Term 2 - Lesson 2

Today's lesson focused on blues music. We studied the 12 bar blues, pentatonic scales and 7th chords. I learned about the CAGED system which will help me learn the notes on the fretboard.

First we decided that we would play a 12 bar blues in the key of E. I learned that in blues you use notes 1, 4 and 5 as the chords so our chords were E, A and B but we made them in to 7th chords. Blues is a genre that uses both major and minor tonalities in the same songs so using 7th chords adds to that because they are ambiguous. Dominant 7th chords are made up of major triads with a minor seventh on top. We practised playing E7, A7 and B7 using the CAGED system which was confusing but once I get the hang of it I think it will help me learn the fretboard better and make me more confident with improvising blues.



We took turns improvising over a 12 bar blues with an F# minor scale and an A blues scale. They're the same pentatonic but by adding in the F# changed the feel of the solo which I found interesting. I only used the top 3 strings to make the scales less confusing but I think I did well improvising although I still need to practise putting bends and slides etc in to my solos to give them more expression.

Lastly we reflected on the practise schedules we made last week. I haven't practised as much as I planned to but when I did I stuck to the timings that I decided on. I learned a new scale in F# for the song Thinkin Bout You by Frank Ocean, which I will perform as part of my band this term. We transposed the song up to make it easier for the singers so I had to work out the chords and I also adapted them in to triads to add more top end to the song. I practised my warm ups I have already learned too to keep them fresh in my mind.



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