"A quick to IV" in playing the Blues…

[Michael]

I have a question about a chord change in playing Blues that the guys here referred to as “quick to IV” and wondered if you’ve ever seen this progression/played it before…it threw me off, I wasn’t expecting this…they did this too me deliberately me (they’re like “lets get him when he’s not looking” sort of thing and we’re laughing about it…I reminded them they won’t be coming over for dinner anytime soon LOL)
This past Tuesday we had our last session until after the holidays–everyone is taking some time off for the holidays/family, etc. We started off with our first set of 12 bars and on the 2nd bar they switched to a IV chord instead of the normal one and I’m like “what did you just do to me?” On the last bar instead of playing a I chord, they played a V chord and then it went back to the I chord again at the start of the next 12 Bars. They played the IV chord again on the 2nd bar and we ended everything on the I chord before starting the progression over again, repeating this progression a few more times. So here’s what we had:
First 12 Bars:
1-4: I, IV, I, I
5-8: IV, IV, I, I,
9-12: V, IV, I, V,
Notice on Bar II how they played a IV chord instead of the standard I? Then on Bar 12 they switched on me again to a V chord…adding “insult to injury” LOL This really threw me off! On the 2nd 12 bars they played the exact same thing but this time ended on the I (I gotta say, when our first 12 Bars ended on the V chord before going back to the I, it was different but it was really nice sounding too). We repeated the process a few more times…those changes threw me off..some kind of a musical “conspiracy” going on against me here LOL They called this a “quick to IV” and told me sometimes Blues players will “deviate” from the standard 12 Bar Blues and throw in a IV chord, as well as a V chord at the end like we did.
On a side note, one of my guitar friends is getting me a video/mp3 of his singing/guitar playing and I’m making a video of it, will upload it for you to critique…playing with a REAL guitar player, will just do things pretty much spot on and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

I’m just beginning to understand how these chords notes are worked out for the progression.

Where are the different progressions defined?

Is it just something that came about because people like the way the pattern sounds?

[john]

Yes the “quick 4” is very common. hitting the 5 at the end is also very common.
now that you are becoming aware you’ll just notice this stuff and adapt to it. it shouldn’t throw you off from a regular 12 bar…. which is not to say that when adding a quick 4 is an irregular 12 bar! just a slight variation to fit the melody better.
adding the 5 at bar 12 is done more often than not…even in non-blues music. and the 5 should be really obvious to every player as it’s the strongest chord to hit that wants to be resolved back to the one
thats why it’s used at the last bar so often.
this is covered in my Major Scale Improv Course too.

[Michael]

Yep, I’m aware of it and next time they decide to throw me a “curveball” it won’t work LOL We’re all great friends 🙂
Yeah, I’m aware of how much tension we can create with the Fifth and resolve it going back to the tonic and I like to use it all the time, especially at the end of the song for that “big ending” and it feels nice because of creating so much tension and then ending the Improvisation on the tonic, feels like that feeling of “I’m home, it’s done” kind of thing. I’ve noticed the fourth creates a lot of tension too but it’s quite as strong; so I usually opt to use it in other places in the melody. I noticed these things when working on all of your exercises/playing personally, but I never thought about it in regard to chord changes on a band–what they did really opened my eyes 🙂 Speaking of your Major Scale course, that’s next on my list now sometime in 2016…I just wanna be able to “say to myself” with your Killer blues course that I’ve REALLY got this stuff under my belt like I can say with the Altissimo…I don’t even think about struggling with Altissimo anymore, it’s pretty much part of “me” now….feels awesome to say the least and the guys here LOVE hearing it 🙂 It doesn’t do any good to go “pond hopping” from one course without really putting in the work to learn from what you teach and make it “our own”.

[Anonymous]

After becoming aware of these chord progressions I did some looking around on the internet yesterday and have found over 70 so far.
There are many popular chord progressions out there and I see they have changed as people’s musical taste has developed over time.
We have the freedom to string chords together as we like, but the various chord associations have strong emotional influences too.
It’s going to be interesting to discover how to go about creating the different moods in music.
I’m looking forward to the Major Scale Improvisation Course, perhaps the other two courses will have to wait a while?

[Michael]

Hi Jeff–yeah, there’s loads and loads of chord progressions out there depending on the type of music you play. But when talking about the Blues and a basic Blues progression, we’re talking mostly about the I chord, IV chord and V chord….that alone makes things so much simpler! There’s a lot (and I do mean a lot) of popular music that will follow this same chord progression, pop, jazz and even some country songs….it’s a really popular chord progression. These chords can be played in different progressions too, depending on the style of music you’re playing (like Johnny was explaining in this post to me). Whatever the progression, if you listen carefully you’ll hear a I, IV and V chord played in so many songs out there. I had never experienced the “quick to IV” progression and it threw me off a little and the guys got their laughs out of it too…so did I 🙂 The 8 bar Blues and 16 Bar Blues progression are popular down here in the South too.

[Anonymous]

20 Nov 2:07PM South Africa

Hi Michael, I’ve been looking at how the progression and chords are calculated. I’ve changed my table too to make it easier to read, and added some common chords.
I don’t know at this stage if there are more that I should add, please let me know. Perhaps Sus4? There’s plenty of room on the paper for more chords.

So far for Jazz it seems to be the main II – V – I sequence.

For Blues I’ve found three :-
I – IV – I – I ~ IV – IV – I – I ~ V – IV – I – V
I – I – I – I ~ IV – IV – I – I ~ V – IV – I – I
I – I – I – I ~ IV – IV – I – I ~ V – V – I – I

Then the other main one seems to be I – IV – V but as you say there are many variations depending on the mood.

Sounds like you are living in heaven with the great fishing and even better music!!!

At times these music explanations lose me because I’m not familiar with all the terms yet. I think I’m going to purchase the Major improvisation course now anyway, because it’s going to be a while before I can really put all the information to good use. At least I can concentrate on learning the theory whilst waiting for my practical skills to manifest. I’m getting a little bit better at playing everyday – but it’s much too slow for my liking!

[john]

Just get a few songs that have these progressions and play along. stay on the root of the chord as it goes by, this way you will learn how to play along with the changes.

[Anonymous]

10:28AM 21 NOV

Thanks for the advice Johnny, I appreciate that your way is the best way to get into this. My playing skills aren’t up to playing and listening at this point, I’m totally focussed on getting the notes and tone correct. I’m still working on the first part – smooth transitions, tone and automatic fingering etc.
It’s great to be able to see the road ahead and the skills we must develop. These courses are very helpful.

[Author]

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