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Take 5: Blues Chord Melody

Accelerated Technique-Specific Study Program for Blues Chord Melody Guitar

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Take 5: Blues Chord Melody
Jason Loughlin

Jason Loughlin

Educator

blues

Genres

About this course

Understanding how to craft great chord melodies is an essential skill for the blues guitarist.  Playing great solos while simultaneously holding down the accompanying harmony is truly a sign of a sophisticated and seasoned player, both on the gig and at the jam.

This Blues Chord Melody edition of Take 5 from Jason Loughlin is an accelerated curriculum designed to help get your blues chord melody chops up to speed quickly without having to struggle through a lot of tedious theory and exercises.

You’ll start the course with a quick primer where Jason will introduce you to dominant seventh inversions, using substitutions, harmonizing the blues scale, contrary motion and altered chords -- all in an effort to add more harmonic depth to your blues solos.

Jason will then guide you through 5 blues chord melody performance studies, progressing from basic to more advanced applications of these blues chord melody and soloing techniques.

You’ll learn to solo with chords over a 12-bar blues starting with the basics by linking together dom 7th chord inversions with diatonic passing tones and half step approach notes. Next, Jason shows you how to incorporate IV/I, IV/IV, V/I, V/V and chromatic passing notes. You’ll learn how to add altered chords to your blues using augmented and diminished chords, and how to harmonize the blues scale with chords and tone clusters by using major 6th chords, dom 13th chords, and stacked 4ths. In the final study, you'll make use of contrary motion by adding it to melodies and incorporating it into V/Vs and turnarounds.

Jason will explain and demonstrate all of the key concepts and approaches along the way.  You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the Performance Studies. Plus, Jason includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own. In addition, you’ll be able to loop or slow down any of the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace.

Grab your guitar and let’s Take 5 with Jason Loughlin!

About the Take 5 Series

TrueFire’s Take 5 courses feature an accelerated curricular approach to help students get up to speed quickly on a particular style or technique. Each Take 5 course starts with a primer on the particular style or technique and then guides the student through 5 performance studies progressing from basic applications to more sophisticated approaches.

What you'll learn

  • Use major 6 chords to harmonize blues scale melodies
  • Apply chord partials for smoother voice leading
  • Create melodic continuity while changing chords underneath
  • Use secondary dominants (IV/I, V/I, IV/IV, V/V) to create harmonic interest in blues progressions
  • Echo melodic ideas in different keys within a solo
Release date: 08/03/2018 • 1h 09m runtime
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Sample lessons
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Overview
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Performance
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Level 4: Blues Chord Melody
Breakdown

What's included

18 lessons • 6 charts • 5 Jam Tracks

Take 5: Blues Chord Melody
Hi, I'm Jason Loughlin, and welcome to Take 5: Blues Chord Melody. In this Take 5, we'll look how to solo with chords over a 12-bar blues.

We'll start with the basics by linking together dom 7th chord inversions with diatonic passing tones and half step approach notes. Next, we'll look at how to incorporate IV/I, IV/IV, V/I, V/V and chromatic passing notes. Then, we're gonna add altered chords to our blues by using augmented and diminished chords. For our fourth study, we'll harmonize the blues scale with chords and tone clusters by using major 6th chords, dom 13th chords, and stacked 4ths. In our final study, we'll make use of contrary motion by adding it to melodies, incorporating it into V/Vs and turnarounds. We'll also work in partials — in other words, just playing part of chord shapes rather than the four note voicing. Each one of these blues chord melodies will end with a new turnaround that you can add to your toolbox.

As always, you'll have notation and tablature for all the studies and all the backing tracks. Grab your guitar, and let's get started!
Blues Chord Melody
Study 1 will cover common dominant 7th chord inversions on the top four strings, the use of diatonic passing tones, and using a half-step approach to single notes and full chords. Study 2 will use IV/I, IV/IV, V/I and V/V chords, learning how to find them and their function. These will add more harmonic movement to our melodies. In Study 3, we'll alter chords with augmented and diminished chords. Augmented chords can be used on I chords leading to the IV or the V chord leading into I, as well as applied to V/I and V/V substitutions. Diminished chords can be used to get access to the 3rd, 5th, b7th and b9th of dominant chords. It can also be used as a half-step approach to the 3rd, 5th and the b7th.Moving on to our more advanced studies, Study 4 will harmonize the blues scale with major 6th chords, dominant 13th chords and 4ths. No matter how we harmonize the scale, we keep the scale note on top. In Study 5, we're using contrary motion. This is the ideal motion for two voices. The voices are either moving towards each other or away from each other. We'll be applying it to melodies as well as voice leading harmonies.
Level 1: Blues Chord Melody
In this etude, we'll keep it relatively simple and use dom 7th chord inversions and single note passing tones to connect them. The only ornamentation we're using in this etude is the half-step approach. We're applying it to full chords in this case.
Level 1: Blues Chord Melody
This etude is over a 12-bar blues in A. In the last four bars, we're playing the V chord for the first two bars. There is no V|IV progression in the last four. The turnaround is just a V chord. So, the last four bars will sound as V-V-I-V.
Level 1: Blues Chord Melody
In this breakdown, we'll go through our study note-by-note looking at the use of dominant 7th chord inversions, how to use diatonic passing tones, and incorporating the 9th into 7th chords.
Level 2: Blues Chord Melody
In our second etude, we're adding the IV/I, IV/IV, V/I and V/V. These are usually used to harmonize a melody on the high E string. They add a lot of harmonic momentum and blur the tonal center of the 12-bar blues. All of these substitutions are harmonized as dom 7ths and use the same inversions we used in the first etude.
Level 2: Blues Chord Melody
This etude is over a 12 bar blues in A. In the last four bars, we're playing the V chord for the first two bars. There is no V-IV progression in the last four. The turnaround for us in the last measure is V-V/V-V or E7-B7-E7. The rest of the band is only playing a V chord or E chord. Our B7 against the band playing E7 is what makes this sound interesting. To recap, the last four bars will sound as V-V-I-V.

+ 11 more lessons

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Reviews

14 results

djc5317

Verified buyer

10/09/25

Take 5 Blues chord melody

excellent course with great tracks and logical progression towards creating melodic chordal pieces. lean different inversions and chord order using the backing tracks to develop your own songs and versions . would recommend

Jamisonh

Verified buyer

12/12/24

Awesome tutorial

THIS IS A GREAT COURSE! I love chord melodies and it's just the best when played in the Blues. Also a great way to practice rhythm and chords. I recommend this to anyone who loves the Blues!

sndsmxr

Verified buyer

07/02/23

The Thrill is Back

This course will open many doors of your creativity to playing the blues, remember the first days of I IV V bar chords."I can play the blues" but everything sounded the same..../ well no more, dig into this course and the blues comes alive takes on wonderful chord combinations that really will bring back that thrill of playing the blues

Uschmed

Verified buyer

12/28/21

Take 5: Blues Chord Melody

A well-taught condensed and compact foray into (jazz) Blues Chord Melody playing. A lot to benefit from. Definitely recommended.

Dave58

Verified buyer

10/31/21

with a lot of Jazz influences

Purchased for a price but contains more than expected. Fun to play and very educational. Recommended for those who start with chord melody style.

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