by Darrin Koltow
www.MaximumMusician.com

Be sure and check out all of the lessons in the "All About Chords" series.

Part 1 - how harmony and chords work
Part 2 - the ii-V-I chord progression.
Part 3 - Arpeggios
Part 4 - The Blues Injection
Part 5 - CAGED - Form E
Part 6 - CAGED 2 - Form A
Part 7 - CAGED 2 - Form A - Arpeggios
Part 8 - CAGED 2 - Form A - Chord Melody
Part 9 - CAGED 2 - Blues Chord Melody

In this installment of All About Chords, we continue exploring the great chord connection. I have no idea what that means. But I do know we're going to continue with our All About Chords lesson. This is part 4. And hang on to your hankies, because we're going to explore the Blues Injection.

A Bit o' Review

Up to now in the All About Chords series of lessons, we've learned how important it is to play chords as *music*. That generally means playing chords within a chord progression. The chord progression we've been using is the ii-V7-I, because it's so popular that we instantly recognize we're making music when we play the ii-V7-I.

We explored arpeggios, too, including how to practice them: again, in our 251 progression, and together with chords. Do you remember why we play chords and melody together? We do this so we can know which melody notes go with which chords, and which chords go with which melody notes. This builds super human music ability, and guess what: it ain't all that hard. Heck, it's even fun. Man, all of life should be as much fun as making music and playing guitar.

The Blues Injection

I want to do something that's gonna make practicing our chords even more fun. The 251 chord melody progression we've been playing in open position sounds good. It sounds like music. Let's go beyond good. Let's make it sound *great.* How? I'm not gonna tell you...yet. I want you to *hear* how we're gonna turn good sounds into a great feeling.

Here's the tab for this souped-up, double-dipped, extra-spicy, batter-fried, finger-lickin, flat-pickin' -- aw, just dig the tab:

  E  E Q E E Q   E  E Q  E  E  Q     
|--------------|----0-------------|
|----------1---|-4----1-----------|
|------0-2-----|---------2--0-----|
|-1--2---------|------------------|
|-3------------|---------3--3-----|
|-3------------|------------------|
  C              C

  Q  E E E E Q     Q  E Q  E Q
|----------------|-1--------------|
|--------1-3-----|-1--3-1---------|
|----1-2---------|---------1-2----|
|-3--------------|----------------|
|-3--------------|----------------|
|----------------|----------------|
  F or Dm          F or Dm

  Q  E E E E  Q    Q  Q E E Q    
|----------1-----|-3--1---------|
|------0-3-------|-3----3---0---|
|-0--3-----------|-4------3-----|
|-0--------------|-3------------|
|----------------|--------------|
|----------------|--------------|
  G7               G7

  E E E E E E E E    E Q H   E
|------------------|--------------*|
|-------1-----1----|-4-3-1--------*|
|-2-0-2---0-2---2--|-----0--------*|
|------------------|-----2--------*|
|-3----------------|-----3--------*|
|------------------|--------------*|
  C                  C

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Duration Legend
---------------
W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th

Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number they represent the duration for. Duration letters with no fret number below them represent rests.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Get the Power Tab for this tab here.

Need the free and excellent Power Tab software? Get it here: http://power-tab.net

Mac users, don't despair! Get the MIDI files for this tab here.

Now that you have the tab, I should remind you how to *play* it. Remember from the last lesson the introduction to the Pick Fingerpick right-hand technique? You'll need to use it because strumming won't work with this tab.

To get acquainted or reacquainted with the Pick Fingerpick technique, go here:

http://www.maximummusician.com/pickfingerpick.htm

Let's talk about this tab. How the heck does it work? All this tab does is put our 251 chord-plus-melody ("chord melody") exercise through a Blues filter, to come out with something that's still pretty close to the original exercise. So you can compare the original 251 chord melody exercise with this one, here it is again, from the last lesson:

  E E E E E E E E    E E E E E E E E
|------------------|-----------------|
|---------1--------|-------1-3-1-----|
|-----0-2-0-2-0----|-----2---2---2---|
|---2-----2-----2--|-0-3-----3-----3-|
|-3-------3--------|-0---------------|
|-3----------------|-----------------|

  E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E E E
|-----------------|---------0--------*|
|-------0-3-0-----|-------1-1-1------*|
|-----0---0---0---|---0-2---0---2-0--*|
|-0-3-----0-----3-|-2-------2--------*|
|-2-------2-------|-3-------3--------*|
|-3-------3-------|-3----------------*|

Don't worry that the Blues 251 tab is twice as long as the original. It's longer because we're playing two bars of each chord instead of one. But the same, simple pattern, where the melody goes up and then comes down, is happening in both tabs.

Page 2, How we made the Blues tab

© 2002 Darrin Koltow, All rights reserved
www.MaximumMusician.com