For example, if you want to know what the chords are for playing in g, you take the 4th and 5th notes which are c and d. The 12 bar blues and the minor blues scale online guitar. Its much more common for songs to group several chords together into guitar chord progressions to develop an interesting sound. A really important skill in playing blues is being able to play your 12 bar blues rhythm shuffle in any key.
Today i want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using fingerstyle technique in this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and. This is a wellknown, simple chord progression which gives you an opportunity to try out some of your ideas. The standard 12bar blues is a iivv chord progression most typically divided into three fourbar segments. Bars also called measures in blues can best be described as consisting of a count of four. Blues chord progressions 12, 8 and 16 bar examples. Understand basic variations of both major and minor 12 bar blues forms. The 12bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression 12 bar blues chord progression. The blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th century.
Lessons blues rhythm style guide sound samples tab. As i mentioned above, you can use the 12 bar blues progression to play blues in any key. In this lesson im providing you with a simple walking bass line through a 12 bar blues progression in a jazz blues style what is a walking bass line. A 12 bar blues structure often consist of only three chords i, iv and v. The most fundamental way to play chords in the style in blues is to adopt a 12 bar structure. In this first segment many of the core approaches to blues progressions will be laid out for you, so listen up. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the iivv chords. The most common chord progression is known as a 12 bar blues, which, predictably is 12 bars long eight, 16 and 24 bar versions are common, too. You will also be able to jam along with complete confidence knowing exactly what chord is coming next. Youll play the 1 chord for four measures, the 4 chord for two measures, the 1 chord for two measures, the 5 chord for one measure, the 4 chord for one measure, the 1 chord for one measure, then the 5 chord for the last measure. They are the chords that are the relative major chords. Below are some common dominant chords that will be used in this lesson. The quick four is a variation on the 12 bar blues with a different second bar.
To get an idea of how this works, take a look at the following example, a typical bar count for a standard 12bar blues verse. How to play 12 bar blues free online guitar video lesson. The dominant 7th chord is the name that we give to chords that we shorten to 7. Essentially, bars 11 and 12 are a iviiiv chord progression. Blues progressions are almost exclusively played in 44 time and dominated by the root i chord, with the iv and v chords providing that extra bit of flavor to keep things interesting. Mastery of the blues and rhythm changes are critical elements for building a jazz repertoire. The turnaround at the end now has a vi chord added in bar 11. The gullah net website includes information about the evolution of blues music and how it influenced. The relative major chords are the same as the 1, 4, and 5 steps of the major scale. Here are some of my favourite online music resources.
In example 1 below, a 12 bar blues progression is shown in the key of g, using open position dominant 7th chords, the type of chord typically associated with a bluesy sound. Instead of staying on the i chord for four measures, you play a iv chord for example, a in the key of e in the second measure for one bar, and go back to the i chord for two bars. So now anytime youre in front of a lead guitar player you are cool, confident and prepared because youve mastered these 3 juicy blues chord progressions. For example, a7 is actually an a dominant 7th chord. This means that if you want to know what the 3 chords are of a 12 bar blues chord progression, you only need to locate the 4th and 5th notes of the key. A 12bar blues progression is a set chord progression that repeats every 12 bars of music. Later well have a lesson on voicing the 12 bar blues, but for now, just learn the form and practice it in all the keys. In the video i show you the exact finger placements of how to play each chord. Here starts a blues course for guitar that include several lessons. Enlarging the 12 bar blues chord progression through the use of embedded chord subs last time we learned the 12 bar blues progression hope you have it down cold by now, as you will use it your entire musical life in scads of songs many of them not even known as blues songs. The 12 bar blues has long been a favourite amongst music educators for teaching form, triads, the blues scale, cyclical chord progressions and music history. What the name doesnt tell you is that you need to know three chords to play the progression. Few chords, no matter how pretty they sound in isolation, are played that way in actual songs.
This means that if you know the root note or chord, you can construct the rest of the 12 bar blues progression as well. Learn how to emphasize the iv chord by using iiv progressions. A blues song can be in any key, but generally the musicians agree on keys easiest for guitarists to play, such as e, a, or d. In the key of e blues, the 1 chord is an e, the 4 chord is an a, and the 5 chord is a b.
The 12 bar blues is the backbone chord progression of not just blues music, but most rock music in general. To get a quick taste of the blues buffet, a one bar example of an arpeggiated c major notes c, e, and g chord is shown below. In its most basic form, it contains just the i, the iv and the v chords of the given key. The blues may be the most popular chord progression there is. For example, if you want to use all major chords you can simply take the chords a, d, and e, plug them into the 12bar blues formula and voila, youve got a blues chord progression. Heres an example of how a common blues progression goes. The twelve bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. This adds some nice voice leading into the ii chord. The basic blues progression uses 3 chords the tonic or the chord that the song is centered on, the dominant or the chord based on the fifth step of the tonic scale, and the subdominant or the chord based on the fourth step of the tonic scale in the example below, we.
The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. The only 3 chords you need to master the blues on piano. Keep these variations in mind as you go through the examples below. The progression uses the i, iv and v chords of the major scale. The e7, a7 and b7 all belong to a 12 bar blues in the key of e. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the i, iv, and v chords of a key. Remember, to turn this combination of notes into a blues progression, simply play the same combination in the chords of c, f, and g in the 12 bar blues. It is named after the number of bars in the progression. I talked about a 12 bar blues progression in the key of a where a is the i chord, d is the iv, and e is the v, and also the keys of g g, c, d and d d, g, a. Click here to download a printable pdf of this lessons notation. They are just regular major chords applied to a blues progression.
A progression of chords used to lead the ear back to the tonic used in the last bar of the 12bar blues structure usually chord ii to chord v swing rhythm shuffle rhythm a rhythm where quavers are interpreted as a crotchetquaver triplet rather than as even 8ths. To make this 12 bar blues chord progression sound a bit more bluesy, we will be playing 7th chords. Blues music is a relatively easy genre to absorb and the guitar is an excellent instrument in this style. All of these guitar chords are part of a common chord progression in blues music, that progression is the 12 bar blues. While the above formula is the basic 12 bar blues, often we turn each chord into a dominant 7th chord. The term 12 bar refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues. The easiest blues on acoustic guitar easy blues for. Easy blues on acoustic guitar for beginners combine chords and melody. Examples of chords to use and other instructions are presented below. Enlarging the 12 bar blues chord progression through the use of embedded chord subslast issue we looked at the skeleton of the 12 bar blues last issue is reprinted above, so you can refer to it if you need to. There is one more kind of jazz blues you should know. Being able to play the blues is a great tool for guitar players and musicians in general to get together, jam, explore, evolve and have a great time. Theyre part of the language of music, the proverbial sentences to the words that we know as individual chords. Once you can play a closed using barre chords 12 bar blues shuffle rhythm you will be able to play it in any key when you have finished this lesson and done a little practice.
This lesson will use dominant 7th, dominant 9th, and dominant th chords. In order to start kickin around ideas, its important you have a solid foundation in the basic 12 bar blues progression. With that in mind, well be in the key of e blues through this entire series. Once you know the structure and what key you are in, you will be able to play the song or piece of music with other musicians or backing tracks with complete confidence.
A simple trick that lets you play 12 bar blues in any key. Similarly, the minor pentatonic scalea musical scale with five notes per octave, instead of the usual sevenis the most commonly used scale in blues. The basic blues progression uses 3 chords the tonic i or the chord that the song is centered on, the dominant v or the chord based on the fifth step of the tonic scale, and the subdominant iv or the chord based on the fourth step of the tonic scale. Although blues music has evolved over time, a fundamental chord progression called. A walking bass line is simply a melodic bass line found mainly in jazz and blues styles in which you walk around in quarter notes connecting the chords. It was originated by african american in the deep south of america. Progression refers to the chord changes made during a 12 bar blues riff.
By the way, if you are interested in learning blues guitar, there are great online blues guitar lesson courses out there. These emotional chord progression examples are a great start, but youll need to present them in a compelling way if. First, if youre not familiar with the concept of bars, lets break it down. Most blues songs use three chords in musical terminology they are the tonic, subdominant and dominant seventh. The one we have here is so basic the only iv chord in sight is the double bar instance at bars 5 and 6. Although blues music has evolved over time, a fundamental chord progression called the 12 bar blues still lives on. Understanding the 12 bar blues and the i iv v chords duration. The standard 12bar blues progression has three chords in it the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and then the 5 chord. It is possible to play a 12 bar blues in other keys. As described in the video, the end of the 12 bar blues chord progression can. The 12 bar blues is the most common blues chord progression. The most common musical form of blues is the 12 bar blues.
Create movement and interest with tritone substitutions. There are three main chords used in the 12 bar chord progression. It begins with an easy level that explains the basic and when goes into more advanced concepts and various areas like 12 bar blues progressions. The verse sections of the beatles cant buy me love are great examples of the 12 bar blues progression in action. Listen to the 12 bar blues backing track and try singing or playing over the top of it. Its important to understand that the 12 bar blues is a cycle and it is repeated many times during a performance. Surely, the tonic and dominant tones will be natural resting points or central tones for the melody.