The many styles of blues take shape in a natural way during progression of each song on Blue Ink. Basile’s experience as a coronet player takes a back seat on this project, as he is featured vocalist. His sweet and warm delivery will put you front row and center in every song. Each track has a character and color that finds a home in your heart rather quickly.

Al Basile will continue to record new music and perform regularly. Check his website for news and information.

Contact Al Basile:

Sweet Spot Records PO Box 4723 Rumford, RI 02916 Phone & Fax: 401-438 -7431 E Mail: basile@albasile.com Website: http://www.albasile.com

Here's "c","r","x" pattern:

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|||x|| 4th fret

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ccr|xx 5th fret

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|||||| 6th fret

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xx|c|c 7th fret

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||||r| 8th fret

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Fourth Stop on Fretboard - "C" chord

Continuing down fretboard -- we're now using a chord form similar to open "C" chord. It looks like this:

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x||x|x 7th fret

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||||x| 8th fret

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||x||| 9th fret

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|x|||| 10th fret

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The linking notes between this chord form and previous are seventh and eight frets on G, B, and E strings. We'll play pentatonic for this form as follows:

E--7--10--------------------------------------------------------- B---------8--10-------------------------------------------------- G----------------7--9-------------------------------------------- D----------------------7--9-------------------------------------- A----------------------------7--10------------------------------- E-----------------------------------7--10------------------------

and "crx" pattern is:

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cxxc|c 7th fret

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||||r| 8th fret

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||cx|| 9th fret

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xr||xx 10th fret

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Last Stop on Fretboard - "A" chord

One more pass down fretboard, where we'll play open "A" form of this chord. The chord pattern is:

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xx|||x 10th fret

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|||||| 11th fret

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||xxx| 12th fret

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The 10th fret from previous "crx" link with this current chord form. We'll play pentatonic like so:

E--10--12-------------------------------------------------------- B----------10--12------------------------------------------------ G------------------9--12----------------------------------------- D-------------------------9--12---------------------------------- A--------------------------------10--12-------------------------- E----------------------------------------10--12------------------

The "crx" form of this pentatonic pattern is:

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||xx|| 9th fret

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cr||xc 10th fret

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|||||| 11th fret

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xxcrcx 12th fret

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All Done -- That Brings Us Back to "G"!

We're now at 12th fret, so we've completed octave! We can now start over again using patterns and shapes we began with.

For instance, next chord pattern will be original open "G" pattern -- just played 12 frets further down keyboard. The pattern is:

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||xxx| 12th fret

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|||||| 13th fret

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|x|||| 14th fret

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x||||x 15th fret

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which is exactly what we began with -- except "D", "G", and "B" strings are no longer open. We can use same patterns we used originally, we'll just shift everything 12 frets down fretboard.

Summary

So that's how you can move up and down fretboard using 5 chord shapes -- "G", "E", "D", "C", and "A". Remember, even though we may be using a "D" shape, it's still a "G" chord if we play it at 7th and 8th frets!

Also, note how "crx" patterns show you linking notes between all each pattern and its neighbors.

I've used a "G" chord in this illustration -- however, it should be apparent that by shifting things up or down a fret, you can work your way around fretboard no matter what chord you're following.

Joey Robichaux maintains Free Sheet Music website at http://www.freesheetmusic.net