Minor Blues Chords Substitution Ideas

Jazz guitarist Giuseppe Continenza provides a lesson with some great minor blues chords substitution ideas.

Welcome to my new lesson with Jazz Guitar Today! This time we’ll talk about Minor Blues. This wonderful 12 bars progression has been the object of many compositions. Every artist tries to give an original interpretation of the Minor Blues using harmonics knowledge and personal taste in order to give a personal view.  

In the three following examples, I will start using the traditional Minor Blues progression (Example 1) and try to develop harmonic substitutions and extensions. First, start to listen as many Minor Blues as possible, take for example Equinox, Mr. P.C., Blue Train, Israel, Birk’s Works, Stolen Moments, etc. and then start to learn the melodies of some of them. 

In Example 2, let’s start to make harmony a bit fancier and sophisticated, above you can see the original chords of the Minor Blues progression while below you’ll get all the substitutions and extensions. This way to play and substitute chords allows you to play more pianist harmonics solutions in the style of McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, and Chick Corea.

In Example 3, I applied the same principles as before but I added some chords that come directly from the diminished harmony giving it a modern jazz sound. Be patient and the result will come.  

Good luck!!! www.continenza.com – www.myspace.com/giuseppecontinenza 

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