BLUESJAMTRACKS.

COM
Lesson notes: GUTHRIE GOVAN ON THE ROBBEN
FORD STYLE JAM TRACK FROM CLASSIC BLUES

GENERAL THEORY

This D minor jam track doesn’t really follow a standard blues progression, although there is a
recognizable “turnaround” section at the end. Almost all the chords are found within the D natural minor
or Aeolian scale (D E F G A Bb C), the only exception being the A7#5-A7-Bbdim7 passage.
th
If you’ve read the notes from the Larry Carlton package, you’ll know how a dominant 7 chord is often
rd
used in a minor key (the minor 3 makes the scale harmonic minor, rather than natural minor). In this
th th
case, the dominant 7 chord also has a sharpened 5 … instead of E, you get E#, which is the same as
F, one of the notes in our default D minor scale.

The Bbdim7 also fits this little theory, as it’s essentially just an A7 with the root raised to Bb.

SPECIFICS
Bar 1-6
Having said that, Guthrie spends a lot of time using the D Dorian (D E F G A B C) over the Dm7 chord.
When you’ve got a long stretch of a single chord, you can quite happily use different scales, without
having to worry about whether they fit into the overall tonality, and plenty of people would argue that the
Dorian mode suits funky minor 7 chords better than the natural minor.

Bar 4
One of the repeating themes in this solo is Guthrie’s use of chromatic notes, either to approach target
notes or to fill the gap between two scale notes. In bar 3, he approaches the A from the non-scale G#,
and in bar 4, he approaches the D from C# and adds chromatic passing notes on the descending D
string line.

Bar 7
For the tricky A7#5 chord, Guthrie mostly uses the Superlocrian mode (A Bb C Db Eb F G). Notice how
th
he’s using a comfortable shape at the 8 fret… you might find it useful to remember this shape, as it’s
roughly based around the C minor pentatonic box.

Bar 17
th th
This pattern, stretching from the 15 fret up to the 20 fret, appears a few times in the solo, so make
sure you get it under your fingers!

Bar 19
Guthrie uses slides to join small melodic units with similar shapes. To do this, you really need to know a
scale over the whole fretboard.

Bar 23-24
A long line built entirely from the A superlocrian scale. Notice how many of its notes (five out of seven)
are exactly the same as the D natural minor scale… A Bb C Db Eb F G vs D E F G A Bb C.

Bar 40
This time Guthrie continues the Superlocrian even when the chord has moved to regular A7. You can
often do this with dominant 7 chords… even if they’re not altered, you can superimpose altered lines
(using the common altered scales, the Superlocrian and Lydian Dominant) over the top. Be careful with
those outside notes, though!

Bar 42-45
As in bar 19, this is a great way of finding new ideas when you’re bored of your regular scale shapes.
Just learn a scale fragment over two strings, then move up to the next position using those same
strings, then the next position, and so on…