The Key of Eb, Blues Bass

Eb major harmonises to Eb – Fm – Gm – Ab – Bb – Cm – D°; D# natural minor to D#m – E#° – F# – G#m – A#m – B – C#.

A blues takes those tables as a starting point rather than a rule: it plays the tonic, the subdominant and the dominant all as dominant seventh chords, which no major key contains on its own — the first place the idiom and the textbook part company.

The bass carries a repeating figure under every bar that moves with each change of chord and tells the rest of the band the change has arrived. It seldom sounds the whole chord: it picks which tones to step through and in what order, and the band hears the harmony from whatever note it lands on at the top of the bar.