Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:14 pm Post subject: Gm Blues Question (The Art of Blues Rhythm)
In the Gm Blues chapter of the DVD, Example 26 (page 34 in the pdf), Robben is going through a simple Gm blues progression and in bars 14-16 he does this cool little instrumental break in which the chords go C9, Bbmaj7, Am7, Gm7. Simple, sounds fantastic, but I can't figure out why the Am7 works from a theory standpoint. At first I thought, well these are just from the harmonized Gm scale but then I realized, wait, that Am7 isn't in the scale. That would have to be an Amin7b5.
Can anyone shed a little light on this for me?
Thanks,
Jim _________________ "Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford
Joined: 06 Dec 2006 Posts: 246 Location: San Mateo, CA
Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:53 pm Post subject:
Just sort of guessing here, but a standard minor key signature has the notes of the natural minor scale while a minor blues is usually Dorian. The sixth in the standard key is E flat but in the Dorian mode it's E natural. That's the 5 of A and not the flat five, so it fits better harmonically with the Dorian flavor of the minor blues thing that's going on.
Sort of along the same lines of why it sounds good to use a minor 3rd against a dominant 7th chord in a major blues... maybe kinda sorta? I don't know...
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 762 Location: Southern California
Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:25 pm Post subject:
AlChuck wrote:
Just sort of guessing here, but a standard minor key signature has the notes of the natural minor scale while a minor blues is usually Dorian. The sixth in the standard key is E flat but in the Dorian mode it's E natural. That's the 5 of A and not the flat five, so it fits better harmonically with the Dorian flavor of the minor blues thing that's going on.
Sort of along the same lines of why it sounds good to use a minor 3rd against a dominant 7th chord in a major blues... maybe kinda sorta? I don't know...
Hmm, I understood all of the words you used, but I'm going to need to spend some time pondering this to see if it sinks in. Thanks! _________________ "Somebody's got to make some music around here." - Robben Ford
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 2:38 am Post subject: Gm Blues Question
jconstant wrote:
In the Gm Blues chapter of the DVD, Example 26 (page 34 in the pdf), Robben is going through a simple Gm blues progression and in bars 14-16 he does this cool little instrumental break in which the chords go C9, Bbmaj7, Am7, Gm7. Simple, sounds fantastic, but I can't figure out why the Am7 works from a theory standpoint. At first I thought, well these are just from the harmonized Gm scale but then I realized, wait, that Am7 isn't in the scale. That would have to be an Amin7b5.
Can anyone shed a little light on this for me?
Thanks,
Jim
Same on this one Jim you are thinking Harmonic min.
You must reconsider it as a Melodic minor and you'll see the chords fitting in///GmM7, Am7,BbM7#5,C7(9),D7(9),Em7b5,F#m7b5... GmM7
As opposed to harmonic minor :
GmM7,Am7b5,BbM7#5, Cm7, D7 (b9), EbM7, F#Dim....GmM7
i think both of us have the same problem : we are not snappy when it comes to think about minor harmonized scales. So everytime i start to think about this kind of commuting Major & Minor "systems" i always stress my brain & ends up with a pen , a paper , and i stack thirds then i spell each chords , this morning i just did a google search but be sure i printed these and i will keep next to my eyes.
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