The major triad chords are generally used for Boogie Woogie style and Rock and Roll versions of the Blues.

In Jazz Blues the dominant 7th chords are more commonly used.

The standard dominant 7th chord contains four notes.
They are the 1st (tonic), 3rd, 5th and flattened 7th note of the major scale.
For the Blues in C :

Audio 4.1

The I7, IV7 and V7 chords for the Blues in C are :

Audio 4.2

The I7, IV7 and V7 chords for the Blues in G are :

Audio 4.3

The chord progression is the same as for the basic triad blues format.
Simply replace the triads (3 note chords) by 7th chords.

Here is the basic chord progression for the Blues in C.

Audio 4.4

Take Seven is a basic blues in C. The entire melody consists of 7th chord tones only.

Use this song to get familiar with the 7th chords of the Blues.

Melody

Play-along midi files for the Blues in C are :

• C- instruments use bblc.mid (or any other track in C)
• Bb- instruments use bblbb.mid (or any other track in Bb)
• Eb- instruments use bbleb.mid (or any other track in Eb)

When playing chords in the left hand do not play all chords in root position.
For smooth transitions from chord to chord alternate chord voicings.
Here are the four closed position chord voicings for C7, F7 and G7 :

• Root position for I7 with 2nd inversions for IV7 and V7 (or vice versa), or

• 1st inversion for I7 with 3rd inversions for IV7 and V7 (or vice versa).

Audio 4.5

or these :

Audio 4.6

Leaving out one or two of the four chord tones produces a lighter chord voicing ('skeleton chord').
This is in particular useful for electronic keyboards, which do not do justice to the complete four note chords.

You can omit the root or the 5th of the chord, these notes are played by the bass anyway.

Audio 4.7
Avoid leaving out the chord's 3rd or 7th, for these are the two essential chord tones that determine the chord quality, differentiating between the major, dominant and minor sounds.

• M3 + M7 produce the major 7th chord quality
  
  
• M3 + m7 produce the dominant 7th chord quality
  
  
• m3 + m7 produce the minor 7th chord quality

For the Blues in C for example you can use these 3-note chord voicings.

Audio 4.8

Or use the purest skeletone chords. These sound really good.

Audio 4.9

See also Jazz Chord voicings : BL Comp 5b.

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BL 4.5 - Improvisation

1.
Play Take Seven until you can play the melody from memory.

2.
Play 7th chord arpeggios ('broken chords') over the basic blues in C as shown below.

Audio 4.10

3.
Improvise with 7th chord-tones only over the basic blues in C using rhythm patterns : 1-8 or 9-16.

C- instruments use :

C7 chord tones over the C7 chord

F7 chord tones over the F7 chord

G7 chord tones over the G7 chord

Bb- instruments use :

D7 chord tones over the D7 chord

G7 chord tones over the G7 chord

A7 chord tones over the A7 chord

Eb- instruments use :

A7 over the A7 chord

D7 chord tones over the D7 chord

E7 chord tones over the E7 chord

4.
Repeat the above routines (1, 2 and 3) for the basic blues in F and in G.


5.
Swapping 2s and 4s on Take Seven (in F) : complete improvisation

• Take 1 (12 choruses) - : I play the first 2 bars of each 4-bar phrase, you play the following 2 bars.

• Take 2 (12 choruses) - : You play the first 2 bars of each 4-bar phrase, I play the following 2 bars.

• Take 3 (12 choruses) - : I play the first 4 bars, you play the following 4 bars.

• Take 4 (12 choruses) - : You play the first 4 bars, I play the following 4 bars.