Music Lesson

Intro and Chords

Now, it's going to start with a four-bar intro and we're going to use a diminished chord as the second chord.

• The first chord is C7, played in second inversion in the left hand.
• Then, I move down to what looks like F# diminished.

That's a symmetrical chord. Because it's symmetrical, you could also call that C diminished; it has the same notes as A diminished or Eb diminished. They're all the same anyway. It's right next door to our C7 chord.

Classic Blues Lick

The fourth bar of the intro features another classic blues lick with the minor third very prominent there.

• The minor third and the sixth will be very important as we get going.

The Second Chorus

The second chorus features a lick which is repeated without changing over the C and the F.

• Doing this an octave lower or two, you could call it a minor sixth lick.
• It's got an A and an Eb.

These notes will be the same over both the C and the F chord.

• You need to play the D and the C with the thumb; otherwise, it's just unplayable.
• You remember we did a lick like this in Happy Blues, but it was major.

This is a minor version of it.

• In C, that would be this.
• But we're putting the minor third instead of the major third, and also the sixth.

Practice Suggestions

You could practice all this stuff with Barrel House to start with or with the on off boogie left hand or the blue fifth Boogie left hand. However, this left hand is slightly different than the Pete Johnson one.

Breaks and Call and Response

This piece actually has two four-bar breaks. The second one is a call and response between the hands, and you need to use some pedal.

The notes are grouped in threes:

• 1, 2, 3
• 1, 2, 3
• 1, 2, 3
• 1st, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4.

Make sure you get that really in the pocket.

• You'll also need to hit the other rhythm, which requires lots of left hand practice.
• You'll need to do that so I can demonstrate the right-hand lick.

Right-Hand Lick

Basically, that's a sixth lick with chromatic notes.

After this four-bar break, you're into an on off pattern against this left hand.

• In fact, it's an off on, on off rhythm.
• It's a two-bar pattern just like the one we used in part one of the 10th lesson - Barrel House Blues.

Do you remember?

• Off on, on off; off, on, on off.

So those chords need to be really precise.

• The first chord is off the beat.
• In the second bar, that chord will be on the beat.

The only difference between them is one's got Eb in , that's an F9, and the other one's got E natural in , that's a C6.