, but it doesn't seem appropriate to me. We're supposed to enjoy this and doing that sort of thing just isn't enjoyable. I do use some trickery such as nudging my ukulele to the left to keep the frets I'm working with in front of me.

Other chords go higher. For example something like the m7 chord with the C string root (2212) I can take all the way up to the 19th fret.

And still other chords can work if I change my finger patterns to accommodate the tighter space.

All this, of course, is a bit academic. I won't be needing to play chords that high on the fret board; I merely want to be able so that my choice is artistic and not based on my lack of ability.

I do finger pick up to the 19th fret all the time, but I think I am content to let the chords rest at the 15th and go no further.

Now that I've established the parameters, it is time to start practicing these shapes and learn my fret board better. I think I will start with the Key of F merely because I never play in that key. I am sure that the different keys will have unique challenges based on where those notes lie on the fret board. Hopefully I will find some new favorite places to visit which will rival my fondness for the 11th fret.
 
Just tried play with my keyboard the complete C13 chord. Did not sound that bad if I could get my fingers in right places and right order. Just way too complicated, but I don't play jazz. Did not sound exactly like a cluster of notes.

I found this thread of what are usually left out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth
"In the common practice period the "most common" pitches present in V13 chord are the root, 3rd, 7th, and 13th; with the 5th, 9th, and 11th "typically omitted".[8] The 13th is most often in the soprano, or highest voice, and usually resolves down by a 3rd to the tonic I or i. If the V13 is followed by a I9 the 13th may resolve to the 9th.".

So it is C, E, Bb, A. It does not sound good on uke, the A should be played an octave higher. But even if it was possible, there is that unevenness in sustain of strings then.

Still I am pissed off and to anyone using such chords as notation. But I don't know jazz harmony and goes beyond my usual understanding/able hearing of more chords than the 4 note ones. Our ukebuddy tells it is a no chord, 2001.
 
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The 13 I play is 3 b7 9 13. I think that would be E Bb D A. The 13 has some relatively easy patterns and it sounds a little bit more mellow to my ear than a 9 chord.
 
My plan seems to be a little more difficult than I had anticipated.

I had planned to learn my fret board by going around the circle of fifths counter-clockwise (which, I know, is actually the circle of fourths) from F to C and play I IV V progressions all over the fret board. In that way I would hit every note three times (once as a root, once as a subdominant, and once as a dominant).

I became quickly overwhelmed because you need to know where the notes are (in F, they are F, Bb, and C). Next you need to know which chord shapes to place around the note. And then you need to know which positions to play. I'm out of time right now because I need to get ready for work, but I will expand on what I came up with in ten hours or so when I return.
 
It will not be that easy I must say. One key at a time. Now I can quite easy play the basic chord progressions from 4 flats (Ab/Fm) to 4 sharps (E/C#m). They are all relatively easy to finger with our ukulele. In that sharp department, I do some muting, but you know that already because of your E liking.

The rest of 12 keys, Db/Bbm, B/G#m, and the hardest s** F#/Ebm, are needing a lot of barres. Plus I don't really know if I should call the chords with flat or sharp names.

I play same chord progressions in every key, so that keeps me knowing that I play them right. What is the 1st, 5th, 6th, 4th or 3rd and 2nd degrees. Usually I use the 7th chord just with 2nd and 5th degrees, to keep all simple. And with 3rd degree that is the 5th of the relative minor but dominant 7th with harmonic scale.

And I am not really sure how much I depend on the ukulele and then not really able to transfer that chord degree knowledge to say like piano. But I do think I know a lot without the uke too. I have not learned much about my keyboard, except that it is not based on movable chords lol. It has just been sitting there, gathering dust on keys.
 
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Okay, as I said in my last entry, I had bitten off more than I could chew. That was great because it immediately exposed my weakness with not knowing my fret board as well as I should. It was upsetting at first, but at least it showed me what has to be done. After all, it is lame that an instrumentalist should not know the rudiments of his instrument.

So I have to take it in smaller bites.

First of all, I have to know where these twenty-one or so notes are at. So, I am going to maintain my plan of playing blues progressions...but instead of using chords, I will just use the root notes at first.

I noticed that around the 6 F notes on the fret board, certain Bb and C notes are nearby and seem to be the natural choices for the progression.

Here are the clusters I saw (I will be using a naming system I created. E1=the first fret of the E string, C5=the fifth fret of the C string, etc.)

E1 / A1 / A3

C5 / E6 / G5 or C5 / G3 / A3 or C5 / E6 / E8

A8 / E6 / E8

G10 / C10 / C12

E13 / A13 / C12 or A15

C17 / E18 / G17 or C17 / G15 / A15

The plan is to play these three-note sequences until I am familiar with where these notes occur. Then I think I will mix and match the elements to see what kind of sound I get. I’ll try something like E1 / E18 / C12. Some of these new sequences will just sound random and utterly forgettable. However some are going to sound like appropriate variations.

Once I am comfortable with using these notes, then I will just put the chord shapes around these root notes and get a proper blues progression. I intend to use both major and minor blues progressions because, in my philosophy, those (the triads and the 7 chords) are the essential chords, without which a player should be ashamed.

I naturally foresee a few issues

1. With the minor blues, the m7 shape (root on the E) will always be a problem

2. With the major blues, that 7 shape (root on the E) is something that I don’t use, except for F7 or F#7. Therefore I just don’t have much experience with it.

3. The 7 shape (root on the G) is also always troublesome unless I mute the G string, rendering it rootless. The only problem with that is that the sound is a little less full, since it has one less string. But its sound is perfectly good. One good aspect about muting the G string is that if I choose not to mute it but fret it along with the C string, then I get a 9 chord.
 
I am not feeling very well. As I pack up some stuff for my move, I am listening to Wagner's Lohengrin and feel like a schmuck. I imagine Verdi felt the same way after hearing Wagner. Anyway, I am here struggling with the different voicings of the blues progression in F whilst listening to Wagner. I feel pretty lame. There's so much I could do being...I'll elaborate later what I've found this week. However, now I have to do some more immediate things.

I'm back and here's some of what I have found out.

1. I realize there's going to be a learning curve here with the chord shapes. It is a little hard now, but it will be less so when I move onto the next key. In that case, the notes will be new but the shapes won't.
2. the dominant 7 shape with its root on the E string (e.g., the F7=2313) is actually two chords in one. You can play it with all fingers down, as we all learnt it, or mute the A string. That mutes the fifth of the chord but you still get that dominant sound with the flat 7. More importantly you get a chord with a lower pitch since that A string is missing.
3. Similarly, with some muting you get get two chords out of a very popular major chord shape. It is the one we learn a Bb major (3211). You can play it as 3211, but also you can play it as 321X and get a lower-pitched chord which only lacked a reduplicated root note.
4. Similarly again, there's the chord we learn as E major, 4447. I find it much better as 444X, without that high note.
5. My instinct was correct in terms of not wanting to play any chord higher than the 15th fret. It is doable sometimes with a bit of acrobatics to get your fingers into those cramped quarters, but the sound! The chords down there sound tinny and toylike--like a soprano. That's not a sound I want at all.

That's a pretty good synopsis of my observations this week. I am writing from memory so that I cannot recall which inversions sounded good and which didn't. At the time I just moved around randomly (e.g., the F @ E1, the Bb @ E6, and C @E8). Everything sounded good in a way. I did start to get a feeling for when to go extremely high, like the C7 @ A15. Depending on how you deal with it, it can sound surprising but purposeful...especially with some triplets. I could foresee it as a good way to mask transitions since the pitches are so apart that a key change wouldn't be so evident.
 
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As an update, I haven't been able to do much with the ukulele. I am in the middle of moving a household by myself. I know...I have a PhD in ancient languages, I have some righteous tenor ukuleles, I have a dilettante knowledge of music theory. I should have a lot of friends to help. However, the world is a crazy place right now. I'm by myself. I'll get by and after the move is affected I will be able to re-dedicate myself to my ukulele.


Just to be break up the monotony of my blues in F, I have been trying to intersperse some picking--in the style of a stop-time blues. It is pretty easy to do with my pentatonics because no matter what root you are centered your chord around, you can play the corresponding shape. I also tried ( and succeeded) laying down some F Phrygian. It sounded it pretty good although technically F Phrygian is actually in the key of Bb. Phrygian is probably my favorite mode. Actually the Aiolian is my favorite since that minor vibe is the backbone of my sound, but the Aiolian is sort of a default rather than a choice. It is more of a way of life that isn't negotiable. But the Phrygian is a choice. It has that nice progression of minor 1, minor 4th, and flatted minor 7th.

I just looked at the main forum and noticed a thread about which ukulele would you like to play. I don't want to comment and throw something other than supportive vibes that way...but I do wonder why someone would want to play some other ukulele. I mean, what is there to gain? You're still playing. It is still going to be the same old songs you always play except that it may be slightly more warm or bright on a new ukulele. instead of fetishizing one or another ukulele, I think the energy would be better spent in learning a new scale or chordal quality or technique that would elevate the player's style--regardless of what ukulele is being strummed.

To some extent, that's what I'm doing by playing movable chords all over the neck in all keys. I want to play better whether I am playing a Lichty $10000 monstrosity or my humble Yorkshire tenor.
 
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My wife awoke to a shock. I was trying to re-listen to Lyle Ritz's edentate ukulele jazz. I couldn't get through How About Uke?. "At least it isn't Hawaiian music," my wife commented and I have to agree.

It got me thinking about listening practices. Obviously I don't like traditional uke music but I don't usually listen to music I like. I know it is counter-intuitive but I find I cannot unhear things. I suppose I am rather impressionable. Once I hear something it traps me. Once you hear a riff and hear how someone resolves the musical problem, then you have to follow down those lines or avoid those lines so studiously that you are still following them albeit in reverse. I do listen to classical music a lot because I am no longer playing it.
 
I have been so busy packing for my move that I haven't been able to uke. Just to give as idea of how long it has been. I had to trim my left-hand nails. It had been that long. When I'm playing daily, they never need attention. Since my attention has been so waylaid, I've been doing nothing serious with the uke. I've continued playing my blues in F. I restricted myself to the roots on the A string and had some fun. I also played around with the F pentatonic shapes as well as something I heard about mixo-pentatonic scales--that's just a minor pentatonic with a natural third versus a flatted third.

I do have some news. I guess I am a luthier now because I put the neck back on my cigar box guitar with three drywall screws. When I get to my new abode I think I'll buy some Slinky strings. I think I will finally get electric strings to see how much better appropriate strings sound. I've always just used acoustic strings because that's what I had around. I like Slinky strings because that's all the cool kids used in high school. I'll probably get something like 11's or 12's because I primarily use my cigar box for slide guitar and I don't need to be able to bend my strings as I do with my other instruments.
 
Thank you for the Ab chord suggestion, X343, in the other thread.

I might switch to it as it sounds at least on re-entrant ukulele the same as 5343, when strumming. Could be better if some difference tone pulsating with the latter by poor tuning etc.
 
Hi, repock and Jarmo!

My guitar book recommends Jarmo's Ab (Eb in guitar). I've practiced a lot the other Ab with the root on the 4th string (see the figure below). The wrist is bent too much. Hard to quick chord change accurately.



ripock's Ab sounds good but yahalele's Ab is bad. I will try to practice yahalele's Ab for a while.



I think I can avoid Ab key in my singing. But it is fun to learn.
 
I finally made it. 1200 miles with 5 cats and 1 wife. I am still unpacking. By the end of the day I should have all my property out of the modules and into the domicile. Getting everything in order will be another issue. All the musical instruments survived. My Kamaka had shifted a bit but that was the worst of it. At least for the ukuleles. I lost the handle of my tea jar within which I stored my rooibos tea. Now I am waiting for some pinto beans to pressurize and then I'll continue unpacking. I'll re-connect with my goals of playing all inversions of the F blues--in both the major and minor. I think I am on the cusp of feeling good enough to switch to another key. I probably should just move to Bb, the next key on the circle of fifths. That would make sense because some of the notes are the same as F. However, I will probably just do something crazy like go to D or A.
 
I am essentially done with the move. There are still things to be done but they are more or less just individual tasks.

I unpacked my music stuff, but what's interesting is what I didn't unpack. After a move, a person tends to simplify their life by jettisoning things. I just set up my musical area and here's of what is consists:

metronome
five instruments (high G uke, low G uke, cigar box guitar, baritone uke, tenor guitar)
music stand
one folder
amp and fuzz pedal
instrument stand
fretboard diagram

I didn't unpack all my books and sheet music and flute and outdoor uke and harmonicas.

It is interesting. This is all I need. I had acquired so much stuff and it wasn't really essential. What is left is essential. I feel purified. It is similar to the Stoic concept of ekpyrosis in which the world erupts in flame destroying everything only to be re-born in its freshness and virginity. That's how I feel.

To expatiate on what I mentioned above as "one folder"--that is my purple three-ring binder that has everything I need. It contains my modes, my scales, my re-harmonizations, my major and minor pentatonic shapes, chords, and my newest addition which was how to form my essential 14 (m6, m7, half diminished, 6, maj7, 7, 9. 13 add9, 7sus4, augmented, sus4, minor, major) using a root on each string. The folder also houses my Chord Wheel which is an amped-up circle of fifths.

I have to re-start my project, the first step of which was to play in the key of F. I have to re-remember where all the F's, Bb's, and C's are on the fret board. Then I can start playing progressions anywhere on the fretboard. I have to admit that I've really taken a liking to the area between the 7th and 10th frets. It is so central with ample room to move up or down as the fancy bids.

I found a piece of paper in my folder. It contains progressions which may be turnarounds. Here they are:

1. I7 VIm7 bVI9 V9 I9
2. bVII VI bVI V
3. I7 bV° IVm I
4. I IVm bV° I7
5. I7 bV° IVm I
6. I7 IV IVm I

In the key of F these would be
F7 | Dm7 | Db9 | C9 | F9
Eb | D | Db | C
F7 | B° | Bbm | F
F | Bbm | B° | F7
F7 | B° | Bbm | F
F7 | Bb | Bbm | F

I will certainly work these alongside my I IV V progression to memorize the key of F.
 
Today I got a fancy to do something with the harmonic minor. It is funny; I watched a video in which the person was talking about the iconic licks that started him playing guitar. First, he wanted to ape those licks and then the songs from that band/artist. That's kind of foreign to my way of thinking. I do like certain bands but I don't want to learn how to play their songs. I want a mastery...or at least a competency...of my instrument. I want to play my own songs or at least play around with concepts.

The reason I say this is the harmonic minor. When I was growing up Randy Rhoads was the gold standard for guitar players and even though I don't want to play his songs, I am drawn to the harmonic minor because supposedly he was revered because he tinkered with that scale instead of just relying on the same old 5-chords like everyone else.

I, of course, can play the harmonic minor scale but I wanted to take it further. So I mapped out the modes to the harmonic minor. I used the key of Ab because that's the lowest note on the fret board (I don't acknowledge open strings). Some of the modes sounded pretty awesome. The modes starting on Ab, Bb, and E are good. However the others ranged from not sounding very musical to being a bit random. Well maybe random is the wrong word; perhaps I should say unresolved. For example I ascended and descended the mode starting on Eb but when I finished and returned to the Eb the scale didn't sound finished. When I slid down to the Db, then it sounded resolved.

This might be a coincidence but all the modes I didn't like had a five-fret stretch. Do I not like them subconsciously because of that?

The mode starting on the E was interesting because its first three notes is the same as the pentatonic minor. I can foresee engaging in a bait-and-switch technique where I could evade expectations by jumping from one to the other.

*********************

I also practiced my blues in F to make progress on my project. In my last entry I listed some jazzy turnarounds. I found one in particular that I liked as a big finish to the progression. In the last two bars of the blues progression you're supposed to either turn around or finish. When you turn it around the last two bars probably should be F and C7. And when you end the progression the bars should probably be F and F. What I did was play the F for the 11th bar but instead of seeking the resolution of F in the 12th bar I played an F7 and that created even more tension. Then I walked the melody down to resolution: B° to Bb minor to F.

I took another of those jazzy turnarounds and make it a freestanding progression all on its own. The chord qualities I used were:

F7
Dm7
Db9
C9
F9
F add9
(end eventually on an F)

This is a nice progression to use as an outline. It can be easily modified just by using different chord voicings. For example just going from F7 to Dm7 can be altered greatly merely by the selection of the root of Dm7. That chord was pop in different inversions on the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 10th, and 14th frets (it also appears higher up but those chords are hit-or-miss depending on the particular shape).

good times
 
I've been busy with music. I had purchased some new strings for my cigar box guitar. I bought some Slinkys (11's). I put them on with nary a problem. I decided to keep my cigar box tuned to open D (D F# A D). The action of the cigar box is extremely high and I accordingly only play slide on it. I spent a little time and I made a little chart of the open D fret board, highlighting all the notes that are in the D minor pentatonic scale. So far I have only been playing without the amp and only playing a straight blues progression. I did play around with some funk using the two D's on the 12th fret with the flat seven on the 10th. Of course I resolved all that stuff with the D on the 5th fret.

Soon I shall need to do what's natural: plug into the amp, click on the fuzz pedal, and get a little crazy.


In reference to my minor harmonic modes: I of course changed to the key of E, my favorite. That, of course, means the notes of E F# G A B C D# E. That gives me a good range. One mode starts on the open G string and the last mode starts on the 11th. Above the 11th, four of the modes repeat themselves at a higher octave. What's cool about these modes is that they don't sound very scale-like. All you need to do is play one, repeating a note here or there, and giving the scale some phrasing...and you're playing music. And you can link the modes together and it all sounds good and it sounds like you're just playing some ponderous endless song. And four of the notes of the minor harmonic are also in the minor pentatonic, so it is easy to transition between systems...although it seems a bit jarring sometimes. Anyway a lot of fun.
 
I am still working on getting the kinks out of the open D tuning. I've been learning how to do scales with the slide. And my Cigar box guitar will always be with a slide because:

1. my nut and saddle are both made on bolts
2. When I re-attached the neck it slightly leans forward

The result is an extremely high action (at the 12th fret it is approximately one inch).

This is no problem with a slide.

Anyway, I have been working on the tonic pentatonic shape as well as the harmonic minor. With the latter I have only worked on the first mode. However it is all somewhat awesome. I can play really fast with the slide. And the slide is prima facie cool.

I did manage to tear myself away from the cigar box and I practiced some dominant chords on my Yorkie. I've been seeing these progressions in which the chord quality is minor 7, but the final chord is a regular 7. So I've been playing this progression all over the fret board:

Fm7 Bbm7 C7 Fm

It is really simple but when you move around the fret board and use different roots and different voicings, it makes it interesting.
 
While replacing the humidifiers in my cases today I played my Kamaka and my Yorkie back-to-back and it is simply amazing how abashedly bigoted I am for my Yorkie. Part of the reason is the Kamaka's high G. Part of it is the lack of a cutaway. The Kamaka still has its place in my arsenal, but that place is more academic than anything else.

Anyway, I'm not 100% satisfied with the results of my playing in F but I thought I'd move on anyway.

I arbitrarily decided to move to the key of D. Here are the roots I need for my chords in that key (asterices denote that root doesn't lend itself to chording):

D @ g7, g19*, c2, c14, e10, a 5, a15
G @ g0, g12, c8, c19*, e3, e13* a10
A @ g2, g14, c9, e5, e15* a0, a12

So I will start playing around with these roots to play major and minor blues progressions.

Speaking of blues progressions, I found in a steno notebook that was lying around eleven blues progressions as well as seven turnarounds. They are jazzy, but I think I have the skill to play them.

First of all, here are the turnarounds. I had scratched out three of them but I reproduce them all (they are obviously meant to stand as the 11th and 12th bars of the progression.

iii 7 VI7 | ii 7 V7

I Δ VI7 | bVI7 V7

IΔ bIII7 | II7 bII7

IΔ bIIΔ | bVIΔ bIIΔ

IΔ bII° | ii7 V&

IΔ bVII7 | IΔ IΔ

IΔ IΔ | bIIΔ bIIΔ


And now for the first progression.

IΔ | IV7 | IΔ | v7 I7
IV7 | #IV° | IΔ | VI7
ii7 | V7 | IΔ | IΔ

Of course any of the seven turnarounds can be substituted for the final two bars. I really like the minor7 in the 4th bar and the dom7 in the 8th. I will need to report back later on how I get on with it.
 
Okay, I did some practicing with those turnarounds that I mentioned last time and here's the results:


iii 7 VI7 | ii 7 V7
Or, to use the most universal key, C: Em7, A7, Dm7, G7. Verdict: meh. It is just a regular 2-5-1 progression with that Em7 and A7 thrown in. It is especially boring since bars 9 and 10 are already the 2 and the 5 of the progression. I suppose you could consider it playful since one expects the I chord after them but that satisfaction is delayed a bit.

I Δ VI7 | bVI7 V7
Cmaj7, A7, Ab7, G7. Easy to play if you use the some barre chord for all the dominant chords. However it is a little bare-boned for a jazz progression. And that descending chromatic sound is a bit too cheery for my taste.

IΔ bIII7 | II7 bII7
Cmaj7, Ebm7, D7, C#m7. What I played sounded good--a little jarring, but good. I liked it because sounded a bit different from typical jazz/blues turnarounds. It also had the benefit of being easy with only one shape ( and the most basic one) for them all.

IΔ bIIΔ | bVIΔ bIIΔ
Cmaj7, C#maj7, Abmaj7, C#maj7. I actually liked this one because it is different and I liked switching the roots between the Ab and C# chords. I tend not to like turnarounds with maj7 chords in them because they do not, to my ears, sound so much like a turnaround as they do a finishing sound.


IΔ bII° | ii7 V7
Cmaj7, C#dim, dm7, G7. Another variation on the 2-5-1


IΔ bVII7 | IΔ IΔ
Cmaj7, Bb7, Cmaj7, Cmaj7. A bit boring.

IΔ IΔ | bIIΔ bIIΔ
Cmaj7, Cmaj7, C#maj7, C#maj7. Not enough movement for me.
 
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