Play the Blues Compact Disc

The Play the Blues! CD has six songs (each in a dramatically different style). Each song has 12 choruses! (lots of time to play around and solo) Also included, is a simple easy to understand explanation of the chords and notes you can play! (see the bottom of page) The songs are: Classic Blues, Rhodes Shuffle, Chicago Blues, Calypso Stix, Gritty Slide and Rock Blues. Please download and listen to the MP3 Demo of this CD! (The MP3 demo is a 4 meg file)

Below are some tips to help you with your soloing in the blues.

The above example should be played many times until it is memorized. Play the example many times with Track 6 'Rock Blues' from the Play the Blues! CD.

The 12 bar blues progression is based on the 1, 4, and 5 chords of a particular key. We are going to begin in the key of C. In C, the 1 chord use the notes c, e, g. The 4 chord uses f, a, c. The 5 chord uses g, b, d. (see example 1 above) After playing the above example with the CD, you should get a definite 'feel' for the progression. It has a very familiar sound and the progression flows very naturally. You'll begin to develop a definite feel for the 5 chord on line three (bar 9).

Play the above example 2 with Track 1 'Classic Blues' from the Play the Blues! CD. Basically in this example, we are going up and down the arpeggio of each chord. We will use these examples later in our adventure into soloing.

Soloing

Soloing is a very free, fun way to express your feelings and emotions. It is simply one of the best parts of playing the trumpet. Before I give you my ideas, I want you to play around an experiment. Play example 1 with the CD, then on the second chorus, play whatever you want! Play sharp notes, flat notes, listen to what sounds good or bad. Simply play around an experiment. Then, on the third chorus, go to example 2. On the fourth chorus take another solo and then on the fifth chorus go back to the 1st example. Alternate between experimentation on one chorus and example 1 and 2 on the others.

It would be best to improvise and experiment for a couple of days to a week!

OK, (one week later) here are some helpful hints for a more sophisticated solo.

(1) Leave Space - Don't play the whole 12 bars, give the listener a break. Try inserting rests, and playing long notes at the end of phrases. It will allow, the listener to digest your previous phrase.

(2) Repeat Notes - Take some notes and repeat them in an interesting rhythmic pattern.

Play example 3 (below) with Track 3 "Chicago Blues" from the Play the Blues! CD. In this example, I only used three notes! A, C, and D. Note the simple repeated pattern, with slight rhythmic variations. Also notice the space left at the end of every four bars.