Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - Country Swing and Jazz Chord progressions

Leon Grizzard · August 21st, 2008, 01:58 PM

You don’t play a lot of minor chords in Western Swing, but what is very common is the B part going to the relative minor. A typical B part, in the key of C, goes:

|Am/E7/|Am///|D7///|G7///| or

|E7///|Am///|D7///|G7///|

So either way you get that second measure with the relative minor, Am, to fool around with. I don’t have a lot of shtick for this situation, but here is what I often play. It is written as block chords, but I would play bass-strum. In place of the E7, you could play Bm7b5 (7x776x), or E7b9 (7x676x). B diminished sounds pretty good too.

Code:

    Am    E7    Am     E7
----5---------------------------
----5---------------------------
----5-----7-----9------7--------
----7-----6-----7------6--------
----7---------------------------
----5-----7-----8------7--------

Similarly, if the minor chord has its root on the 5th string:

Code:

    Dm    A7    Dm    A7
----5-----5-----------5---------
----6-----5-----6-----5---------
----7-----6-----7-----6---------
----7-----5-----7-----5---------
----5-----7-----8-----7---------
--------------------------------

Here is a one measure walk down:

Code:

    Dm   Dm/C#   Dm/C  Dm/B or Dm/B   
---------------------------------------
-------------------------------6-------
----10---10------10----10------7-------
----7----7-------7-----7-------7-------
---------------------------------------
----10---9-------8-----7-------7-------

August 21st, 2008, 01:58 PM	#6 (permalink)
Leon Grizzard Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Austin, Texas Age: 63 Posts: 2,727	Minor Chords You don’t play a lot of minor chords in Western Swing, but what is very common is the B part going to the relative minor. A typical B part, in the key of C, goes: \|Am/E7/\|Am///\|D7///\|G7///\| or \|E7///\|Am///\|D7///\|G7///\| So either way you get that second measure with the relative minor, Am, to fool around with. I don’t have a lot of shtick for this situation, but here is what I often play. It is written as block chords, but I would play bass-strum. In place of the E7, you could play Bm7b5 (7x776x), or E7b9 (7x676x). B diminished sounds pretty good too. Code: Am E7 Am E7 ----5--------------------------- ----5--------------------------- ----5-----7-----9------7-------- ----7-----6-----7------6-------- ----7--------------------------- ----5-----7-----8------7-------- Similarly, if the minor chord has its root on the 5th string: Code: Dm A7 Dm A7 ----5-----5-----------5--------- ----6-----5-----6-----5--------- ----7-----6-----7-----6--------- ----7-----5-----7-----5--------- ----5-----7-----8-----7--------- -------------------------------- Here is a one measure walk down: Code: Dm Dm/C# Dm/C Dm/B or Dm/B --------------------------------------- -------------------------------6------- ----10---10------10----10------7------- ----7----7-------7-----7-------7------- --------------------------------------- ----10---9-------8-----7-------7-------