BLUES TURNAROUNDS. Inside the blues. A compendium of patterns & phrases for guitar. 76 tracks. Dave Rubin and Rusty Zinn. CD TABLATURE
Series: Guitar Educational
Softcover with CD - TAB
Author: Dave Rubin
Author: Rusty Zinn
Written by blues expert Dave Rubin and Rusty Zinn, one of the finest young guitarists and singers on the contemporary blues scene, this book/CD pack provides the beginning to advanced blues guitarist with all of the essential turnarounds and so much more! The CD includes 76 demonstration tracks. 40 pages.
The art of The Turnarounds
W.e. Handy, known as the "Father of the Blues" due to his early efforts at promoting the form, published "Memphis Blues" in 1912, a song containing the first written solo, or "jass (zz)" break. A series of 12-bar verses with a 16-bar bridge, the last verse contains an end turnaround resolving to the I chord (see Fig. 1). It appears to be the first hard copy of the descending, diminished blues turnaround pattern (I-I7-Io-iv6-I) that, in the hands of Lonnie Johnson in the late twenties, and particularly Robert Johnson a decade later, would become the template for virtually all subsequent blues turnarounds.
The idea of ending a verse of music on the V (dominant) chord and resolving back to the I chord is suggested in twelve-measure, modal folk tunes from the mid-1500s in England. Music from this period did not have tonality (chord changes); however, the direction of the vocal line and musical accompaniment could be seen to imply changes. Roughly 100 years later music starts to appear with I-V-I implied changes in measures 11 and 12. It would take until the time of the Civil War in the 1860s and just after, however, for 12-bar, I-IV-V blues to take shape, and even longer for resolution to the V chord in measure 12 to become the norm.
Both W.e. Handy and Big Bill Broonzy, among others, have frequently cited "Joe Turner Blues" from the 1890s as the first recognized 12-bar blues. Indeed, it fits the format but does not include a verse or end turnaround. In fact, it would take Handy's "St. Louis Blues" (1914) to contain a i-II7-V-V7 turnaround (see Fig. 2) in the minor key "tango section" that begins, "St. Louis woman, with your diamond ring ... "
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