Post 553: THE THREE-CHORD TRICK

Everyone who is learning to play jazz should know about 'the three-chord trick'.

What are the three chords? They are the tonic, the dominant seventh and the sub-dominant – the very three chords beginners need to learn first. They are almost certainly the chords you will most frequently use in your career.

It is possible to accompany some songs – particularly blues, folk tunes and spirituals – by using only the three chords. Of course, this is sometimes just a lazy way of keeping things simple. You blank out any subtle and transitional chords and stick with the three easiest chords. But the truth is that most members of your audience will hardly notice.

So in the Key of C, they would be
C (Major)

G (7th)

F (major)

A very basic 12-bar blues might well follow this pattern:

   C | C | C | C | F | F | C | C | G7 | G7 | C | C 

That pattern started with the Blues of the Deep South and eventually became the basis of rock’n’roll.

Here’s an example of the three-chord trick applied to a complete tune. This is Stephen Foster’s Way Down Upon the Swanee River: 

One of the most exciting tunes that requires only three chords is Dallas Rag. It is amazing to find what a great band such as Tuba Skinny can do with simple three-chord material. Click on this video to see what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbQaZWVS3lY

And here is 'Sing On', composed and recorded in the 1920s by the great New Orleans band leader Sam Morgan. It can be played perfectly well using only three chords. In the key of G, they are of course G, D7th and C.

And here's one from the wonderful website provided for us all by Lasse Collin:

Other examples of tunes that can be satisfactorily played with only three chords include Pass Me Not O Gentle Saviour,  Mama Inez, Nearer My God to Thee, the old Mississippi gospel number Mary Wore a Golden Chain and Take My Hand, Precious Lord.

Footnote



The book 'Playing Traditional Jazz' by Pops Coffee is available from Amazon.

Post 280: FROM GEORGIA WHITE TO ERIKA LEWIS

Erika Lewis is fond of the recordings made in the 1930s by Georgia White.

There seem to have been several tunes with the title 'Blue and Lonesome'; but the one Tuba Skinny have featured, with Erika Lewis singing, is the song composed in the late 1930s by Georgia White and her pianist Richard M. Jones.

It is a fine song to add to the repertoire of any band with a good singer. And it is somewhat unusual in being a 24-bar tune, so it makes a welcome change from those with a conventional 32-bar a-a-b-a structure.

In fact, I am struggling at the moment to think of any other 24-bar tune performed by traditional jazz bands (apart from 12-bar blues with two themes, and Midnight in Moscow, which is really a 16-bar tune with the second eight repeated). The Chorus of Over in the Gloryland also comprises 24 bars. So does the Chorus of Sing On - and the Chorus of Tailgate Ramble. Also there was a fashion in the first two decades of the Twentieth Century for songs that had VERSES of 24 bars, even though the better-known CHORUS had a conventional 32 bar-structure. Examples are San and I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles.

You can see and hear Tuba Skinny perform I'm Blue and Lonesome on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B39L71aPAKk

Or, if you prefer an indoor performance (this is quite something!), with Shaye on piano rather than cornet, go to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aysNlCeW50