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.

Post 549: THANK YOU, STEPHEN FOSTER

I suppose most of us play Stephen Foster songs from time to time. They are among the oldest tunes in our repertoire. Foster wrote over 200 songs - an amazing output, considering that he died at the age of only 37, and that he was largely self-taught in musical theory and instrument playing.

I am particularly fond of Beautiful Dreamer (1864) and Way Down Upon the Swanee River (1851; also known as Old Folks at Home) and I get to play them quite a lot. It is always a poignant thought that Stephen died only a few days after composing Beautiful Dreamer. He did not live to see it published and probably never heard it played by a professional musician.

Foster's tunes may seem somewhat basic, compared with the rags that were added to our repertoire fifty years later. But I believe they should not be under-estimated. He was absolutely brilliant at producing a good melody within everybody's vocal range and with enough repeated phrases to make it easy to learn. His tunes also used very simple chord progressions that made the tunes a doddle to play in those nineteenth-century homesteads, where families had to make their own entertainment and where everybody aspired to own a piano or harmonium or fiddle or accordion or banjo. Also he tended to write 32-bar tunes, using the a-a-b-a structure (four eight-bar blocks) which was to become the standard in popular songs for decades.

And all those features make his tunes very pleasant and straightforward for us to play. Have you noticed how effectively The Shotgun Jazz Band (with Tyler Thomson singing) has been playing My Old Kentucky Home in recent months?

Here's how the wonderful and generous Lasse Collin has made Beautiful Dreamer available to us on his website[ http://cjam.lassecollin.se/ ]:

You see what I mean about the simple lines of the melody and the exceptionally simple chord sequence? But it is a gem of a tune to play. And audiences still love it.

Footnote added later: I noticed that on 6 November 2017 a video was downloaded on to YouTube by RaoulDuke504 in which Tuba Skinny are seen (for the first time?) playing Beautiful Dreamer. So I'm very pleased that they too have added this song to their repertoire.