Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Jazz up your blues rhythm and lead by using 2-5-1 turnarounds – Guitar Lesson EP371

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, we’ll continue our look at Secondary Dominant Chords (from last week, EP370), and add the minor 2 chord, so that we can now play a 2-5-1 chord combination for any of the chords in the chord family of the key we’re in. You’ll learn how all of this applies to a 12 bar blues in this lesson.

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Comments

  2. bruce s says

    Brian, thanks for continuing with secondary dominants. I’m a big fan of the jazzy style of playing and you nailed it with some more great stuff. Looking foward to starting on this one…..

  4. Guillermo L says

    Thank you for continuing this extremely interesting series. It has admittedly brought me once in a while to my limits , but you just got it awesome. Now a lot of things make much more
    sense to me. Brian, please go on like this, every new lesson you make is getting better and makes it worth to sit every Friday night in front of the computer till 2:30 AM to see your latest one.

  7. Andy B says

    This has been my favourite lesson for a while. I love them all, honestly, but for me, substitution chords are the best, and you give us such great practical examples of how to incorporate them. By the way, that Hendrix chord you played is just a G7#9

      • charjo says

        Andy is correct. Just so nobody’s confused, that chord has the root, the major 3rd and the flat 7 (no 5th), creating the dominant 7th chord. The extra note is the #9 (which is the same as a minor 3rd). The weirdness of the chord comes from the dissonance of combining the major and minor third in the same chord.
        John

      • Mike H says

        Yep, definitely Brian. Your flat 3 is in the next octave above the root so need the higher numbers. You could also look at a flat 3 as a sharp 2. A sharp 2 played an octave up is a just a sharp 9 – so we’re playing 1-3-b7-#9. What gives it the cool sound to my ears is the 3 and the #9 are only a “half step” apart so you get a cool beat frequency happening similar to what happens in the maj7 chords with the 1 and the 7 only be a half step apart. Cheers for a cool lesson – I’ve only just picked up on it as I’ve been super busy working 🙂

  9. JoLa says

    Brilliant lesson, Brian, thank you! I was just looking into ways of coloring the chords in a typical blues progression.
    But I have a question. At 15:20 (measure 7) you show the F#dim7 chord and say that you can move it up or down 3 frets and it’s still the same chord??
    How so?? I can’t wrap my head around it 🤔Say, if I move the F#dim7 chord up 3 frets, wouldn’t that make it a Adim7?

    • Brian says

      If you notice, it’s the same 4 notes when you move it 3 frets – just in a different order . So yes the A diminished 7 and the F# diminished 7 are the same chord. You can call it either one – it’s also an E flat and a C dim 7.

    • wforrest2 says

      diminished 7 chords have 3 minor third internals (3 frets higher ) stacked on top of each other. That means there are only 3 separate diminished 7 chords even though you can build them off all 12 notes. f you start with and F# diminished 7 and then create G diminished 7 and G# diminished 7, The next, A diminished 7, has all the same notes as F# diminished. So its an inversion. The other 2 inversions would be C dimin 7 and D# dimin 7.

      Wayne

  12. David LC says

    This is, for me, an extension of the Playing Lead in EP369 and Embellishments in EP367. It’s taken me a few months to have some of the parts fall into place and begin to “click” and have the different examples and lessons work together, building on one another.
    As ToddF said above, there are a lot of different players with different talents, skill levels and tastes so someone may not get a complete lesson but there may be a nugget of gold in the lesson anyway.
    For me it’s acoustic, or acoustic transferable playing, that I look for that I enjoy playing. I may not get to Carnegie Hall but my wife enjoys it when I can play a good portion of something I learned and it’s musical and easy to listen to.
    Thank you Brian. It took me a while to get good enough to get value from the lessons and make a plan to build MY playing library or a 30 minute set.
    Does what I’m typing make sense?

    David Chamberlain

  13. Steven B says

    This is why my home maintenance has fallen way behind! Theory put into practice is the way I learn best and it is so good to be challenged. I am so enjoying the progress I am making and hope you continue down this road. You can’t get this anywhere else!

  16. Jay Guitarman says

    Hi Brian, thanks a lot for this follow on lesson. That really helps to spice up the blues. I especially liked the idea to only go to the two chord, not followed by the secondary dominant and to stay on it just before getting back to the one chord… The difficulty of these exercises are for me however to keep the underlying blues progression
    c f, c c,
    f, f, c,c,
    g f c g
    in mind in order not to get lost…

  19. japie says

    Hi Brian,

    I like the follow on lessons; especially the series EP 311,312,313.
    I hope you can find the space and time to create a list of the TAKE AWAYS you produced during the past years.
    I would be very happy if you did so!

    Kind regards,

    Japie

  21. Malcolm D says

    As a beginner please could someone help and explain what Brian mean’s about the 2-5-1- chord combination ? I’m a bit lost on this.
    I would be very grateful for any advise thank you.

    Malcolm..

    • JohnStrat says

      Malcolm,
      Brian is referring to the intervals, There are many many teachings on the net about intervals. They are something one will pickup as you along. They relate to the order of the notes of a major scale. The Scale of C major has CDEFGAB or alphabetically ABCDEFG as its notes. No sharps and no flats just 7 notes. If you take the listing in alphabetical order but start writing it out as firstly shown above ie starting with the C and add a number to them you come up with C1,D2,E3,F4,G5,A6,B7. The scale can now be considered in terms of numbers 1-7. Thus you can immediately see that if you apply this procedure to any major scale you can transpose a sequence in numerical terms across any scale and thus determine its progression in the new scale simply because you know the numerical order of the piece which can then be decoded back against the notes of the new major scale to give you the letter representation.. Those numbers are known as the intervals. Typical blues uses a 1,4,5, progression . For instance in the Key of E, the E note is the 1 an A is the 4 and B the 5 interval. So to play a regular 1,4,5 blues in C you would pick the 1 that is C, the 4 an F and the 5 which is G. So intervals become a helpful way to consider how a progression is composed. Hope that helps JohnStrat

      • Cardo says

        I would also add that this numbering system is referred to as the “Nashville numbering system” presumably because, as John points out, it makes it easy for session musicians to transpose into other keys and to call out chord progressions that the other players can quickly grasp, for example “it’s a 1-4-5 in the key of C”. For a beginner, EP371 would be pretty confusing since it focuses on using out of key chords, so I would make sure that I first understood the basics about the numbering system and its practical uses before I tried to digest this lesson. Thinking back I believe that in addition to the major and blues scales, the numbering system was the first thing I learned about music theory and quickly became essential to playing guitar.

      • Malcolm D says

        John,

        Thank you for your time in getting back to me regarding the 2-5-1 and the 1-4-5 chord combination, I think I’m getting my head around this now and it should get better as time goes on with my guitar journey. Many thanks again. 🙂

  24. charjo says

    Brian,
    Awesome lesson, just what I was hoping for when I brought up some of this stuff a few weeks ago. I remember all my confusion of 4 years ago when you would do a ragtime lesson and I would wonder where all these out of key chords came from. Your new and older members are receiving a fantastic foundation with your recent series of lessons. Anything else you can bring to the table to help with chord progressions and transitions would be very much appreciated. I would also love to see some of your “go to” rhythm tricks for strumming or phrasing perhaps involving syncopation with 16th notes, triplets and quarter note triplets.
    John

  26. Havasumark says

    Hello Brian,

    I’m sure you don’t remember me, but I’ve been a member from the beginning. I have not been active in the past few years
    with my guitar playing, because of other hobbies and house projects. But I will say, every morning, I do have a exercise routine I go thru.
    During that process, I always watch your videos. The reason for my comments, I just love watching over the years how you have gently continued
    to draw us deeper into a more sophisticated blues guitar adventure without hurting our brains too much. Even as my guitar playing has taken a back seat (back playing now),
    your lessons have always kept that guitar desire burning in me. This lesson is another great example.

    One last thing Brian,

    I have to say, a membership to your site, in my view, is the best investment someone can make, if learning to play the guitar is their interest. In my view, there is no better
    out there on the internet.

    Thanks Brian and keep these great lessons coming,
    Mark (aka havasumark)

  27. Cardo says

    Nice Lesson, thanks! One thing that I find hard to grasp is how moving a diminished chord up three frets can result in the same chord. I know it has to do with the intervallic structure but it seems to be counter to my basic understanding of the fretboard. Are they inversions? Are diminished chords the only ones that do this? My confusion is probably why when I play a diminished chord in a jam nobody seems to agree on what the root is and I find them hard to locate. Maybe a lesson on diminished chords would be a good one.

  30. sunburst says

    Brian, great intro video.. I’m going to try this and will certainly watch along with the intro before proceeding.. great instructional here second time watching.. now but tonight going to really enjoy your lesson .. fantastic guitar btw

  31. sunburst says

    Great intro video.. watched third time… So much here bro.. you’re instructional is modest.. so much here compacted to be desired.. okay I got to jumping in my pool 84 degrees like bath water

    • Brian says

      Yes, it’s kind of the general format for jazz. So blues songs tend to be based on 1, 4, 5 chord format (generally speaking) – and jazz tend to be based on the 2, 5, 1 chord format.

  34. Michael L says

    IT‘S LIKE MAGIC!!!
    Just recently I watched a video where Josh Smith talked about some secrets how he started connecting chords in a more sophisticated way (https://youtu.be/iOCrAh4Pdqk)
    And I thought by myself: How great would it be to get an indepth lesson on this topic…

    … and (as very often), there comes Brian around the corner and invites us to take a seat in his room and explains everythin in the way he always does: Clear, understandable and – most of all – in the context of a great song!!!

    Brian, I think we can‘t thank you enough for all the effort you put into bringing all this secrets in the light of our days. Thank you!
    Michael

  36. wforrest2 says

    Brian. Just want to point out that the half diminished vii (off a B) is the top part of a G9 chord. The 5 chord in the progression. Just put G in the bass.

    Excellent lesson, helps us get the “logic” of ii-V_-!, Nice to add the mixolydian (F) and reminders about how to use chromatic movement

    Wayne

  37. Bill C says

    As soon as you said finger picking I thought well we’ll skip this one but I started it anyway and very sloppily (is that a word) I was able to do it. And I like the jazz. It goes from one complicate thing to another but I’m slowly getting it. I think. I would like to get this one.

  39. MICHAEL C says

    Thank you Brian for another awesome lesson. I like to consider myself an intermediate to advanced player after 45 yrs of playing but am always learning new techniques and styles with your lessons . I love the way you simplify the theory and make it more approachable and musical . Been turning on my friends to your site. A very satisfied customer !!!

  40. jgreen says

    Lovely lesson Brian.

    The last two weeks you have forced me to come to grips with an issue I can’t seem to overcome. Been playing barre chords for countless years. Am able to play them cleanly. However whenever the chording/lick requires to hammer the minor to major third holding the E shape barre chord (as here in the first measure) I can ‘t consistently get a clean sound. I want to just continue to blame my curved Index finger but if anyone has some other ideas or exercise this old dog is open to any new trick.

    Jim

  45. Alex says

    Thank you for another great lesson. I’m ready for some acoustic twang, Brian! Doc Watson style, or perhaps something in the style of Tony Rice. Whenever you’re ready sir… I know your heart loves old school country. If you’re still feeling electric. Buddy Guy or Stevie Ray Vaughan.

  46. Ken M says

    Hey….. if it’s helpful, that chord @24 minute mark is a G7 #9 #5 . 😉 same thing I guess, but I think using the term # and b in the same chord sits a little uneasy when it refers to the extentions👍🤔

    Just my opinion ☺🙏

  47. cloughie says

    Cool lesson Brian. My t-shirt arrived this week too so thanks for that!

    Is this correct? I noticed there are 2 different types of diminished chord in the lesson.

    Half Diminished 7th Chord
    Root b3 b5 b7
    C Eb Gb Bb

    Diminished 7 Chord
    Root b3 b5 bb7
    C Eb Gb A

  48. Andy N says

    This is great! I love the lessons that look at rhythm ideas.
    This and last weeks EP370 are going to be reference lessons for me.
    I can see myself revisiting it many times to fully absorb all the details.

    Many thanks Brian!

  50. Bill C says

    I struggled through the first part but the second lead part simply doesn’t connect with me. There’s no way to connect the notes with any melody that sticks in my head. If I have the tab in front of me all the time I can play it but otherwise a lost cause.

  51. Huub L says

    Thank you again and again Mister Brian, Take a month off ,,,,enjoy with the Family,, i am so thank full for all the Great lessons, special the jazz corner . this lessen is so much fun. i love it .
    So Brian,
    So much lessons i have not done .

    Huub Luik. The Netherlands

  52. Marc M says

    When this lesson series started, I was thinking, “Ok, Brian, You have a wide range musician experience for which you have to keep these lessons fresh and interesting, but these are WAY over my head.” However, I kept listening the series over and over and now I am getting it! Even when I can’t make the jump in my head, my ear notices something cool and unexpected happened, and I assume that was one of those jumps to the secondary dominant chord family and back. Great lessons. Love jazz.

  53. Ralph M says

    Hi Brian,
    this is a great lesson. When I first heard it I thought “way out of my league here, this will be taking me months” but after some practicing I found it not so hard after all. Still a challange, but a manageable one.
    I am beginning to realize that thanks to your site I made more progress in my guitar playing in 1 1/2 years than in the five years before joining your site.
    A heartfelt thank you for that!

  54. jaimeiniesta says

    Thanks Brian, this lesson is pure gold!

    While it looks complicated first, I’ve printed it and I’m taking notes while I listen to your explanations, and soon it all starts to make sense. I love how you explain theory while putting it into practice with your tips.

  55. grnvlyglfr says

    Brian,
    I’ve been a big fan for years and worked on lots of the material you’ve put out there for us . EP 371 is the best yet in my humble opinion. Definitely one of the best. I’ve played a bit of jazz and am familiar with the 2-5-1 progression and I love how you’ve worked it into a 12 bar blues piece and I love the great sounding but relatively easy lead licks around the chord shapes. Very fun to work on, so thanks! You’re helping me keep from going crazy during Covid 19!!

  56. Doug V says

    Hi Brian- Sounds great. I always appreciate hearing what guitar and settings you are using. I’m curious: what amp are you using to get those nice clean jazzy sounds? If is it extremely expensive, can you recommend a low wattage amp that won’t break the bank? Keep the jazzy blues songs coming. -Doug

  59. Brian says

    Yes John I went to Jazz jam night, one night I never under stud it then and I still don’t understand it now and I have been playing quiet a few year , one day it might sink in , I am not really a Jazz man but the wife loves it and always gets on to me to learn some .

  65. Huub L says

    I always wanted to play this lesson ep 371 but forgot because it was too difficult, but after being a member of the master active Brian for 3 years, I’m getting better, understand a lot more and get a lot of fun out of it , great that I pick up EP371 after 3 years and suddenly I can play everything , Brian Thank you for this special lesson , how you explain everything to almost every note, you are the real master on Guitar , thanks again , great lesson …

    Huub from the Netherlands

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