![]() ![]() Leave me a comment to let me know how you practice and approach a 12 bar-blues. If you enjoyed this post, I want you to do one thing: Jazz music often mixes both major and minor ideas. Feel free to experiment and move things around. They serve as a starting point and can be changed and enriched. The progressions shown above are just examples of the most common 12 bar blues chord progressions. Here is an example using the dominant 7th chords to accentuate a coming chord change.Ī twelve-bar blues using seventh minor chords is also very popular. In the previous example, we used dominant 7th chords on all the chords but they can also be added anywhere. Typically, a turnaround is a 2 bar phrase that sits over the 11th and 12th bars of your usual 12 bar blues and acts to turn around the phrase back to the first chord. You may recognise the sound of a turnaround from the start or end of your favourite blues tracks. In this case, you could simply add the minor 7th on all the chords to create dominant seventh sound. In blues music, the turnaround is a familiar companion. It adds a lot of movement to the last 4 bars.Īs in the example above, you can play major chords but the use of seventh chords is most commonly heard. It gives more movement to the basic structure. There are many ways to play the chord changes, but the most basic one goes like this.Įxample of a basic 12 bar in E The Quick ChangeĪnother popular variation is going to the 4(th) on the second bar. How to Play a Twelve-bar Blues? The Basic Structure In the key of E it would be E(root), A(the 4th) and B (the 5th). Chords are usually identified in roman numerals I-IV-V. The 1st(root), the 4th, and the 5th chords of the major scale. In fact, you may already know them or at least be familiar with how a typical blues song unfolds.Ī basic twelve bar blues is made of 3 chords. If you ever want to learn to play the blues on any instrument, you have to know these chord changes. It’s important whether you play the rhythm or lead. It’s so popular: Thousands and thousands of songs are made from it! It’s the most common blues music progression. It will open up the world of blues guitar for you and will really set you up to play amazing rhythm and lead blues guitar.It’s a basic and simple chord progression. I cannot stress how important it is for your development as a blues guitarist. These chords sound less ‘happy’ than straight major chords and they add a tension to the music that sounds distinctly bluesy.Īgain I will cover this topic in much more detail in a future article, as it is such a key part of effective blues rhythm guitar playing.įor now though, just get to grips with the form of the 12 bar blues. Instead they play what are known as Dominant 7th chords. ![]() Typically blues musicians don’t play straight major chords, as we have done here. Secondly, the chords outlined here are unlikely to be the ones that blues musicians would use. It is a whole topic in itself and one that I will cover in more detail in a future article. The form of the blues is quite basic, and so the rhythm you use and the groove you add to your playing is hugely important. There are two reasons for this, which are as follows:įirstly and as noted, we haven’t yet established a proper bluesy rhythm or strumming pattern. You may have noticed when practicing that the progression I’ve outlined above doesn’t actually sound that ‘bluesy’. To start though, let’s look at the basic structure of the 12 bar blues and how it all fits together: We will look at common variations on the form, how to add a bluesy feel to your playing and different ways of making your rhythm playing more interesting. Over the coming articles, we will look at how you can develop these basic ideas. It will cover the structure of the blues, some theory, and how you can apply this knowledge to your playing.Īfter reading, you will be able to play the basic form of the 12 bar blues across a variety of different keys. If you are new to playing the blues, then this article will outline some of the key concepts you need to get started. It provides the framework for the blues and will help you learn a wide variety of blues songs, as well as jam confidently with other musicians. ![]() It has been used since the inception of the genre and appears in almost every iconic blues song ever written. The 12 bar blues is the structure upon which blues music is built. If you want to play blues rhythm guitar, you need to start by learning the 12 bar blues. ![]()
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