Chicago Blues Lesson: "Got My Mojo Working"

In this clip, we're going to look at one of the classic tunes of Chicago blues: Muddy Waters, which made this famous, "Got My Mojo Working."

Melody and Harmony

• The melody is pretty simple.
• It's based on an E minor pentatonic this time.
• I'm going to play it with top harmony like we did in "Ain't No Sunshine."
  • E on top
  • B on top

I'm also putting the flat 5 in as a grace note. This is a typical blues piano effect: the flat 5 to the 5, with the root on top in the left hand.

Bass Line

I'm playing a category of bass line which uses:

• The root
• The seventh
• The fifth

But no third. So, it's:

• Root (top and bottom)
• Fifth
• Seventh

This is played on A and B as well, because we're doing this in the key of E.

Incidentally, if you ever play in a blues band or with guitarists, you have to learn to play in the key of E and also the key of A. Those are the most popular keys for guitarists.

It's no good just learning to play blues in C, F, and G , these piano-friendly keys. You've got to get to grips with the keys of E and A in particular.

Additional Keys

Now, we did A minor in the last lesson, but we didn't do A major. That's something you'll have to work on.

• A major and E major are both sharp note keys.

• When dealing with keys like this, just remind yourself of the basic 1, 4, and 5 triads:

  • E and A have the same shape with the white-black note in the middle.
  • B has two black notes: D sharp and F sharp.

However, the melody doesn't use any black notes, so we've got a kind of tension between the chords there , E7 with a G natural in the melody. It's a very bluesy clash.

Chord Changes and Runs

The other thing to mention is that when I change chord, I do a run up:

• I run up to the A chord like that.
• I run up to the B chord like this.

So, that's an important part of this bass line. Practice that over and over by itself.

Turnaround

Finally, we'll talk about the turnaround. This is a descending bass line from the seventh, going down from the seventh to the fifth.

• The right hand follows that, then there's a little run up to the B, the 5.

• This right hand chord is another one of these stretch voicings:

  • To find a stretch voicing, play a seventh chord in root position B7.
  • Move the bottom note (the root) down to the seventh and the top note (the seventh) up to the root. So, you move them in opposite directions.

This way, the seventh is now on the bottom, and the root's on the top. They'll be a ninth apart , that's why it's a bit of a stretch.

If you can't stretch it, it doesn't matter if you clip the notes top and bottom, as we did once before.

In this set, I also use a stretch voicing on E7. This rhythm comes back every four bars:

• It's played twice in bars three and four and then four bars later, just before you go to the B.

Practice that rhythm over and over, slow it down if you need to, and then to A.

Ending

Alright, we've played the tune, we've played the turnaround.

• The ending, you may have noticed, is in half time.
• So, when we do the break onto the A, you're in half time.

Suddenly feel the tempo. Feel the pulse at half the speed:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 1.

Finish with a stretch voicing. To conclude, put the pedal down.