I'm not sure if this would get more responses in a different section, but I figured it fit best with Theory and Composition. I'm in my first semester as a music major, and we've just received our first major project in theory class. Basically, it's two verses a 12-bar blues progression for piano and vocals. The first verse will be all laid out, but the harmonies in the second verse must be improvised. As someone who's never done composition or improve and who's only an average pianist and vocalist, I'm getting a bit nervous about this. Does anyone out there with knowledge on composition and blues have any general suggestions or tips on how to start or what to watch out for? We still haven't really gone over it in class (last class our professor handed us the assignment, but we didn't have time to talk about it) and all he wants us to do for now is find potential lyrics (we don't have to write our own, fortunately!). Of course, one of my best friends and roommate is pretty experienced with composition and has Sibelius on her computer, so I'm sure I'll be bugging her a lot anyway.

I'm hoping this whole thing won't seem as intimidating once I start!

There are a number of fairly familiar ways of elaborating the standard blues progression (i.e: I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-V). I owudl thnk that any book on jazz theory (e.g Mark Levine's the Jazz Piano Book or Jerry Coker's Improvising Jazz) would have something on this. Sorry I can't be more specific, but I don't play piano, and am too pushed for time to go hunting for stuff. I expect TSax will have some more useful suggestions ...

I don't have much to add I'm afraid. I know the standard blues progression and a fair few variations on it, but as neither a pianist nor composer I don't feel I can give any advice. The only "rules" I can think of are to go up a 4th for bars 5 and 6 and have some kind of turnaround back to the home key in bars 9-12. Apart from that I think anything goes.

I probably should've mentioned that my professor already gave us the progression to use:

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I

Essentially, all I have to do is write a melody line, so I guess it's not really that bad. I don't know if there are any rules or things to watch out for in that, but it sounds to me like the melodies are usually pretty laid back. I have a little better handle on what I need to do now, and I'll be meeting individually with my professor on Friday to talk about it. Thanks anyway for your willingness to help, and if anyone still has advice, it'll still be appreciated!

You know your blues scale, right?

1, b3, 4, b5, 5, b7

The b5 is the "blue note" - it's this and using the b3 over the major 3rd in the dominant 7th chord that give the typical blues sound. It can be quite noce to use the major 7th as a passing note (i.e. not on the beat) as well.

isn't it also the case that the "blue note" is sometimes played a little sharper than would be expected, giving a note that isn't quite 5 or b5?

Not on the piano!

Honest answer is I don't know, it's not something I've ever heard before, or something I endeavour to do but I'm no expert on authentic blues playing.

Yeah, it can be. The "African" fifth is supposedly between the western perfect and diminished fifths, but more important than this, imo, is the prevalance of microtonal inflections, bends, and slides in African American music (and of course in the West African styles which it derives from). If you're playing a sustained note, there are lots of "shades" there to be explored between the 4 and the 5. In a medium to fast scalar phrase such subtleties are less important.

Oh and to be pedantic, passing notes aren't necessarily "not on the beat". But I agree that the blues scale would be a good thing to learn.