Topic: Blues in Minor/With Minor Chords

[Rivers]

JM, Pan, thanks, I see, mostly. I've never understood when something should be notated '#IV' versus a 'bV', or is that buried in there and I'm too dense to see it?

And in this context (raggy, key of C), what would this chord be, emphasis on the bass 4 strings? 2-0-1-2-(0)-(2)? F#dim, right?

And if you play the 2nd string open B, how does that change it?

Merle Travis uses it a lot, the second and third chords in his signature walk-up from the I, IV or V to a higher voicing of the same I, IV or V

[frankie]

RGD's Blow Gabriel while in a major key, don't know which off the top of my head (I think F though) , has an un-chorded progression that hovers around becoming a minor, but never quite resolves as a full minor chord. It may be as brief as one note but it manages to conjure up the whole minorific sound.

F it is  - I think the moment you're talking about is really just one note, and it's an excellent moment - an A-flat played on the 1st fret of the 3rd string while the open A string is sounded.  Crunch city!  Sounds so good, he repeats it quite a few times, depending on the particular performance we're talking about.  He uses it in other F songs, too, but he seems to really lean on it in Blow Gabriel.

[frankie]

Cflat

I love that note!

[Johnm]

Hi Rivers,
With a fingering of 2-X-1-2-0-(2), what you end up with is a B7 chord with it's fifth, F#, in the bass, and the chord voiced:
    perfect fifth-X-major third-flat seventh-root-(perfect fifth).  
In order to get a diminished seventh chord, you need to raise the second string, so that you end up with 2-X-1-2-1-(2), as John C. said.  Voiced that way, it works out as:
   root-X-dimished seventh-minor third-diminished fifth-(root).  
Thus, even though you've only changed one note in a four-note chord by one half-step, functionally all of the voices change, as does the way they are named.  
The question of whether something should be named #IV versus flatV has to do with the tendency of the context in which it occurs.  If it derives from chromatic upward movement from the IV note, as in this instance, you would designate it a #IV.  If it derives from a downward chromatic movement from a perfect fifth, you would designate it a flat V.
All best,
Johnm  

[Rivers]

Excellent! Thank you. So my chord, in a C-rag context, could be notated as a slash chord, B7/F#

Likewise I now also get the #IV vs flatV decision, depends on whether one is descending or ascending the scale from start chord.

Thanks very much for the enlightenment there.

[uncle bud]

Another song that's done in a minor key -- resolving to a major at the end of the form, somewhat like Blind Blake's Rope Stretching Blues -- is Victoria Spivey's "Blood Thirsty Blues". It actually alternates verses between all major, and the minor to major format of Rope Stretchin'. Some nice guitar playing from Lonnie Johnson. Found on DOCD-5316 Victoria Spivey Vol 1.

[arlotone]

Let's not forget the song that kept me in guitar teaching work for almost a decade after the success of its Hot Tuna hit version, Hesitation Blues.

This is the first song that came to mind when I saw the title of this thread. I'm curious how you all play it? In the key of C, I like to play Am-Em-Am-Em in the first line -- rather than E major or E7. I do this because I like the melody better if it drops a whole step between "I'm standing on the (drop) corner..." rather than a half step. The melody notes are A to G, so I need to play an Em to avoid a clash.

Would anyone be scandalized if they heard it played this way?

[Mr.OMuck]

Scandalized? US?! If ya' wanna be scandalized listen to the Holy Modal Rounder's version from 1963 which features the first media instance of the word "Psychedelic".

[Rivers]

I've played Hesitation Blues forever and always played Am - E7. I just tried Am - Em and it does work too. Sounds more bluesy with the Em, and more raggy with the E7. You can also kill the 3rd entirely and get a different sound again, modal? I might throw it in as a subtle variation, thanks! After 40 years of playing it pretty much the same way it was in dire need of a change.

[Pan]

I'm just listening to a great Dixieland Jug Blowers song "When I Stopped Running I Was at Home", which has sections both in relative minor and major keys.

Cheers

Pan

[Rivers]

Lawd have mussy, how did we miss Gus Cannon's brilliant Tired Chicken Blues? I had my ipod on shuffle today and it came on, song is in the key of C. The IV is a biggest fattest F minor in country blues.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I've been listening to Frank Edwards' Trix album recently, and he does "When The Saints Go Marching In" in a minor version there, something I'd never heard before.  It works really well.
All best,
Johnm

[uncle bud]

Georgia White's Dead Man's Blues is a real nice one with minor chords (and could also be part of a much shorter thread called "Tango Blues"). Lonnie Johnson on guitar.

[Pan]

Not maybe CB strictly speaking, but I just heard a song called "Delta Bound" by the Harlem Hamfats, with a female vocalist, on the Juke.
This is an interesting chord progression in a minor key, which occasionally goes to the major key of the same root.

Cheers

Pan

[Bunker Hill]

Not maybe CB strictly speaking, but I just heard a song called "Delta Bound" by the Harlem Hamfats, with a female vocalist, on the Juke.

It's Rosetta Howard who had as her accompanists the Hamfats for three Decca sessions in 1937/8.