Music Lesson: Introducing the Note F

Understanding the Scale

So we need to learn F.

• F is going to take us to the fourth note in our scale.
• I say the fourth note because we're counting C as our home note.
• We had B as well, but in this scale, in this piece, we use four notes: C, D, E, and F.

Playing Higher Notes

• As we're going higher in our scale or higher in pitch, you need to make your lips a bit tighter.
• Don't forget to always take a good breath before you play.
  • If you breathe in really well, you can support the note by blowing out and pushing against your tummy muscles to make a really strong sound, especially on the higher notes as we go up.

Using F on the Instrument

• Use your first valve only for F.
• As I said, lips quite tight.

Try Going Up the Scale

Let's try going up the scale starting from C. Here we go!

The Tune

For this tune, we use the home note of D.

• D is our sort of home base.
• The sound of the tune is based around D, which makes F into a quite a bluesy note, what we call a blues note.
• This is really great in the improvising section.

Notes for Improvisation

• In the improvisation, you can use all of our four notes: C, D, E, and F.
• Let's not use B for this one.

How Many Bars in a Blues?

The tune starts on D.

• How many bars in a blues?
  • The answer is 12.
  • Very important! There are 12 bars in a blues, or 12 bar blues, using only D and F on that first part of the tune.

Let's just try that together:

• So how many bars in a blues?
  • Let's try that:
  • 1, 2, 3. The answer is 12.
• Same note starting on D: The answer is 12.

Repeating the Bars

• Get your fingers back down, all the way down.
• Don't forget for the 12.

So how many bars in a blues? The answer is 12.

• That goes around twice.

Note E and Introducing F

Then we have these:

• How many?
• How many on E?
• And then your new note, F.
• The answer is just as before.

Timing and Waiting

Then we wait a bit.

• Don't forget to wait.
• The answer is 12, which is not where you might expect to put that number 12.
• So wait for that little gap.

I'm going to go from how many harmony, starting on E:

• 1, 2, 3, 4, wait.

Great! You put the 12 just in the right place.

Improvisation Section

Now, on the improvising for this, as I said, we're using four notes: C, D, E, and F.

• The C and F are the kind of bluesy notes.
• In this one, the improvisation is 12 bars long and it's really great to just listen to the backing track a few times.

Listening for Chord Changes

See if you can hear where the backing, the chords on the backing on the guitar, change.

Copy Backs

I'm going to do some copy backs for you. Now, of course, you can either use my copy backs for inspiration or you can just make up your own thing.

Now, you're getting quite good at improvising and making up your own tunes.

Example Copy Backs

So here's some copy backs based around the blues:

• One to me first.
  • 1, 2, 3. Your turn.
  • 1, 2, 3, 4.
  • 1, 2, 3.

Structure of the Song

There are two more sections in this song:

1. The Head: The bit that sticks in your head, the tune played around twice (How many bars in a blues?).
2. The Improvisation Section: Which is 12 bars long and that goes around twice.

Backing Section

Then we have the backing section.

• If there's more than one of you, one of you could play the backings and one of you could do the improvising.
• If you're playing along with the track, you can either play the backings or you can keep on improvising because backings are what we put underneath an improvisation.

The Shout Chorus

You can carry on for a third time round of 12 bars.

Then we have what I call the shout chorus.

• That's the bit at the end.
• This goes around twice and it is: Yes, we love the blues.

Ending Riff

Now, that riff (that really short phrase), goes around:

• 1, 2, 3, 4 times.

Then we have a slightly different piece to end.

Final Playthrough

So I'm just going to play all the way around the last chorus.

• It starts on D with yes, we love the blues.
• And this is four times.

Here we go:

• 1, 2, 3.

So that riff goes around four times.

And then we have:

• Yes, yes, yes, we love the blues.
• And again: yes, yes, yes, we love the blues.

At the end, the guitar goes a bit mad and we call that a rock and roll ending.

So enjoy playing anything you like on the last note.

Final Phrase

I'll just play the last phrase, which is:

• Yes, yes, yes, we love the blues.
• Round twice and I'll show you a rock and roll ending.

Here we go:

• 2, 3, 4.

Enjoy the last note!