Key Blue

Introducing The Twelve Bar Blues Chord Progression - Learn To Play The Blues

Learning the blues

I came across the Blues in a flea market! More than twenty years ago, a vinyl LP in orange-ish colors caught my attention. I took it home and from the very first second of listening to "Broke Down Engine" I fell in love with it. The recording was Dave Peabody & Co - Blues in Brussels, from 1977.

And blues really is something amazing. With all the guitar riffs and licks as well as long guitar solos, this music has a special location in my heart.

The twelve bar blues chords

But you have to start at the beginning to be able to learn how to play the blues. And a good start would be to learn the traditional 12 bar blues chord progression. This term is from the number of bars in many blues songs.

If you understand and master the twelve bar progression, you will be able to jump right in with nearly any blues jam session.

Ballads usually are about minor chords. But Blues in its turn certainly is the master of dominant seventh chords. And as far as I can tell the most common chords are set in the key of A major. The actual blues chords to use in this case are E7, A7 and D7.

You play them like this:

E7

e 0|---|---|
B 0|---|---|
G |-1-|---|
D 0|---|---|
A |---|-2-|
E 0|---|---|

D7

e |---|-2-|
B |-1-|---|
G |---|-3-|
D 0|---|---|
A x|---|---|
E x|---|---|

A7

e 0|---|---|---|
B |---|-2-|---|
G 0|---|---|---|
D |---|-1-|---|
A 0|---|---|---|
E x|---|---|---|

Those 3 guitar chords stand for the I, IV and V scale steps in the key of A. Quite a few blues songs have only those 3 chords. And that's great to understand if you want to play in different keys. Now you know you should play the D7 when someone holds up four fingers to you. This means "play the IV chord!"

So, the "magic" blues chord progression in this case looks most of the times like this:

|  A7  |  A7  |  A7 | A7  |
|  D7  |  D7  |  A7 | A7  |
|  E7  |  D7  |  A7 | E7  |

You can actually play the V chord in the 2nd measure for variations.
|  A7  |  D7  |  A7 | A7  |
|  D7  |  D7  |  A7 | A7  |
|  E7  |  D7  |  A7 | E7  |

You can customize the turnaround (the final two bars) in several ways. An example: | A7 D7 | A7 E7 |
Blues Chords - Playing The Cool 12 Bar Blues

But keep in mind you will discover almost endless variations. But once you get the hang of the 12 bar blues, you are well prepared to drill down a bit deeper down into the exciting blues world.

So there you are - the 12 bar blues chords. To help you to translate these chords to other keys, take a look at this table of chords in the keys A, E, D and G.

Key    (I)    (IV)    (V)

E    E7    A7    B7
A    A7    D7    E7
D    D7    G7    A7
G    G7    C7    D7

Good luck and happy bluesing!

About the Author

Discover a handy trick with blues in A7! Lots of tips and tricks for the guitar beginner at http://pellesguitarstuff.com

i just got guitar hero on tour for nintendo ds and my yellow and blue key doesn't work- is this fixable?

i just got guitar hero on tour for nintendo ds and my yellow key was starting to not work- easy fix though all i had to was press in the grip thing in the ds... then i noticed my blue started to do the same- now they don't seem to be fixing.... is this fixable or do i have to get a new one?

Yes you can get a fixable one for free if you mtell trhem what happened it has happened to me and they know malfunctions happen now and then.

Key Blue

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Blues Guitar Scales - Which Ones and Where to Use

When soloing over a blues progression it is important to know which blues guitar scales will work and sound good. Essentially a blues progression is based on a I, IV, V chord progression and the most common is the 12 bar blues. In blues, these chords tend to be the same type of chords, ie; major, minor or seventh chords. For example the most common 12 bar blues will be entirely seventh chords, a minor blues may contain only minor chords, and a major blues only major chords.

Now if we examine a typical blues composed of seventh chords we will find that there isn't one particular scale that contains all of the notes within these chords perfectly. The best match might be to play the mixolydian mode over each corresponding chord. This would mean mixolydian mode in the key of the I chord, played only over the I chord, mixolydian mode in the key of the IV chord, played only over the IV chord, mixolydian mode in the key of the V chord, played only over the V chord. This is one way to do it, your solo will certainly sound good over the chord changes and bright with the major 3rd.

A blues progression can also be constructed around entirely major or minor chords in the I, IV, V pattern. In this instance if it is a major progression, use the I major scale. If it is entirely minor chords use the natural minor scale, in the key of the I chord. These scales will fit perfectly over these progressions, because the chords contain the exact same notes as the corresponding scales.

Ok, so now we have discovered various blues guitar scales that will work over different blues progressions. Still a bit confused about all of the choices? Well I don't blame you! What I would like to do now is explain the most common blues guitar scale and when it is best suited. This scale is simply called the blues scale and it is the minor pentatonic scale with a flat 5 added to it - R, flat 3, 4, flat 5, 5 and flat 7. Now remember I mentioned that the most common blues progression is constructed entirely with seventh chords (R, 3, 5, flat7). This is the scale of choice to play over this type of progression. So you might be wondering why this scale has a flat 3 or minor 3rd in it - it doesn't make musical sense using a minor 3rd over a major 3rd! Well, put simply this is what gives the blues such a distinctive sound - the flat 5 also gives this "bluesy" sound.

So there you have it, to find the correct scale to play over a blues progression, typically a I, IV, V chord progression, firstly look at the I chord. If it is a seventh chord you could use the mixolydain mode as described previously, or just use the blues scale. Using the key of A - you would use the A blues scale. If it is a A major or A minor as the I chord you would use the A major and the A minor scale respectively. You could also just use the A blues scale over these two progressions as well, or a combination. You have plenty of options available, so have some fun and experiment with these various blues guitar scales.

 

About the Author

Nick Dillon is an experienced guitar player and enjoys exploring different sounds, genres and styles of music. His musical development and creativity relies much upon his pursuit to learn scales and master lead guitar techniques. To Learn Guitar Scales and master Lead Guitar quickly; click here now,

Learn Guitar Scales

 

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