JANUARY´s SHORT-CUT TICKET

Ho-ho, He-he. Hi-li-li-li-loo. Hoy Lari-lari-la. Jopp-hey-dejey….
Excuse me.
Comic books can be disturbing. I also dropped my reading glasses under the bed and had to search for them on my hands and knees. Under the bed I also found socks in three different colors, unknown under panties of the g-string model and a playable italian made twelve string guitar. Lucky me. Today´s question is; is it possible to play the blues after all this; reading, laughing, gymnastics, cleaning under the bed? Yes, yes, the blues is almost eveywhere. But I know, to tell about the bluesscale, it´s like to tell that there are kids on the streets. Everybody knows. But not every guitarplayer know the possibilities with this type of scale.

Every major key has it´s relative in minor, for example C-major and A-minor. We have the common bluesscale in C ; c eb f gb g bb (c) . Learn it over two octaves on the fretboard., over all six strings in the eight´position. Bending the strings without damaging the skin of your fingers, handsome vibratos, naughty sliding, energical hammer-ons, heroic pull-offs and sudden shudups are useful technical tools. Touchdowns, homeruns, sit-ups are other useful words (I´ve just figured out) toward acitivities, but not on a normal sized fretboard. Practise the scale, it´s the common base for solo improvisation on chords like C(7), F(7) and G(7), in a twelve bar combination. Any boogie pianist knows the story. You don’t have to find visit twelve Bars to find one..
If problems: Ask for information in the music store, afterwards you can buy twelve Candy-Bars, then it´s easy to remember that classical boogie&blues twelve bar structure. If the packages are in three different colors, lay them on the kitchen table in boogie structure, before eating the inhaltung. I suggest that a blue package is G7, red for C , and F in a milder color, light yellow for example.

BUT, if we have a tune in different character, still in the key of C major; not the twelve bar boogie or blues, instead with chords like this in order: C G Am Em F C D7 G (7).
Let your eminent combo play the chord combination in the background while you have other plans. The C-blues scale may now not be the best answer, for you the improvising duck-walking soloist in black leather, howlin for something beautiful in the front of your mirror
Take the blues scale in A instead. Same fingering, but now in the fifth position.

Remember; C major and A minor are relatives. You can find this relationship in any key. For example; you can find the relative key by counting steps on the major scale, c d e f g a b c (you find the that a is the sixth on the C-major scale). In G-major; g a b c d e f# g, ....so it´s E minor. Which in this case means that the E-blues scale can be useful on improvising on "normal and common" tunes i G-major. Of course it´s fantastic. Even already fully learned punks sometimes agree with that.

Using the bluesscale can be more intresting in other chord surroundings than the usual.

By the way, the new tune above is not “Sheets of London” by The Tony Blair Witch Project