A Simple Hack for the Blues

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:03][music] There's a little pattern in traditional blues melodies that I want to share with you. Let's do that. Now, welcome to Learn Jazz Bass. My name is Matt Rabiki. if you haven't been here before. Uh I've been playing bass for 35 plus years and with folks like Whit Marcales and White Cliff Gordon, Christian Sands and many others. I'm a faculty member at the Jiuli Arts School and the University of North Carolina School for the Arts. I'm glad that you're here. So we're talking about an aspect of the blues, specifically blues melodies, that isn't necessarily always obvious, but does exist in much of the blues idiom. Um and it's not something again that is like a hard and fast rule by any means. And it you can find a million examples of this not being true.

[00:00:55]However, when you know it, you start to notice it more often. And I think it's a helpful little inn for those of us that are sort of absorbing and getting deeper into the blues form. The idea is simply that there is one statement that is generally made in the first four bars of the 12 bar blues form. a statement and then that is restated for the second four bars and then there is a sort of resolution or answer in the last four bars. So statement, restatement and then a response. Generally this is more easily followed in the lyrics to a tune.

[00:01:30]For example, let's listen to Velma Middleton and Lewis Armstrong.

[00:01:36]>> Say I ain't good looking.

[00:01:38]>> Yeah, >> baby, I ain't built so fine. Who said that?

[00:01:44]>> Say I ain't good looking, baby. I ain't built [music] so fine.

[00:01:50]>> I'm worried about what's on your mind.

[00:01:52]>> But all the boys like me.

[00:01:56]I take my time.

[00:01:58]>> That's trouble now.

[00:02:00]>> So, I assume it was pretty obvious. The first statement, I ain't good-look, baby. I ain't built so fine. And then that's repeated, a restatement of that.

[00:02:08]But all the boys or girls like me because I take my time. So that generally that rhyme will come in the last four bars. And when you sort of explore blues melodies like this, you'll notice in many versions that there is some kind of variation of this, like this melody, Frankie and Johnny, that you heard me play at the very beginning.

[00:02:30]Frankie and Johnny is a very old tune.

[00:02:32]Not a lot of people play it. Uh Ray Brown has a great version with Melt Jackson, which is what I'm imitating here. And it's very easy melody. Uh something that we can um play on a gig.

[00:02:42]You know, you can call, hey, let's play Frankie and Johnny. This G blues.

[00:02:45]Everyone knows a G blues. We get to play the melody. It's quite easy. Open G A B [music] E D B G. [music] So that's like one statement. And then the the restatement of that has slight variation, but the intention is still the same. We're now in bar five. We're starting on C. C D E G A [music] or C D E G A E [singing] G G And then here is the So that that's kind of the um part of the restatement.

[00:03:28][music] So there's a little variation there. But now here is the answer.

[00:03:39]>> [music] >> So, A E D [singing] E D E D B G.

[00:03:47][music] Repeat that.

[00:03:53]Now to C starting on C.

[00:03:57][music] Here's the the concluding statement.

[00:04:04]just a [music] and so you notice like it basically aderes to that idea statement statement response. So we can use this to our advantage when we're soloing on a blues as a way to sort of conceive about what we can do over whole chorus. If I'm still in G, um I might do something like this. 1 2 3 um [music] And I'm going to repeat that. [music] Now the answer. [music] [music] [music] [music and clears throat] [music] >> [music] >> Repeat it.

[00:05:28][music] Answer [music] again. [music] >> [music] >> Repeat it [music] answer.

[00:06:04][music] So very simple demonstration but a and it also takes some um focus to be able to create something that is sort of compact enough or a clear enough idea that you are actually able to repeat it.

[00:06:20]Right? So it's a good exercise in sort of listening to yourself and experimenting with how you can make a little bit of a melody a phrase that is strong enough to stand on its own so that it can be repeated a couple times and then answered. I hope that this short video was helpful for you. As always, thanks for joining me. Look for a PDF below and remember, straight ahead and strive for tone. [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music]