If you dont know your open position sevenths, just do a search for that lesson and download the lesson pdf. In this blues guitar lesson we are going to take your rhythm blues guitar skills to the next level. Learn how to play a 12 bar blues free guitar lesson. As its name would suggest, it is made up of 12 bars or measures, which are laid out in a very specific order. Lets start by looking at a simple 12 bar blues in a. Throughout this series, weve solely focused on learning the standard 12bar blues progression and using power chords and dominant seventh chords to play through that progression.
Keeping your index finger in place, come down with your third finger on the fourth. A typical i iv v blues progression in the key of a using open position dominant 7th chords. Beginners guitar chords continued the roots lowest black diamonds of these barre chord voicings can be aligned to any fret line to produce the desired letter named chord. F jazz blues comping jazz chords and concepts guitar. This is a 12 bar blues riff and is in triplets i do not take credit for this e. Many thanks see below for embedded slideshare of basic 12 bar blues in c. More you dont need, the rest of the bars is played the same. This lesson covers the traditional, quick change, and shuffle blues.
The 12bar blues progression switches to the 4 chord for two measures next. It is very common in blues music to add 7ths to the major chords giving that classic blues sound. Start with your 1st finger in the 2nd fret fourth string. The blues chord progression lasts 12 bars thus the phrase 12bar blues that move in a familiar pattern using those three chords. Bass lessons basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tab. In order to make sure everyone is on the same page, take a look at the 12bar form in fig. Example 4b in this example, open position power chords are used to play through the progression in the key of a.
The easiest blues on acoustic guitar easy blues for. Notice that the b string is fretted on the 3rd fret, exactly where the 7th note appears for the e chord. The power chords are built on the bottom two notes of each of the open position chords from the previous example. The traditional 12bar blues has a total of 12 bars or measures of the iivv chords that keep repeating in 12bar blocks over and over. It was originated by african american in the deep south of america.
The 12bar form the primary harmonic structure of the blues is the iivv progression, which derived from church music of the south. A bar is a musical phrase, a way of measuring the music against its rhythm, and blues songs are structured in a. It includes the first chords you should know and some substitutions that you can try. Basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tabs bass.
As well as functioning as a bass line, it can also be used as a kind of lead guitar line in a rockabilly style. F jazz blues comping jazz chords and concepts jens larsen. Basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tabs. The 12bar blues is by far the most popular form for the blues. The 12 bar blues progression is the framework that so much of the blues is built upon. From stripped down acoustic sound of the delta blues to the very electric chicago blues sound, tons of blues music is based on 12 bar blues progressions. The 12 bar blues is that basic musical structure that grew out of the deep south and made its way up the mississippi river to memphis, st. This just so happens to be done in the key of a but you can play this in any.
In the other examples i just wrote out the alternatives to bar 1,2 and 9. After you get comfortable playing the classic i iv i v i blues progression and have played it enough times you will want to explore other blues chords progressions you will find that the blues is more a feeling than it is just that basic three chord progression. Other common blues progressions include the 8 bar, 16bar, and 24bar blues. The most basic variation of the 12 bar blues is comprised of just 3 chords. Jan 07, 2019 the 12 bar blues is the most basic blues chord progression. The 12 bar blues is a chord progression used in blues and rock music that lasts for 12 bars. The first chord is always easy to work out as it is the same chord as the key you are playing in in this example it will be c. Using the 12 bar blues shuffle chunka chunka style for 34 minutes can become quite. Four dominant blues chords that you can use in the 12 bar blues. One place where it really works is in a 12 bar blues. We will use just 3 fingers of the right hand for picking thumb t, index iiii and middle m the thumb t plays the g and c strings. Once you learn to play the 12bar blues on the guitar, you can play such classic blues pieces as hound dog, stormy monday, kansas city, st. As most electric slow blues tunes it uses 9th chords instead of 7th chords the first example of a common chord substitution.
We will be playing it in the key of g, so our chords are g, c and d. The only 3 chords you need to master the blues on piano. A great way to make your rhythm guitar playing sound more interesting is to add riffs. Most jazz standards are 32 bars long and so the blues form is less that a third of the length of a typical jazz standard. Looking at various variations to the regular 12 bar blues shuffle is the first step to send you down that path. This is probably the mostused riff in blues and rock music. Learn the 12 bar blues progression blues guitar institute. Mix bass lessons basic 12 bar blues for bass guitar easy basslines youtube. Further on up the road basic 12 bar blues a7 a7 a7 a7 d7 d7 a7 a7 e7 d7 a7 e7 the quick change a quick change is just that, changing chords in the 2nd measure and.
In this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and melody. The twelve bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. Some songs may have several different patterns to give them a bit of variety, but the guts of the song will normally be based on a set chord pattern for every 12 bars of music. Essentially, the blues is a specific progression that uses the c7, f7, and g7 chords. Jul 04, 2019 today ill show you 8 different ways to play a 12 bar blues shuffle.
Today i want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using fingerstyle technique. How to transform your basic blues riffs one of the features that makes the blues so fun to play is that the basic structure of a standard blues progression the socalled twelve bar isnt all that complex. Today ill show you 8 different ways to play a 12 bar blues shuffle. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In the key of e blues, the 1 chord is an e, the 4 chord is an a, and the 5 chord is. Blues chord progressions, beyond the basic 12 bar blues. Using the 12 bar blues shuffle chunka chunka style for 3. Of all the chord structures that a harmonica player should be familiar with, this is probably the most essential. Playing and improvising acoustic blues doug young acoustic blues workshop notes q 96 our goal is to be able to play a simple, but effective solo blues guitar piece, hopefully with some improvisation.
Im assuming a little bit of basic knowledge and ability on the guitar. The blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th century. This 12 bar shuffle is the backbone of many blues songs, so while its quite common this doesnt mean that its boring. Chord changes and chord structure add great interest and musical possibility to any jam session. Jan 21, 2010 i will be using the same chord forms found in the basic open position seventh chords lesson that we did here on the site. Its important to understand that the 12 bar blues is a cycle and it is repeated many times during a performance. Sep 28, 2011 the very basic form is to take the first and last four measures of a 12 bar blues and combine them. If we take the first and last phrases, we come up with a basic 8bar form that is shown in fig. In the first example i wrote out the entire 12 bar blues. Youll learn how to play a 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of e.
Youll hear this sequence in s of songs, either in this pure form or with a couple of simple variations. 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. If you are playing the blues on your own, using this kind of bass line can also break things up a bit. This lesson will use dominant 7th, dominant 9th, and dominant th chords. Mastery of the blues and rhythm changes are critical elements for building a jazz repertoire. The vast majority of contemporary blues music is based on what is termed a 12bar format. This is easily done if strumming the basic chord structure in a 12 bar blues progression, for example. Blues shuffles sound really cool and the basic ones are not that hard to play. The 12 bar blues is the most common blues chord progression. 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. For the sake of brevity, ill only look at playing blues in the key of c. It is not only the basic structure for blues, but is also used extensively in rock, country, jazz and pop music.
Easy blues on acoustic guitar for beginners combine chords and melody. I will be using the same chord forms found in the basic open position seventh chords lesson that we did here on the site. In the basic f blues, the 12 bars are only made up of 3 different chords. In its most basic form, it contains just the i, the iv and the v chords of the given key. Beginner blues bass survival shapes simple method for 12 bar blues duration. The very basic form is to take the first and last four measures of a 12bar blues and combine them.
The 12 bar form is the most basic and common type of blues form. We could replace the 12 bar blues chords with jazz chords or compose rock riffs. This will be the foundation to which additional harmonic structures chords are. Lesson 01 12 bar form youtube rhythm basics for guitar lesson 3. The 12 bar blues is a very common pattern and an important one for guitar players to learn. For this riff, well make an a power chord by placing your index finger on the second fret of the d string, and play the fifth and fourth strings twice using two swing eighth notes.
Playing the 12 bar blues in a particular key is simply a matter of figuring out the i, iv and v of that key and then using those chords with the above form. The first thing to do is to use the 12 bar quick change form, so we have c9 in the second bar, if we play it in the key of g. Although blues music has evolved over time, a fundamental chord progression called the 12 bar blues still lives on. A bar is a musical phrase, a way of measuring the music against its rhythm, and blues songs are structured in a 12bar format. Below are some common dominant chords that will be used in this lesson. The 12 bar blues is the most basic blues chord progression.
The progression uses the i, iv and v chords of the major scale. But if you play only 9th chords over a slow 12 bar progression it may sound boring. Sep 27, 2016 one place where it really works is in a 12 bar blues. The quick four is a variation on the 12bar blues with a different second bar. The chord shape in the left is in the shape of d7, and we form it the same way. Four dominant blues chords that you can use in the.
Examining the 12bar blues pattern if youve ever spent any time around a serious blues musician or music aficionado, youve probably heard the phrase 12 bar blues tossed about. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the i, iv, and v chords of a key. Aug 28, 2014 mix bass lessons basic 12 bar blues for bass guitar easy basslines youtube. Bass lessons basic 12 bar blues for bass guitar easy. However, this doesnt mean that we cant use the 12 bar chord structure that is so common in the blues. These are constructed of a major triad as in the table below and then adding a minor 7th on the top 10 semitones. This image demonstrates how you would find the i, iv, and v chords in the key of a using the a major scale. It is a structure which turns up again and again, in hundreds of songs, and by its definition, involves a lot of the same chords over and over perfect for spicing up. This simplicity makes this structure perfect to embellish the chords and riffs we play. The standard 12bar blues is a iivv chord progression most typically divided into three fourbar segments. Blues music paved the way for many other genres of music we know and love. If we take the first and last phrases, we come up with a basic 8 bar form that is shown in fig. This is a basic 12 bar blues progression and a good starting place for learning the blues song form.
Easy blues for beginners fingerstyle guitar lessons. Easy guitar tutorial 12 bar blues in ethe 12 bar blues is a very common pattern and an important one for guitar players to learn. Although there are many variations, the basic 12 bar blues follows a particular pattern of the three chords. If you want to check out more about using the types of chords that i use here in example one you should check out my lesson on how to play jazz chords. The 12 bar blues and the minor blues scale online guitar. Some of the most famous blues, boogie and rock n roll songs use this simple chord technique artists like jerry lee lewis, little richard, ray. With that in mind, well be in the key of e blues through this entire series. The first step is to play the 12 bar jazz blues with some basic chords. However, there are other variations such as 8 bars blues, 16 bar blues, and 32 bar blues. Jan 21, 20 the 12 bar blues is that basic musical structure that grew out of the deep south and made its way up the mississippi river to memphis, st.
In order to make sure everyone is on the same page, take a look at the 12 bar form in fig. This image shows the standard 12 bar blues progression using roman numerals. We have an official 12 bar blues tab made by ug professional guitarists. In the end, you dont want to be able to only improvise guitar solos, but also develop the ability to improvise in your rhythm guitar playing. Each of these songs follows the 12bar blues pattern. Instead of playing just power chords or dominant 7th chords, we will learn a blues riff that you can use to play through the standard 12bar blues progres. Thats why were going to look into adding variations to this basic structure. These are constructed of a major triad as in the table below and then adding a minor 7th on the top 10 semitones above the root forming dominant 7th chords. Well first cover the chords that make up this progression e7, a7, b7. Its called the 12 bar blues because its only 12 bars long. The standard 12bar blues progression has three chords in it the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and then the 5 chord.
The twelvebar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. Heres the basic 12 bar blues chicago blues in the key of a. That is, the main body of a song follows a set pattern of chords over 12 bars of music that is repeated over and over. In this lesson, well be learning the basic blues riff.
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