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102 Part II: Setting Up to Play the Blues TEAM LinG
The quick four happens just about as often as not in blues songs. Some songs
that use the quick-four method include “Sweet Home Chicago” and “Hide
Away.” Songs such as “Hound Dog” and “Johnny B. Goode” don’t use this variation.
Most blues guitarists don’t think too much about whether a song has a
quick four. They just look at someone else in the band who knows more than
they do to see if they’re going to make that move in bar two or not.
The quick four happens very soon after you start the song, so if you’re at a
jam session, or are playing along with a song for the first time, you must be
on your toes to anticipate its use.
The turnaround
The turnaround is the last two bars of the progression that point the music
back to the beginning. At the end of the 12-bar blues, you can repeat the progression
or end it. Most of the time you repeat the progression to play additional
verses and solos. To help get the progression ready for a repeat, you
employ a turnaround that sets up the repeat. At the most basic level, you can
create a turnaround by just substituting a V chord for the I chord in the last
bar — bar 12.
Practically all songs (blues or otherwise) end on a I chord (the tonic chord of
the key), so the substitution of the V chord creates a strong pull that brings the
song back to a I chord, which occurs at bar one of the progression. When the
V chord occurs at the end of the progression, it tells musicians and listeners
that “we’re going back around again.” While the most basic application of a
turnaround is just playing a V chord in the last bar, to most guitarists, a turnaround
presents an opportunity to play a riff or lick. Riffs are covered in
Chapter 7. Figure 6-4 shows the last four bars of a 12-bar blues with a turnaround
bar added .
Figure 6-4:
The
turnaround
can be a V
chord
substituting
for I in the
last bar.
Bar 9 of 12-bar blues
Track 19
B7 A E B7 (Turnaround bar)