By now you've probably heard of the turnaround chord commonly associated with the blues. I am also quite sure that if you have been listening to the blues for any period of time you have heard many turnarounds played.
Basically a turnaround is just as the name describes. It takes you from the end of the verse to the beginning of the next. Almost all turnarounds end on a V7 chord. This is why we will refer to the V7 as the turnaround chord.
Remember back to the basic 12-bar blues progression and how we ended it with a turnaround. You may play the turnaround with basic major chords and it will sound just fine but by adding a seventh to the V chord it creates a lot more tension and begs to be resolved to the tonic ( I ) chord. The reason for this is the added tension between the seventh of the V7 chord and the third of the tonic chord. To better illustrate the relationship the turnaround chord has to the tonic chord lets look at the notes in a B7 chord (V7) and an E major ( I ) chord.
Notes in B7: B D# F# A
Notes in E: E G# B
Now we can see that the seventh of B7 is A and the third of E major is G#. These two notes are only a half step apart on the guitar and that it why they resolve together so nicely.
Now that you have a better understanding of turnaround chords and how they can be applied to the 12-bar blues go practice using them for all your turnarounds. You will find that most blues players much prefer the V7 chord to the plain old V chord anyway.
If you are serious about mastering the blues you owe it to yourself to check out PlayingThroughtheBlues.info
Post a Comment