Writing a blues

The blues was born at the turn of the 20th century in the American South, carried by African-American communities. It is one of the most fertile forms in history: jazz, rock, soul and much of pop descend from it. And it is an outstanding composition school, because everything is fixed (the form, the chords) except the essential: what you have to say on top.

The fingerprints of the style

• The 12-bar blues: three 4-bar phrases over the chords I, IV and V.
• Dominant seventh chords everywhere: C7, F7, G7. Even the tonic is an "unstable" chord, and that gives the gritty sound.
• Blue notes: the minor third (E♭) against the major chord, the flattened fifth (F♯/G♭), the minor seventh (B♭).
• Swing or shuffle: eighths are uneven, the first long and the second short ("doo-ba doo-ba").
• Call and response: a short phrase (often the singer's), then a silence or an instrumental reply; plus the AAB lyric structure (state a line, repeat it, conclude).
• The riff: a short, punchy motif, repeated even when the chord changes.

The chart

F7 in bar 2 is called the quick change. Bar 12 on G7 sends the chart round again: that is the turnaround.

The blues scale

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=90
K:C
"C7"C _E F ^F G _B c2 |]

Six notes: C, E♭, F, F♯, G, B♭. The F♯ (the blue note par excellence) is almost always used in passing, between F and G. In a blues in C this scale works over all three chords: handy, but careful not to turn it into a machine for stock phrases.

Riff, call and response, and boogie left hand

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "C7"z2 _e =e g2 c2 | "F7"_B2 c2 z4 | "C7"z2 _e =e g2 c2 | "C7"_B2 c2 z4 |]
[V:LH] C,>E, G,>A, _B,>A, G,>E, | F,>A, C>D _E>D C>A, | C,>E, G,>A, _B,>A, G,>E, | C,>E, G,>A, _B,>A, G,>E, |]

The right hand plays a riff: an E♭–E slide (the blue note "straightening up"), G, C, then a B♭–C reply and a rest. That rest is essential: it is the space for the response. The riff stays the same over F7: the same phrase sounds different over another chord, one of the great pleasures of the blues. The left hand plays a boogie-woogie pattern (root, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and back) in dotted rhythm: an approximate way of notating the shuffle.

The turnaround

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:C
%%staves {RH LH}
V:RH clef=treble
V:LH clef=bass
[V:RH] "C7"c _B G _E C2 z2 | "G7"[B,DFG]4 z4 |]
[V:LH] C,E,G,A, _B,A,G,E, | G,,B,,D,F, G,F,D,B,, |]

The last two bars of the chart: a blues-scale descent over C7, then G7 "restarting" the engine. The turnaround is the comma between two choruses; at the very end of the piece, replace it with a final C7 (or C9).

The recipe

1. Choose a tempo (slow and heavy, or a dancing shuffle) and a left hand (boogie, or simple chords on 2 and 4).
2. Invent a one- or two-bar riff with at least one blue note.
3. Apply the AAB form: riff (bars 1–4), riff over F7 (bars 5–8), a different phrase that concludes (bars 9–12).
4. Leave rests for the responses; end each chorus with the turnaround.
5. Write a second chorus with a varied riff (displaced, shortened, an octave higher).

Your workshop

1. Start the blues backing track in C and sing (or play) the riff above through a whole 12-bar chorus.
2. Invent your own two-bar riff using the blues scale. Write it down in the ABC editor.
3. Write a complete 12-bar chorus in AAB form, with a boogie left hand or seventh chords.
4. Write a second chorus that varies your riff, then an ending (replace the turnaround with a held C7).
5. Also try the boogie track to hear your melody with a different groove.
6. Self-check: playing your blues with the track, do you feel the chart coming round without counting? Do the rests leave room for a reply? Then you're really playing the blues.