Lesson Tab: Finding The Key PDF

• Most of the time  a song will begin and end with the chord that is the song’s key signature.
• Another way to look at it is that the chord used most in a song is the same as the song’s key signature.
• The best way to develop skills in identifying key signatures is by listening to songs and trying to identify their key signature by ear. Pick up your guitar and try to identify the roots of the chords being played in the song. Use your low E string to find these root notes. With a little practice you’ll easily be able to identify a song’s key signature.
• To play solos over a song you first need to identify it’s key signature, then you will be able to pick the appropriate scales to solo with.

Most turnarounds can also be used as intros or endings.This is because the turnaround in bars 11 and 12 takes us back (turns around) to the start of the next 12 bars of music or pulls us toward the I chord for a big finish.  The intro does the same thing by kick-starting the song to begin at the first cycle of 12 bars.

There are probably as many variations for the turnaround as there are blues progressions, ranging from the very simple to complicated jazz blues lines. No matter how simple or complicated a progression is, there are some basic structural guidelines that should always be applied to a turnaround.

Simple progression turnarounds

For example, let’s take a simple progression where only the I and V chords are played in the last two bars as shown below.

A common structure for a turnaround with this type of progression is:

Let’s look at what all this means in a little more detail.

1.     establishing the I chord

The I chord in this progression (as with most blues progressions) begins on beat 1 of bar 11 and 12.  We need to keep that tonality in the turnaround by playing either the I chord or a note from the I chord (ie. root, 3^rd, 5^th, 7^th, 9^th etc) on each beat 1. We can play other scale notes in a riff or sequence leading up to or past this beat, just as long as the chord tonality is established on the beat.

2. establishing the V chord

The V chord begins on beat 3 of bar 12. As with the I chord, we need to establish the tonality of the V chord by playing the chord or a note from the chord. We can also play a riff or sequence before and/or after the beat.

3. shifting melody

This is the part where the fun begins.  We can use our creativity to come up with some really cool sounding phrases to play between beat 2 of bar 11 and beat 1 of bar 12. I’ll show you some typical phrases and give you some simple rules for constructing your own phrases.

If the I chord is played throughout bar 11, you can use phrases that consist of two notes from the I chord that either descend, ascend or move in contrary motion to resolve to one or more notes of the I chord on beat 1 of bar 12. You can also keep one note stationary (usually the root note) and move the other note to expand or contract the interval between the two notes.  In 12/8 time this movement will be in triplets, in 4/4 time it will be in two 8^th notes per beat.

To give you an idea of what I mean, the turnaround below is a descending phrase in 12/8 time.  

Turnaround 1             

Here we’ve taken two notes from the E chord (I chord) namely B on the G string (5^rd of E) and G# on the high e string (3^rd of E) and stepped them down over 3 beats to a hammer-on to G# on the G string (3^rd of E).

To locate it you’ll have to imagine where the root note would be if we played it (5th string). Look at the A6add9. The root would be the A string played open:

Since it’s so tricky, take special care to practice naming the chords on the 6/9 chords:

Our first version of the 7th chord finds it’s root on the 5th string:

It’s fairly easy to play. It’s very similar to an A style barre chord with only the note on the G string being different. Here are all 12 variations:

Practice it as you’ve done the other chords. Play the chord up and down the neck. Can you name the chords as you go along?

Here’s another 7th chord form. It uses all six strings. Its root is on the 6th string. Use it to identify the name of the chords as you play them.

In the open position we begin with E7, next comes F7 where the root is on the 1st fret (F note). It continues up the fretboard until we get all 12 possible variations.

It’s pretty easy to learn to play this version of the 7th chord, but you still must practice it so that you don’t forget it:

Here we are with yet another version of the dominant 7th chord. It’s my personal favorite version of the chord:

Did you notice anything different? Yep, we’re going to use our thumb to fret the root note on the low E string. It’s virtually the same as the previous chord that we learned except we’re omitting the notes on the A and high E strings. It’s a fun chord to play, so try it:

Practice it up and down the fretboard. For extra credit you can call out the names of the chords as you play them:

Finally, here’s yet another version of the dominant 7th chord. They may be technically the same types of chords, but each version has it’s own character:

The root is easy to spot on the low E string and therefore it’s easy to identify all the chord variations:

9thsus4 chords:

It’s Up To You!

Lesson Tab: Better Bends PDF

7th Sharped 9th practice: