The 13th Chord

[Tommy Harkenrider]

Okay! I used to tell everyone the 13th has no room in jump blues. Guess what I was wrong. I was going through some Les Paul and Tiny Grimes heard some killer lines ie. “Living Room Romp” When I did my clinic with Pete Anderson least week he was throwing every altered chord in the book. I will admit sometimes it sounded a little off lol, but other times it sounded fantastic. I realized when he uses a 13th chord on the I he adds th 9 in the top seem to soften the blow a little. I was listening to Tiny today and he was using the 6 and 9 over a seventh quite a bit. granted it was at the tail end of the I or over the IV-or-V but I heard it. Anyway the quest continues.

[jeff.mcniel]

So Pete was using the “standard” Micky Baker 13th: root, <mute>, 7, 3, 13, 9 ?

That’s what it sounded like to me but I wasn’t sure.

[Craner]

Tommy, that is a little funny you’re talking about a 13th chord. I just started working on a Django blues (AABA format blues) and the 4th measure (leading into the IV chord) goes from a minor v to tonic 13b9. And the move itself is really cool: We’ll look at this stuff tomorrow.

Blues in C:
Gm7 (minor v chord):
——-
—11—
—10—-
—8—-
—x—-
—10—-

C13b9 (tonic 13b9):
——-
—10—-
—9—-
—8—-
—x—-
—9—-

[Tommy Harkenrider]

Cool! I guess it’s in how the chord is presented in the form and how it is articulated. Looking forward to tomorrow

[Gretschman59]

I am confused. I have never heard you say that you don’t use the 13 in jump blues to me, and where did you get that from. I have always used the 13 playing jump, and I know I didn’t create it. I stole that from all the artists we talk about. It is a big thing to do here out East. BB King stuff lived off of that. Duke Robillard is another. You hear it in Tiny, Bill, and a lot of those guys. Paul did it a lot playing with you and Kid. He definitely has the East Coast influence on him though. Like I said though, maybe I am missing something. I am confused where this train of thought is coming from.

[Tommy Harkenrider]

Well in jump blues stuff I usually hear a maj 6th on the I not a 13th. That’s all

[Tommy Harkenrider]

Well in jump blues stuff I usually hear a maj 6th on the I not a 13th. That’s all

[Dan]

Always works great as a transition to the 4 on the 4th bar of the one. Eg. in Bb on the 4th bar you could play Bb13 Bb13#5 Eb#9 to get to your Eb9 for the 4.

[Author]

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