Getting Familiar with 12 Bar Blues
Found in: Blues
Elaine F., South Carolina
I want to find a CD with a 12 Bar Blues on it to play for young kids. My point is to illustrate that this pattern is used all the time by recording musicians – and they are now “members of the club” because they too know this pattern. I ‘d like it to be fairly transparent, so they can easily follow the pattern.
Has anyone else tried this? Was it successful? What songs did you use?
Cindy B., Illinois
The Jumpin Jack featuring Big John Greer
Mahogany Hall Stomp by Louis Armstrong (a little fast)
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, Andrews Sisters
Go-Daddy-O by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Jack Armstrong Blues by V-Disc All Stars
Jump Through the Window by Roy Eldridge
Sue D., California
James Taylor’s “Steamroller” is a 12-bar blues. The track is on the Sweet Baby James album, or volume two of Greatest Hits.
Might be more for the teen and up students.
Cindy B., Illinois
Another thing that you must realize that when you are training students to play along with a blues piece performed by a second source, such as a CD – you are involving the student in an accompaniment skill, but with the music written in their heads rather than on a sheet of paper. (you could print up the I, IV, I, I, etc. progression on a piece of paper for them so that will be a thought process they don’t have to maintain while learning to accompany a CD).
Elaine, I realize that you were asking about Blues tunes for illustration purposes, but real recordings of the Blues, when accompanied, are so easily incorporated into the student’s playing and are so FUN and sound so PROFESSIONAL that I personally wouldn’t even consider stopping at the illustration. I have an adult student who simply cannot find anyone to provide melody for her accompaniments, and at first she felt that most of the Simply Music accompaniment recordings are too fast. We’ve not only worked with the ways that she can work her way into it by accompanying one hand at a time, but we’ve also gotten the book/CD combo called Afternoon Pianist that she absolutely loves, especially when she gets permission to play 1:1 ratio when learning a piece.
Arguably, the hardest part about the whole CD process for a student is to keep going when they stumble, and to keep going on the right beat. I’ve had students keep going, but 1 or 2 beats late – and they are somehow able to finish the song that way, never knowing because they’re not even thinking about what they’re hearing, they’re thinking about something else, such as what the hands are doing, or what chord is next. That said, I recommend beginning this process by first having them use the Simply Music audio and accompany familiar blues pieces using only the left hand, where you are right there to point to the music and count 1-2-3-4- out loud so they can learn how to follow the music when a speaker is “blasting” in their ears. Then it’s easy for them to accompany the Simply Music audio.