Today we’ll look at three types of bass lines that help define the sound of three sub-styles of fingerstyle blues: monotone bass, alternating bass, and boogie-woogie bass.
Chops: Intermediate
Theory: Intermediate
Lesson Overview:
• Dive into Delta blues, Texas blues, ragtime, Piedmont, and boogie-woogie styles.
• Learn monotone bass, alternating bass, and boogie-woogie techniques.
• Explore syncopated rhythms.
Click here to download the accompanying mp3 audio examples and a printable PDF of the notation.
Okay folks, time to put down that pick because today we’re focusing on acoustic fingerstyle blues. Obviously there’s a large body of music that falls into this category, which can be further broken down into such sub-styles as Delta blues, Texas blues, ragtime, Piedmont, and boogie-woogie. This list is by no means exhaustive, but these are the styles we’ll cover in this lesson. Instead of trying to learn each sub-style from a theoretical or historical perspective, I’ve decided to approach learning it from a guitar technique perspective, specifically focusing on the picking-hand thumb.
In solo fingerstyle guitar, the thumb typically takes the role of the bass player. The bass player, our thumb, crafts lines in a few distinct ways. Today we’ll look at three types of bass lines that help define the sound of the aforementioned sub-styles of fingerstyle blues: monotone bass, alternating bass, and boogie-woogie bass.
Delta Blues and Texas Blues
There’s no better instruction than listening to recordings or viewing video, if available, of the blues greats we are trying to learn from. Take a moment to watch Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins’ perform “Baby Please Don’t Go,” Delta blues master Son House perform “Preachin’ the Blues,” and finally Chicago blues great Big Bill Broonzy play “Hey Hey.” Pay special attention to their right-hand technique—specifically their thumbs—and you’ll see each of them employing a monotone bass line.
Lightnin’ Hopkins – “Baby Please Don’t Go”
Son House – “Preachin’ the Blues”
Big Bill Broonzy – “Hey Hey”
The monotone bass line is a static line that’s typically created by playing a chord tone from a given chord in the song’s progression. Often the chosen chord tone is the root. In Fig. 1, the chord we’re dealing with is E and the root is—you guessed it—an E. In this example, the bass line consists of quarter-notes. Playing this with a slight palm mute and a little bit of attitude goes a long way towards achieving the rhythmic drive found in this style of blues.
The chord root is not your only choice for bass notes. In Fig. 2, the 3rd (F#) of D7 is used as the bass note and is played with the thumb. This is a common monotone bass note choice for this chord, especially when D7 functions as the IV chord in an A blues progression.
Fig. 3 is an E blues I’ve written in the style of Lightnin’ Hopkins. The thumb should drive this tune, but be careful that it doesn’t overpower the fingerpicking. Watch the demonstration video and pay special attention to the “thump” of the bass line, as well as the inflections used on the melody. In the written example I’ve avoided notating the bends, so watch the video to see and hear where the bends occur. For added authenticity, listen to the masters and imitate the way they bend and phrase notes in this style. After watching the video take a look at the TAB. Before trying to play it, first locate all the chord shapes on the fretboard, since much of the melodic material is played out of these shapes. After doing this you’ll find that from a left-hand perspective, this tune is fairly accessible.
Piedmont and Ragtime Blues
In the next style we’ll examine, the thumb typically plays an alternating bass line, usually composed of quarter-notes, with the remaining picking-hand fingers providing syncopated melodic material. (A syncopated rhythmic figure emphasizes the weak part of the beat—the “and” of the beat.) These sounds are heard in the ragtime and Piedmont styles of players like Blind Blake, Mississippi John Hurt, and Reverend Gary Davis. The bass lines played in this style differ from the Delta style in that they alternate between chord tones instead of having a monotone bass note driving a single chord tone. Take a moment to watch the following videos of a few greats in this style.
Mississippi John Hurt – “You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley”
Elizabeth Cotton – “Freight Train”
Now it’s your turn. If you are new to this style try starting with Fig. 4, which is an example of an alternating thumb pattern played over a C chord. In fact, hold the entire C chord down while playing the line and use only your thumb to pick the notes.
Fig. 5 is a piece I’ve written in this style and is based off of the chord changes found in Blind Blake’s “West Coast Blues.” When learning this piece, a great place to start is with the chords. Follow the chord changes listed above the notation. While holding the chord shape, play the bass notes listed. In the standard notation the bass notes are the notes with stems pointing down. The bass line must be solid, so work with a metronome to keep a steady beat. Once you are comfortable changing chords and keeping the bass line going, start adding the melody. There’s a fair amount of syncopation in this example, yet with the exception of the A7 chord, all of the chords are basic open-position forms. Play the A7 chord by barring at the 2nd fret with your first finger, so you can play the melody with your remaining fingers. Note that D7 is the same voicing we used in Fig. 2.
Boogie-Woogie Bass
Before we dig into this section, check out the following videos.
T-Bone Walker – “T-Bone Shuffle”
John Lee Hooker – “Shake It Baby”
The first is T-Bone Walker performing “T-Bone Shuffle,” and you’ll want to listen closely to the piano. The second video is John Lee Hooker playing “Shake It Baby.” Are you ready to boogie?
Let’s close this lesson by taking a look at a few bass lines commonly found in the boogie-woogie blues style of guitarists and pianists. These bass lines are primarily constructed from chord tones. Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 present two possible bass lines you can play over A or A7. Fig. 6 is constructed from the root, 3rd, 5th, and 6th (A, C, E, and F# respectively). The bass line in Fig. 7 sounds a bit bluesier due to the inclusion of the chord’s b7 (G).
Practice playing these two examples using only your thumb—you’re going to need the other fingers very soon. Once you’re comfortable playing Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, it’s time to create variations. First, let’s change the rhythm from quarter-notes to eighth-notes as in Fig. 8. Play it with a swing feel. As you listen to the recording, notice how the eighth-notes are not equal. By placing a chord tone above the bass line (in this case the root), you’re starting to imitate the sound of a pianist playing a boogie line. Continue to play the bass line with your thumb (indicated by the p). For the top note, you can choose to use either the index (i) or middle (m) finger.
We can thicken the sound of our boogie line by adding another chord tone above the bass line. In Fig. 9, barre the A and C# (the 3rd of the chord) with your first finger. The other fingers are now free to play the bass line. With the thumb playing the bass notes, use your index and middle fingers to play the accompanying chord tones.
Fig. 10 puts everything we’ve discussed into practice with a 12-bar blues in the key of A. In measure 5, I’ve adapted the bass line so that it does not “run into” the notes in D7. However, the bass line is still composed of chord tones. As you apply boogie bass lines to your own songs and arrangements you may run into a similar issue. If so, strive to create a line that not only grooves, but is also melodic. Notice in measure 10, beat 3, the bass line “runs into” the chord tones above. I decided to keep it this way because I wanted to retain the melody created in the bass line. There are no exact formulas that you must adhere to. Instead, trust your ear. Strive to create boogie lines that meet the following criteria: They are melodic and they groove!
You’ll notice that on the last eighth-note of measures 6, 8, 9, and 10, you play open strings instead of the expected chord tones. By playing these open strings, you buy extra time for your fretting hand = to set up the next chord, and this allows for a clean transition from one chord to the next. If you play this example with a steady beat, even at a medium tempo the ear hears the “appropriate” notes because the sound of the chord has already been established earlier in the measure.
Where to Go from Here
Playing blues in a solo fingerstyle context is a lot of fun and very rewarding. I hope this brief survey of a few sub-styles of the blues has inspired you to dig deeper into the music. I can’t stress it enough: Listen to and study the masters. Learn their songs and licks, but more importantly, absorb the feel of the music. If you can find a knowledgeable teacher to study with—whether it’s one-on-one or in a group setting—take advantage of it. This will have a tremendous effect on your rate of growth. Today there are plenty of guitar camps and workshops available that provide an opportunity to study with some of the living legends of this music. Have fun and good luck!
Recommended Listening
Here are a few recommended recordings. Many of these are compilations or “Best of” albums, so they’ll be especially helpful to those of you who may be new to this music or the artists we’ve discussed in this lesson. I have also created a Spotify playlist with selections from many of the albums listed below.
Lightnin’ Hopkins
The Tradition Masters
Spend some time with this recording and you’re bound to pick up a few classic blues licks. Check out Hopkins’ monotone bass accompaniment on “Long Time.”
Big Bill Broonzy
Warm, Witty, and Wise
Here’s a nice collection of songs showcasing Broonzy's solid fingerstyle technique. Listen to “Long Tall Mama” and “Worrying You Off My Mind Part 1” as they creatively employ the monotone bass thumb technique we’ve discussed.
Mississippi John Hurt
1928 Sessions and Best of
These classic albums showcase great examples of alternate thumb technique along with Hurt's overall beautiful playing style. Check out “Stack O Lee” and “Got the Blues, Can’t Be Satisfied” from the 1928 Sessions, and “My Creole Belle” and “Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor” from the Best of recording.
Blind Blake
The Best of
Great feel and drive is found in Blake’s music. You’d swear there’s more than one guitarist here. A few of my favorite tracks are “West Coast Blues” and “Blind Arthur’s Breakdown.”
Reverend Gary Davis
Blues & Ragtime
As the title suggests, there are wonderful blues and ragtime tunes found here. Check out “Buck Rag” for the cool counterpoint. Included in the liner notes are transcriptions (written in standard notation and TAB) of “Walkin’ Dog Blues,” “Buck Rag,” “Cocaine Blues,” “Hesitation Blues,” and “Baby, Let Me Lay It on You.”
Robert Johnson
The Complete Recordings
These are classics that all aspiring blues guitarists should spend time with. Johnson’s performance of “Kind Hearted Woman Blues” is a great example of the monotone bass accompaniment.
Son House
Original Delta Blues
This is a great compilation showcasing the raw and powerful playing of one of the great bluesmen. Take a listen to “Pearline” to hear it for yourself.
John Lee Hooker
20th Century Masters: The Best of John Lee Hooker (Millennium Collection)
If you need to add some boogie-woogie into your day, listen to “Shake It Baby” and “Lonely Boy Boogie.” These tracks are great examples of raw boogie-woogie.
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Intermediate
Intermediate
• Learn classic turnarounds.
• Add depth and interest to common progressions.
• Stretch out harmonically with hip substitutions.
Get back to center in musical and ear-catching ways.
A turnaround chord progression has one mission: It allows the music to continue seamlessly back to the beginning of the form while reinforcing the key center in a musically interesting way. Consider the last four measures of a 12-bar blues in F, where the bare-bones harmony would be C7-Bb7-F7-F7 (one chord per measure). With no turn around in the last two measures, you would go back to the top of the form, landing on another F7. That’s a lot of F7, both at the end of the form, and then again in the first four bars of the blues. Without a turnaround, you run the risk of obscuring the form of the song. It would be like writing a novel without using paragraphs or punctuation.
The most common turnaround is the I-VI-ii-V chord progression, which can be applied to the end of the blues and is frequently used when playing jazz standards. Our first four turnarounds are based on this chord progression. Furthermore, by using substitutions and chord quality changes, you get more mileage out of the I-VI-ii-V without changing the basic functionality of the turnaround itself. The second group of four turnarounds features unique progressions that have been borrowed from songs or were created from a theoretical idea.
In each example, I added extensions and alterations to each chord and stayed away from the pure R-3-5-7 voicings. This will give each chord sequence more color and interesting voice leading. Each turnaround has a companion solo line that reflects the sound of the changes. Shell voicings (root, 3rd, 7th) are played underneath so that the line carries the sound of the written chord changes, making it easier to hear the sound of the extensions and alterations. All examples are in the key of C. Let’s hit it.
The first turnaround is the tried and true I-VI-ii-V progression, played as Cmaj7-A7-Dm7-G7. Ex. 1 begins with C6/9, to A7(#5), to Dm9, to G7(#5), and resolves to Cmaj7(#11). By using these extensions and alterations, I get a smoother, mostly chromatic melodic line at the top of the chord progression.
Ex. 2 shows one possible line that you can create. As for scale choices, I used C major pentatonic over C6/9, A whole tone for A7(#5), D Dorian for Dm9, G whole tone for G7(#5), and C Lydian for Cmaj7(#11) to get a more modern sound.
The next turnaround is the iii-VI-ii-V progression, played as Em7-A7-Dm7-G7 where the Em7 is substituted for Cmaj7. The more elaborate version in Ex. 3 shows Em9 to A7(#9)/C#, to Dm6/9, to G9/B, resolving to Cmaj7(add6). A common way to substitute chords is to use the diatonic chord that is a 3rd above the written chord. So, to sub out the I chord (Cmaj7) you would use the iii chord (Em7). By spelling Cmaj7 = C-E-G-B and Em7 = E-G-B-D, you can see that these two chords have three notes in common, and will sound similar over the fundamental bass note, C. The dominant 7ths are in first inversion, but serve the same function while having a more interesting bass line.
The line in Ex. 4 uses E Dorian over Em9, A half-whole diminished over A7(#9)/C#, D Dorian over Dm6/9, G Mixolydian over G9/B, and C major pentatonic over Cmaj7(add6). The chord qualities we deal with most are major 7, dominant 7, and minor 7. A quality change is just that… changing the quality of the written chord to another one. You could take a major 7 and change it to a dominant 7, or even a minor 7. Hence the III-VI-II-V turnaround, where the III and the VI have both been changed to a dominant 7, and the basic changes would be E7-A7-D7-G7.
See Ex. 5, where E7(b9) moves to A7(#11), to D7(#9) to G7(#5) to Cmaj9. My scale choices for the line in Ex. 6 are E half-whole diminished over E7(#9), A Lydian Dominant for A7(#11), D half-whole diminished for D7(#9), G whole tone for G7(#5), and C Ionian for Cmaj9.
Ex. 7 is last example in the I-VI-ii-V category. Here, the VI and V are replaced with their tritone substitutes. Specifically, A7 is replaced with Eb7, and G7 is replaced with Db7, and the basic progression becomes Cmaj7-Eb7-Dm7-Db7. Instead of altering the tritone subs, I used a suspended 4th sound that helped to achieve a diatonic, step-wise melody in the top voice of the chord progression.
The usual scales can be found an Ex. 8, where are use a C major pentatonic over C6/9, Eb Mixolydian over Eb7sus4, D Dorian over Dm11, Db Mixolydian over Db7sus4, and once again, C Lydian over Cmaj7(#11). You might notice that the shapes created by the two Mixolydian modes look eerily similar to minor pentatonic shapes. That is by design, since a Bb minor pentatonic contains the notes of an Eb7sus4 chord. Similarly, you would use an Ab minor pentatonic for Db7sus4.
The next four turnarounds are not based on the I-VI-ii-V chord progression, but have been adapted from other songs or theoretical ideas. Ex. 9 is called the “Backdoor” turnaround, and uses a iv-bVII-I chord progression, played as Fm7-Bb7-Cmaj7. In order to keep the two-bar phrase intact, a full measure of C precedes the actual turnaround. I was able to compose a descending whole-step melodic line in the top voice by using Cmaj13 and Cadd9/E in the first bar, Fm6 and Ab/Bb in the second bar, and then resolving to G/C. The slash chords have a more open sound, and are being used as substitutes for the original changes. They have the same function, and they share notes with their full 7th chord counterparts.
Creating the line in Ex. 10 is no more complicated than the other examples since the function of the chords determines which mode or scale to use. The first measure employs the C Ionian mode over the two Cmaj chord sounds. F Dorian is used over Fm6 in bar two. Since Ab/Bb is a substitute for Bb7, I used Bb Mixolydian. In the last measure, C Ionian is used over the top of G/C.
The progression in Ex. 11 is the called the “Lady Bird” turnaround because it is lifted verbatim from the Tadd Dameron song of the same name. It is a I-bIII-bVI-bII chord progression usually played as Cmaj7-Eb7-Abmaj7-Db7. Depending on the recording or the book that you check out, there are slight variations in the last chord but Db7 seems to be the most used. Dressing up this progression, I started with a different G/C voicing, to Eb9(#11), to Eb/Ab (subbing for Abmaj7), to Db9(#11), resolving to C(add#11). In this example, the slash chords are functioning as major seventh chords.
As a result, my scale choices for the line in Ex. 12 are C Ionian over G/C, Eb Lydian Dominant over Eb9(#11), Ab Ionian over Eb/Ab, Db Lydian Dominant over Db9(#11), and C Lydian over C(add#11).
The progression in Ex. 13 is called an “equal interval” turnaround, where the interval between the chords is the same in each measure. Here, the interval is a descending major 3rd that creates a I-bVI-IV-bII sequence, played as Cmaj7-Abmaj7-Fmaj7-Dbmaj7, and will resolve a half-step down to Cmaj7 at the top of the form. Since the interval structure and chord type is the same in both measures, it’s easy to plane sets of voicings up or down the neck. I chose to plane up the neck by using G/C to Abmaj13, then C/F to Dbmaj13, resolving on Cmaj7/E.
The line in Ex. 14 was composed by using the notes of the triad for the slash chord and the Lydian mode for the maj13 chords. For G/C, the notes of the G triad (G-B-D) were used to get an angular line that moves to Ab Lydian over Abmaj13. In the next measure, C/F is represented by the notes of the C triad (C-E-G) along with the root note, F. Db Lydian was used over Dbmaj13, finally resolving to C Ionian over Cmaj7/E. Since this chord progression is not considered “functional” and all the chord sounds are essentially the same, you could use Lydian over each chord as a way to tie the sound of the line together. So, use C Lydian, Ab Lydian, F Lydian, Db Lydian, resolving back to C Lydian.
The last example is the “Radiohead” turnaround since it is based off the chord progression from their song “Creep.” This would be a I-III-IV-iv progression, and played Cmaj7-E7-Fmaj7-Fm7. Dressing this one up, I use a couple of voicings that had an hourglass shape, where close intervals were in the middle of the stack.
In Ex. 15 C6/9 moves to E7(#5), then to Fmaj13, to Fm6 and resolving to G/C. Another potential name for the Fmaj13 would be Fmaj7(add6) since the note D is within the first octave. This chord would function the same way, regardless of which name you used.
Soloing over this progression in Ex. 16, I used the C major pentatonic over C6/9, E whole tone over E7(#5), F Lydian over Fmaj13, and F Dorian over Fm6. Again, for G/C, the notes of the G triad were used with the note E, the 3rd of a Cmaj7 chord.
The main thing to remember about the I-VI-ii-V turnaround is that it is very adaptable. If you learn how to use extensions and alterations, chord substitutions, and quality changes, you can create some fairly unique chord progressions. It may seem like there are many different turnarounds, but they’re really just an adaptation of the basic I-VI-ii-V progression.
Regarding other types of turnarounds, see if you can steal a short chord progression from a pop tune and make it work. Or, experiment with other types of intervals that would move the chord changes further apart, or even closer together. Could you create a turnaround that uses all minor seventh chords? There are plenty of crazy ideas out there to work with, and if it sounds good to you, use it!
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