harmonica

We've studied five Chorus Form Types...

1) AAA
2) Af Af At (AAA with Fills)
3) AAB
4) Af Af B (AAB with Fills)
5) A B/A C

What do they all have in common? They all start with a lick, labeled "A." What you do with that "A" lick after it... in other words, how you repeat it... determines the Chorus Form type.

What happens when you don't repeat your "A" lick? Can it still be considered phrasing? Can what you play still be cool if it doesn't use a theme? Will it be memorable?

Ponder this and we'll discus this further tomorrow.

More from the setup process...

Yesterday’s long story was for the students that are reaching into the upper levels of the intermediate material or are just hitting the advanced material on the site. You’ll be working hard, wrestling with new and challenging techniques and making great progress towards your goal of becoming a great harmonica player. Your hard work will pay off by eventually being able to play these new techniques. Most likely the challenges of rhythm will keep you busy a bit longer, and this is common. continue reading...

I started sparring in martial arts tournaments as soon as I was allowed to (gold belt). I would often win my division, moving on to compete for grand champion, but always losing to the blackbelt division winner... no surprise there.

My story for you today starts with me just receiving my red belt, the second belt in the advanced ranking of belts. Though I was studying advanced material, my skill set was essentially still that of an intermediate student. My form and application were ugly, but of course I didn't know it... I was an advanced student! continue reading...

I'm now releasing Section 5 footage of the actual studio recording session. It's taking about three hours to edit every ten minutes of finished footage (three cameras rolling), so instead of waiting until I'm done with the entire project I'll release one video a week for you. Thanks to volunteer cameramen Marc Graci, Gleidson Sousa and John Rafferty!

In Little Walter's "Off the Wall" he plays a two-bar lick (A) that repeats to fill up the first line of the 12 Bar Blues. He then takes that lick and sequences it to the IV Chord to play a version of that lick, but now relative to the IV Chord (B). When the I Chord returns in Bar 7 he again repeats his main theme lick (A). In the last line, like the AAB Chorus Form, he changes his lick to bring the chorus to a close. This Chorus Form known as the A B/A C Chorus Form.

There are three ways to treat the B (lick found on the IV Chord, Bars 5 and 6)... continue reading...

Now take a listen to the head of Little Walter's "Off the Wall." Your clue is that A (the main theme) is two bars long. Note how it's treated on the IV Chord (Bars 5 and 6), this is important to our discussion tomorrow.

In Little Walter's "Juke" you hear him play the opening one-bar lick for four bars (A), then repeats those four bars (A), and then move away for the last four bars (B). This is called the AAB Chorus Form. If the opening lick, labeled "A," does not take up the entire line, then there's room to throw in a fill, labeled "f." The last line's fill is a turnaround and is labeled as 't." This makes the Af Af At or Af Af Bt Chorus Forms. AAB is the standard rhyme scheme for blues vocals. In the space you play harmonica fills... this is the Af Af Bt Chorus Form idea. continue reading...

In "Rocker" Little Walter plays the opening four-bar lick thee times. This creates the first of five common Chorus Forms, known as A A A. The lick is played (A) and then it's repeated two times (A A). Pretty cool that you can play one lick over all of the chords of the 12 Bar Blues and it still works.

Take a listen to LW's "Juke" and figure out which Chorus Form he's using in the opening chorus.

I'm not speaking of the type of repetition where the player runs out of ideas and repeats licks from early in a song or set... this is called "gettin' old" and no player wants that.

The type of repetition I'm speaking of is the melodic, purposeful type... where you present an idea and then explore for the listener what you can do with that idea.

The first lick you play in every chorus is by default the theme of that chorus (the "A" in my Chorus Form concept). This can come by the way of simple repetition or fairly advanced transformations. continue reading...