12 Bar Blues
The PS-04 is an excellent tool for jamming along and practice your guitar skills. In this tutorial I'll show you how easy it is to build a simple 12 bar blues that you can use to practice your blues scales.
On the first place, you need to have clear what you want to do before turning on the PS-04. Before starting a new project, it is a good practice to take a piece of paper and write down what you're looking for.
We want to build a basic 12 bar blues using predefined patterns that makes this chord progression:
E E E E
A A E E
B A E B
So, we will build the first 12 bars and then we'll copy these 12 bars a few times until we get a complete, longer song.
Step 1. Create a new project.
We're now ready to begin, so turn on your PS-04 and create a new project:
· Press <SYSTEM>
· Choose [PROJECT]
· Press <ENTER>
· Choose [NEW]
· Press <ENTER>
· Choose [GRADE HF]
· Press <ENTER>
Step 2. Define pattern progression.
To build the first 12 bars, we'll use some of the predefined patterns on the PS-04.
The patterns chosen for this project are OBST1 (000) and OBST2 (001).
The first one will be the main pattern and the last one will be used on the last bars for the turnaround.
These patterns are 4 bars long each (to know the details of each pattern, visit this page), so we'll use the patterns to fill the 12 bars this way:
OBST1 (4 measures)
OBST1 (4 measures)
OBST2 (4 measures)
We'll use the FAST method to define the first 12 bars of the song:
· Press <RHYTHM> twice, until you get into the SONG mode
· Press <EDIT/UTILITY>
· Choose [FAST] with the right arrow key
· Press <ENTER>.
· By using the faders and arrow keys if needed, type this formula to use the OBST1 pattern twice and then the OBST2: 0x2+1 (Note that you don’t need to type the pattern number with three digits, so instead of typing 000x2+001 you just need to type 0x2+1 - if you make mistakes you can use the <INSERT/DELETE/COPY> button to delete the mistakes)
· When finished, press <ENTER>
· The PS-04 should show the message [DONE]
· You will be returned to the [FAST] screen.
Step 3. Define the chord progression
So now we have the first 12 bars, but they go all on the same root, so to make this sound like a standard 12 bar blues we need to make sure the bass follows the E, E, E, E, A, A, E, E, B, A, E, E chord progression.
Press <EXIT> to return to the [SONG] mode and press <REWIND> to make sure you're at the start of the song, and press <REC>.
The screen will change to show you the measure (001), and beat (01) you're in, and the letters "Ev" to show there is currently an event on this point.
You can use the right and left arrow keys to move yourself to other measures, and the down and up arrow keys to change to different modes.
Press the down arrow until you get to a screen that shows [E -- r].
Bar 1: This is the root definition screen, and it shows you that the bass will be playing notes on the root of E, so that's OK as on the first bar, we want the bass to play these notes.
Bar 5: Press the right arrow 4 times so you'll be on the 5th bar (where the OBST1 pattern begins playing for the 2nd time).
On the way up here you'll see the screen shows [<- ROOT], which means that the bass on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th bars will use the same root as the previous bars.
When you reach the 5th bar, it will show [E -- r] again, and this time we'll need to change the root to A, by turning the wheel until it shows [A -- r].
Bar 6: Press the right arrow to move into the 6th bar, and it will show [<- ROOT], that is, the 6th bar is doing the same notes as the 5th, so that's OK as we want to be on the root of A on both the 5th and 6th bars.
Bar 7: Press the right arrow again and you'll be on the 7th bar. It shows [<- ROOT] but we need to change to E so turn the wheel until the screen shows [E -- r].
Bar 8: Press the right arrow again, you'll be on the 8th bar and the screen will show [<- ROOT], and as we want the 8th bar to be on the same root as the 7th, that's OK.
Bars 9-12: So now for the last 4 bars. Use the right arrow to visit the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th bars and change the roots to B, A, E and B, respectively.
When you've finished with the 12th bar, you'll be at the end of the song. Press <REC> to exit the recording mode, <REWIND> to return to the beginning of the song and <PLAY> to listen to these 12 bars.
Remember that the first time you play from the [RHYTHM] mode the volumes will be set to 0 so you'll need to turn them up (both drums and bass levels) to be able to hear them, by using the faders.
Step 4. Copy the 12 bars to create a complete song.
We're almost finished. We've got a 12 bar blues, but it only contains 12 bars, so we need to make it longer:
· From the [SONG] mode, press <REC>
· Press <INSERT/DELETE/COPY> twice until you see on the screen [COPY START 001].
· Press <ENTER> to choose the first bar as the beginning, and the screen will change to [COPY END 001].
· Turn the wheel until the screen says [COPY END 012], and press <ENTER>.
· The screen will change to [COPY TO 012], so turn the wheel until it says [COPY TO 013], and press <ENTER>.
· You have just copied from the first measure to the 12th measure, and the new copy has been placed on the 13th bar. So now you have a 24 measures song.
· Repeat this process to copy 1-24 to 25, then 1-48 to 49 and 1-96 to 97, and you'll have a long song of 192 measures, that follows a standard 12 bar blues on E. Just plug a guitar and jam along !
How to transpose the song to another root.
The purpose of this tutorial was building a 12 bar blues to jam along with your guitar, but here's a useful tip: you can easily transpose the whole song to another root.
Say, you're tired of playing on E and want to jam along a blues on D? Just follow these instructions to convert your E blues into a D blues:
· From the [SONG] mode, press <EDIT/UTILITY>
· Choose [TRANSPOSE]
· Press [ENTER]
· Turn the wheel until it says [-2] (as D is 2 semitones away from E)
· Press <ENTER>.
· The screen will show [ENT/EXT] because it is asking you for confirmation on this
· Press <ENTER> to confirm and the song will be transposed to D.
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