Hi all,
One way of phrasing melodies up the neck in Country Blues guitar that achieved a pretty wide currency is to take a chord position at the base of the neck, most often G or C with the third fret of the first string fretted with the little finger in the left hand, and to move the chord position up the neck intact, finding the desired melody notes on the first string. Some songs in which this technique was utilized include:
* "Police Sergeant Blues", "Long Train Blues" and "Alabama Blues" by Robert Wilkins, moving the C shape;
* "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" by Libba Cotten, moving the C shape;
* "Casey Jones" and "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" and "Do Lord, Remember Me" by John Hurt, moving the G shape, and "Short'nin' Bread" and "Spider, Spider", moving the C shape.
In moving the G shape up the neck to phrase melody, the sixth string will double the melody in the bass, since the first and sixth strings are both tuned to E. In moving the C shape up the neck to get melody notes, the first string will be voicing the fifth of the chord being "brought along for the ride", since in a C shape at the base of the neck, the root of the shape, C, is voiced on the fifth string, and the fifth of the shape, G, is voiced on the first string.
What can really complicate the sound one gets from using this technique is maintaining an alternating bass while moving the shape up and down the neck intact. In such an instance, even moving a C shape up two frets to get an A note in the melody on the first string can result in an F# note on the fourth string, since that's what the C shape gives you on the fourth string when you move it up two frets. The F#, a #IV note in the C scale, has a slightly wonky sound in the context of a C song.
Working on John Hurt's "Spider, Spider" recently made apparent just how odd things can get in the bass when an active melody achieved by moving a chord position up and down the neck intact is accompanied by an alternating bass which is willy-nilly following the position around. The last line of "Spider, Spider" has the following melody:
Bb A G CC A G E C
If you bear in mind that each of the melody notes (with the exception of the last two, which are played out of the C position at the base of the neck) is the V of the chord that accompanies it, since the C shape is being moved to get the melody notes, you wind up with the following chords backing the melody notes, with the melody note above and the chord below:
Bb A G CC A G E C
Eb D C F D C C C
If you then take into account the fact that John Hurt alternated his bass between his fifth and sixth strings through this passage, you end up with the following bass notes accompanying the melody notes (melody above, bass below):
Bb A G CC A G E C
Eb F# C A F F# C E C
The melody is pretty straight-forward, pretty much outlining a C7 chord, or C13 with the inclusion of the A note. The bass, though, is highly eccentric: if you have any doubts, just play the bass line by itself and try to hear it as living in the key of C before its resolution. The notes as played can be found:
Eb--sixth fret of fifth string
F#--fourth fret of fourth string
C--third fret of fifth string
A--seventh fret of fourth string
F--eight fret of fifth string
F#--fourth fret of fourth string
C--third fret of fifth string
E--second fret of fourth string
So maybe this can be seen as an instance in which the simplest solution for playing the melody up the neck has un-forseen consequences when matched up with a picking style that uses an alternating bass. None of the other songs cited above has anything like this degree of complication, though "Shortnin' Bread" has some of the same sort of sound.
All best,
Johnm
One way of phrasing melodies up the neck in Country Blues guitar that achieved a pretty wide currency is to take a chord position at the base of the neck, most often G or C with the third fret of the first string fretted with the little finger in the left hand, and to move the chord position up the neck intact, finding the desired melody notes on the first string. Some songs in which this technique was utilized include:
* "Police Sergeant Blues", "Long Train Blues" and "Alabama Blues" by Robert Wilkins, moving the C shape;
* "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" by Libba Cotten, moving the C shape;
* "Casey Jones" and "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" and "Do Lord, Remember Me" by John Hurt, moving the G shape, and "Short'nin' Bread" and "Spider, Spider", moving the C shape.
In moving the G shape up the neck to phrase melody, the sixth string will double the melody in the bass, since the first and sixth strings are both tuned to E. In moving the C shape up the neck to get melody notes, the first string will be voicing the fifth of the chord being "brought along for the ride", since in a C shape at the base of the neck, the root of the shape, C, is voiced on the fifth string, and the fifth of the shape, G, is voiced on the first string.
What can really complicate the sound one gets from using this technique is maintaining an alternating bass while moving the shape up and down the neck intact. In such an instance, even moving a C shape up two frets to get an A note in the melody on the first string can result in an F# note on the fourth string, since that's what the C shape gives you on the fourth string when you move it up two frets. The F#, a #IV note in the C scale, has a slightly wonky sound in the context of a C song.
Working on John Hurt's "Spider, Spider" recently made apparent just how odd things can get in the bass when an active melody achieved by moving a chord position up and down the neck intact is accompanied by an alternating bass which is willy-nilly following the position around. The last line of "Spider, Spider" has the following melody:
Bb A G CC A G E C
If you bear in mind that each of the melody notes (with the exception of the last two, which are played out of the C position at the base of the neck) is the V of the chord that accompanies it, since the C shape is being moved to get the melody notes, you wind up with the following chords backing the melody notes, with the melody note above and the chord below:
Bb A G CC A G E C
Eb D C F D C C C
If you then take into account the fact that John Hurt alternated his bass between his fifth and sixth strings through this passage, you end up with the following bass notes accompanying the melody notes (melody above, bass below):
Bb A G CC A G E C
Eb F# C A F F# C E C
The melody is pretty straight-forward, pretty much outlining a C7 chord, or C13 with the inclusion of the A note. The bass, though, is highly eccentric: if you have any doubts, just play the bass line by itself and try to hear it as living in the key of C before its resolution. The notes as played can be found:
Eb--sixth fret of fifth string
F#--fourth fret of fourth string
C--third fret of fifth string
A--seventh fret of fourth string
F--eight fret of fifth string
F#--fourth fret of fourth string
C--third fret of fifth string
E--second fret of fourth string
So maybe this can be seen as an instance in which the simplest solution for playing the melody up the neck has un-forseen consequences when matched up with a picking style that uses an alternating bass. None of the other songs cited above has anything like this degree of complication, though "Shortnin' Bread" has some of the same sort of sound.
All best,
Johnm