Complete the following......

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MojoJim
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Complete the following......

Post by MojoJim »

This should be an easy one for the folks here - but I realized yesterday that I didn't know the answer.

Complete the following:

"I just played through the 12 bar blues progression and now I'm going to do it again. I'm going to play a second ______________"

Chorus? Verse? Something else?

We are more or less familiar with the parts to a song. Verse. Chorus. Bridge. Refrain. Break. Solo. (I actually couldn't identify a few of these parts).

We have a simpler structure when playing instrumental blues. We talk about intro, outro and turnaround.

But what's the proper way to refer to the main 12 bar chord progression?

My tendency is to call it a verse - but I've seen it refered to as a chorus. Maybe it's properly called something else.
bluesinbflat
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by bluesinbflat »

JimRR wrote: Complete the following:

"I just played through the 12 bar blues progression and now I'm going to do it again. I'm going to play a second ______________"

Chorus? Verse? Something else?

But what's the proper way to refer to the main 12 bar chord progression?
I used to call it a verse, then Bluez2move and I were doing a collab on another site 2 years ago and he called it a chorus and so I then stuck with chorus....Afterall, Dana (Bluez2) have more band experience than me and his father was a jazz musician so I have to go with him on that. I going to say a verse is a line you sing - Not the combination of bars that make up a 12 bar progression.
LeftyBlues
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by LeftyBlues »

This is an interesting question. I call it a verse, unless its a main theme repeated (lyric wise).
A chorus is typically the same thing that is used after each verse.
A verse is unique compared to the rest of the song.
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Blindboy
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by Blindboy »

I have heard it both ways, often by the same person. It seems to be sort of interchangeable. From a singers' viewpoint, a verse is like a stanza in a poem, a chorus is a repeated stanza that reinforces the theme (my wife's analogy). From a blues guitarist's viewpoint, a verse is a chorus is a round is another twelve... :music2:
"Throw yo' big leg over me Mama, I might not feel this good again!"
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12bar
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by 12bar »

From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse-chorus_form:
Songs that use the same music for the verse and chorus, such as the twelve bar blues, though the lyrics feature different verses and a repeated chorus, are in simple verse-chorus form.
But I'll vote for BB's "another twelve" :thumbsup:
cruisemates
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by cruisemates »

Its a moot question - a verse or a chorus is made more by the lyics than the chords in a blues song.

I would say most blues songs only have verses, because a chorus is a refrain, usually with the song title, where the lyrics repeat. Not many blues songs repeat any complete stanzas of lyrics.

But take a song like Johnny B Good.

The first part is a verse ...

but the "Go, Go, Go Johnny Go Now Go" part is the chorus. Same chorde changes - but the lyrics make it a chorus. They repeat and have the song titles.

Roll Over Beethoven (same thing)

Mustang Sally (same thing) "Ride Sally Ride"
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willwelsh816
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by willwelsh816 »

Here in William Patterson University, if we ask someone how many bars he/she will take to solo, we ask, "How many choruses do you want?"

My teacher tells us that a verse relates to lyrics, chorus relates to instrumentalism, over the years, people have switched the meanings around, the new meaning of the word "Chorus" relates more to a refrain or coda.


/thread
cruisemates
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by cruisemates »

Wilwelsh - interesting, I never heard that before. Thanks for contributing.

Being the Geek I am, I just looked up definition of chorus to see if I could find out more about what you said and i saw this...

The word in Greek meant a group of voices (as in Greek theater) that added commentary to the action onstage, often as group in unison so they could be heard.

In classical music a chorus also mean four part harmony, as in Bass, tenor, alto, soprano - written very traditionally (this is what you learn in "music theory classes" - writing four part harmony, I did this for two years).

Another musical definition (similar to the above) in songwriting is "a part of the song where other voices join in" which makes sense in musical etymology since it is usually the "hook" of a song which everyone remembers and knows so they join in.

But in the BLUES you are right, it is sometimes called a chorus as in this web site: http://www.jacmuse.com/blues/bluesscale ... age18b.htm

But Wilwelsh - if your professor doesn't intimidate you as much as my music professors did me, I might ask him why he says other people changed it. In Blues - specifically, I think he is right, a 12-bar "go round" might be called a chorus. But not in an average song or other kinds of music. So if anyone changed it over time, it was the blues players, not the other way around, if you get my drift.

I'm sorry to be such a wise-guy intellectual, I know a lot of you guys don't come here for that. But I cain't heppit
mjo
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Re: Complete the following......

Post by mjo »

It's common for jazz musicians to use the term chorus to refer to the full song, even though the song itself contains verse,chorus,bridge sections. The term was used just as willwelsh explained. This seems to be common practice in "contemporary", (anything except classical) music.
All in all though, I'm with Blindboy: chorus = round = another 12.

-best,
Mike
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