Eight-bar blues
In music, an eight-bar blues is a common
Overview
Early examples of eight-bar
- "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Sara Martin, 1922)[3]
- "Chippie Hill, 1926)[3]
- "How Long Blues" (Leroy Carr, 1928)[4]
- "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Bessie Smith, 1929)[3]
- "It Hurts Me Too" (Tampa Red, 1940)[5]
- "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy, 1941)[6]
- "Big Maceo, 1941)[7]
One variant using this progression is to couple one eight-bar blues melody with a different eight-bar blues bridge to create a blues variant of the standard 32-bar song:[8] "I Want a Little Girl" (T-Bone Walker) and "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis)([9]
Eight-bar blues progressions have more variations than the more rigidly defined twelve bar format. The move to the IV chord usually happens at bar 3 (as opposed to 5 in twelve bar); however, "the I chord moving to the V chord right away, in the second measure, is a characteristic of the eight-bar blues."[1]
In the following examples each box represents a 'bar' of music (the specific time signature is not relevant). The chord in the box is played for the full bar. If two chords are in the box they are each played for half a bar, etc. The chords are represented as
"Eight-bar blues chord progression":[10]
I V7 IV7 IV7 I V7 IV7 I V7
"Worried Life Blues" (probably the most common eight-bar blues progression):
I I IV IV I V I IV I V
"Heartbreak Hotel" (variation with the I on the first half):
I I I I IV IV V I
J. B. Lenoir's "Slow Down"[11] and "Key to the Highway" (variation with the V at bar 2):
"Get a Haircut" by George Thorogood (simple progression):
I I I I IV IV V V
Jimmy Rogers' "Walkin' By Myself"[11] (somewhat unorthodox example of the form):
I7 I7 I7 I7 IV7 V7 I7 V7
I I7 IV iv I7 V I7 IV I7 V
The first four bar progression used by Wolf is also used in
I I7 IV iv I VI7 ii V I IV I V
The progression may be created by dropping the first four bars from the twelve-bar blues, as in the solo section of Bonnie Raitt's "Love Me Like a Man" and Buddy Guy's "Mary Had a Little Lamb":[13]
IV7 IV7 I7 I7 V7 IV7 I7 V7
There are at least a few very successful songs using somewhat unusual chord progressions as well. For example, the song "Ain't Nobody's Business" as performed by Freddie King at least, uses a I–III–IV–iv progression in each of the first four bars. The same four bar progression is used by the band Radiohead to make up the bulk of the song "Creep".
I III IV iv I vi ii V7
The same chord progression can also be called a sixteen-bar blues, if each symbol above is taken to be a half note in 2
2 or 4
4 time. Examples are "Nine Pound Hammer"[6] and Ray Charles's original instrumental "Sweet Sixteen Bars".
See also
Sources
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7390-0408-1.
- ISBN 978-0-7866-5653-0.
- ^ ISBN 0-7935-5259-1.
- ^ "8 bar blues Leroy Carr". 10 January 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ISBN 1-55728-252-8.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-890490-36-2.
- ^ "Eight-bar blues Big Maceo". 10 January 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ISBN 111805444X
- ^ Form in Rock Music: A Primer, p. 70.
- ISBN 978-0-7390-3006-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7866-7321-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7866-7393-3.
- ^ Riker (1994), p.92.