Blues Shifter as a solo stylistic device
In this chapter, the so-called blues shifters are presented as a solo stylistic device. These are small tone sequences that are repeated over and over again in the same way, whereby the number of tones in the sequence is neither divisible by the number of tones played per beat, nor is it a multiple. As a result, the sequence shifts permanently within the bars. These shifters are very often used as a solo stylistic device and are especially popular in the blues. The most common shifters are presented here.To calculate when a tone sequence will end up on a full counting time (>) or a one (^), the so-called least common multiple (LCM) is used. The LCM results from the prime factorization by counting each common prime number only once.
For example, the LCM of 15 and 6 is: LCM (15, 6) = LCM (3 * 5, 2 * 3) = 3 * 5 * 2 = 30.
We look at the following types of shifters, which are played over a simple blues in E as an example:
