Blues Chords - Playing The Cool 12 Bar Blues
Playing the blues I found the Blues at a flea market! Over twenty years ago, a vinyl LP in orange-ish colors caught my eye.
I brought it home and from the first second of listening to "Broke Down Engine" I loved it.
The album was Dave Peabody & Co - Blues in Brussels, from 1977.
And blues really is something special.
With all the guitar riffs and licks as well as long guitar solos, this music has a special place in my heart.
The 12 bar blues chords But you have to start at the beginning if you want to learn how to play the blues.
And a good start is to learn the good old 12 bar blues chord progression.
The name comes from the number of bars in most blues songs.
If you learn and master the twelve bar progression, you will be able to jump right in with just about any blues jam session.
Ballads are all about minor chords.
But Blues in its turn is the king of dominant 7th chords.
And as far as I can tell the most common chords are set in the key of A major.
The blues chords to use in that 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|-|-|-| These three chords represent the I, IV and V scale steps in the key of A.
Many blues songs have only those three chords.
And that's useful to know when you want to play in other keys.
Now you know you should play a D7 if someone holds up four fingers to you.
It 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 play the V chord in the second measure for variations.
| A7 | D7 | A7 | A7 | | D7 | D7 | A7 | A7 | | E7 | D7 | A7 | E7 | You can alter the turnaround (the last two bars) in many ways.
One example: | A7 D7 | A7 E7 | But of course there are endless variations.
But once you get the hang of the 12 bar blues, you are ready to dig a little deeper down into the wonderful blues world.
So there you are - the 12 bar blues chords.
To help you translate the chords to other keys, 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!
I brought it home and from the first second of listening to "Broke Down Engine" I loved it.
The album was Dave Peabody & Co - Blues in Brussels, from 1977.
And blues really is something special.
With all the guitar riffs and licks as well as long guitar solos, this music has a special place in my heart.
The 12 bar blues chords But you have to start at the beginning if you want to learn how to play the blues.
And a good start is to learn the good old 12 bar blues chord progression.
The name comes from the number of bars in most blues songs.
If you learn and master the twelve bar progression, you will be able to jump right in with just about any blues jam session.
Ballads are all about minor chords.
But Blues in its turn is the king of dominant 7th chords.
And as far as I can tell the most common chords are set in the key of A major.
The blues chords to use in that 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|-|-|-| These three chords represent the I, IV and V scale steps in the key of A.
Many blues songs have only those three chords.
And that's useful to know when you want to play in other keys.
Now you know you should play a D7 if someone holds up four fingers to you.
It 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 play the V chord in the second measure for variations.
| A7 | D7 | A7 | A7 | | D7 | D7 | A7 | A7 | | E7 | D7 | A7 | E7 | You can alter the turnaround (the last two bars) in many ways.
One example: | A7 D7 | A7 E7 | But of course there are endless variations.
But once you get the hang of the 12 bar blues, you are ready to dig a little deeper down into the wonderful blues world.
So there you are - the 12 bar blues chords.
To help you translate the chords to other keys, 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!