Tim Lerch is not your average guitar tutor! He’s a virtuoso with over 50,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and he’s here to share 14 of his top jazz-blues turnarounds with us. All of these incredible turnarounds are in the key of Bb major and are perfect for a blues in Bb. Let’s start by looking at the basic 12-bar blues progression in the key of Bb major.
What exactly are turnarounds? They’re those magical last two or four bars of the blues sequence. In our Bb progression, all the chords are dominant 7ths, giving us the creative freedom to substitute different chords and create more harmonically elaborate turnaround passages.
Tim uses various innovative concepts when creating these turnarounds. These ideas can be as simple as enhancing a bassline, experimenting with contrapuntal melodies, or introducing classic chord progressions into the mix.
One of Tim’s favorite sets of chords for a turnaround is the I-VI-II-V progression. This features Bb7-Gm7-Cm7-F7, but when Tim uses secondary dominant chords, it becomes even more powerful with Bb7-G7-C7-F7.
To elevate the sound even further, tritone substitution is introduced, transforming G7 to Db7, and F7 to B7. This adds a chromatic element to the progression: Bb7-Db7-C7-B7. Tim gives detailed insights into each of these examples in the video, and we’ve tabbed out the fingerings and provided thorough theoretical background in the Performance Notes.
In the video, the examples are performed freestyle, and we’ve notated the approximate rhythms to make it as clear and easy to use as possible. Tim’s fingerstyle approach helps deliver a more pianistic performance.
It’s interesting to note that Tim rarely plays the full chord. Instead, he uses two or three notes to imply the harmony, often referring to this as a ‘shell voicing’. By leaving out root notes, the sound becomes more sophisticated.
Tim is using a Mike Lull Custom solid body guitar with the neck pickup selected and the tone rolled down, proving that you don’t always need an archtop for a warm jazz sound. All the articulations and phrasing from Tim’s video performance are clearly notated.
After mastering some of Tim’s turnarounds, why not try your own ideas for your next blues jam? You may just find a new technique, lick, or phrase that’ll take your playing to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get jamming!
