BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
2502 / 18210 · Workshop 5 — 12-Bar Jazz Blues: From Three Chords to a Full Improvisational Language← prev⊞ allnext →

5.100The deepest lesson

The basic blues has only:

I7, IV7, V7.

Yet from that simple skeleton you can generate:

  • local ii–Vs
  • passing diminished chords
  • secondary dominants
  • tritone substitutions
  • chromatic bass
  • turnarounds
  • walking lines
  • multiple improvisational vocabularies

But the form must still sound like blues.

That is the challenge.