Bass Blues Form

Scott Giambusso: Scott Giambusso here, your bass doctor here to help you play bigger and better bass. Today, I would like to talk about Blues form. In discussing Blues form we have to the standard form is 12-bars, that is 12-bars of music, but there can be an 8-bar Blues, there can be a 16-bar Blues and of course in the old days, those guys had no idea about how many beats they were going to play, they just felt it, but we as a rule, have a language and a protocol. So, the Blues is based on usually the root chord, the chord of the fourth note of the scale, chord of the fifth note of the scale and you have to get the orders to get it. We are going to start real simple. I'm going to use the click and I'm going to just talk you through. What I'm going to do is play a simple pentatonic walking bass line consisting of the root third, fifth and sixth, an octave of the chord that I am on. It will be on the key of G and Ill talk you through the chord, the chords are going to be G, C and D; one, two, three, four, G is played for 4-bars, that's fours bars. Now, C the four chord is played for two bars and back to G for two bars. Now, I'm going to go to the five chords, the D seven, for one bar, then C for one bar and then G for one bar and then we are going to go to D to tie it all in knot and then we are going to start the whole thing all over again and that is basically a very simple 12-bar Blues. I could make it a little simpler actually. Here is four chord, you have to memorize this form so that you know how to play with other people. Here is the five chord, here is the four chord, here is the one chord and I'm going to end it and I end the tune. You could do that in any key anywhere over the bass.