I used to really like Gene Harris's blues playing...

Reader,

Last week I ran out of time to finish the Gene Harris transcription I was working on. It was considerably more difficult than I thought it would be.

I used to really like his playing, especially over the blues. But after spending so much time immersed in his playing these past weeks, I LOVE Gene Harris' playing.

The tune I've been looking at is called Bluesology. I first learned of this tune from Monty Alexander, but when I saw the Ray Brown Trio had also played it, I just had to dive in.

I've picked up so many new ideas from this tune and I can't wait to share them with you on the workshop this week.

RSVP For the Bluesology Workshop

This Friday at 1pm Eastern, May 16th. The workshop is free, just please let us know you are coming.

Before we jump into the transcription itself, let's look at the form of Bluesology. As you might guess by the name, its a 12 bar blues. This recording is in the key of Eb.

It is a fairly standard 12 bar blues in a lot of ways, but take a second to notice a couple of the enhancements, like the 2-5 in bar 4, and the secondary dominant in bar 9 (which is more common in bar 10).

In Gene's solo, which starts at 0:57, he plays through the blues changes 5 times. The excerpt displayed below shows what he plays the first time through.

From this point on, he really develops these ideas much more. Building into his famous shout chorus style, with fast moving octave lines, emphasizing both the C minor and Eb minor blues scales.

Download the full transcription: Bluesology.pdf​

This week on the YouTube channel

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