This is an excellent substitution for a tired old way of playing a shuffle rhythm. To start playing the blues, one of the most fundamental things youll need to know is what a 12bar blues progression actually is. Go to a b power chord for one measure and play the regular riff. Play the 12 bar blues for absolute super beginner guitar. Previous lesson once youve mastered the basic 12bar blues rhythm it is time to move onto using variations on the basic pattern, allowing you to improvise within the. It is very similar to the basic 12 bar blues, with the only difference being the quick change to the iv chord in the 2nd measure. A really important skill in playing blues is being able to play your 12 bar blues rhythm shuffle in any key. In this tutorial series we are going to learning how to play a 12 bar blues in a. Ians simple straightforward approach will have you playing the blues in no time. It is not only the basic structure for blues, but is also used extensively in rock, country, jazz and pop music. This lesson will use dominant 7th, dominant 9th, and dominant th chords. How to play 12 bar blues free online guitar video lesson.
That way if you do want to change things up, its easy because you all have that progression down. 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. Its a language with rich and varied dialectsan essential staple of a good vocabulary for any type of musician. Blues guitar is the foundation for many other styles of music, so getting your blues guitar chops up is vital for all guitar players. 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. So its quite common, but this doesnt mean it should be boring at all. Youll learn how to play a 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of e. In this lesson, ian introduces the 12bar blues and includes a few variations on the form.
There are so many variations of the blues but lets focus, for now, on one thing and you can diversify from there. It has the background pattern of three notes per beat. Since were in the key of e blues, the 1 chord is e, the 4 chord is a, and the 5 chord is a b. The 12bar blues progression is important because its a starting point when musicians get together. Creating, performing and participating in the arts music intermediate students will compose simple pieces that reflect a knowledge of melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, timbrel, and dynamic elements 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 music genres lesson, students discover details about the history of the musical genre and compositional techniques. Usually emphasizing the notes from the chord in order to be able to play a series of riffs where you could alternately play a chord progression. The twelve bar progression is the backbone of the blues and it is the basis off thousands of bluessongs. How to play a 12 bar blues on the bass guitar easy lesson.
Lets talk about rhythm patterns to use with these notes we are playing. The cool thing about single note blues riffs is that they are actually outlining a chord in some way. If you all know the standard 12bar blues progression, then everyone knows the starting point. The 12bar blues is or blues changes are one of the most popular chord progressions in blues music. Youll hear this sequence in s of songs, either in this pure form or with a couple of simple variations. In this lesson i play a 12 bar blues progression, and then explain how the progression is constructed. Learn how to play a 12 bar blues free guitar lesson. This set of worksheets is designed to enable students to play a 12 bar blues piece taken from a music activity book. Dont get to down playing all of this stuff if these free lessons help you, please donate to keep new ones coming daily. The 12 bar blues is a chord progression used in blues and rock music that lasts for 12 bars. 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. Its influence pops up in all styles of contemporary rhythm guitar, both in terms of its chord and form structure and in terms of its voicing. Start with your 1st finger in the 2nd fret fourth string.
This lesson will focus on the twelve bar blues and its most common variations, of which there are many. Now were back to the 4 chord, so make an a chord shape again and play the. 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. Lets take a look into some of the ways to put some variation into this twelve bar progression.
The standard 12bar blues progression contains three chords. This is a tab of the basic beginner 12 bar blues tab in e. Solo acoustic 12 bar blues in e with lead licks andy guitar. This twelve bar blues lesson plan is suitable for 9th 12th grade. It is important to have a set of basic blues licks to use for an intro to a basic 12 bar blues. We will be playing it in the key of g, so our chords are g, c and d. The turnaround occurs in the last two measures of a 12 bar progression and is often a critical element of the progression, so a solid understanding of the 12 bar format is needed. This page has two different 12bar blues tracks for each key, one with a funk groove and one with a shuffle feel one of these days ill also add a slow 128 track to this series. As chord progressions go, the twelve bar blues would have to be the most popular progression on planet earth, and can be found in some of the music industries most popular songs including mustang sally mack rice, wilson pickett, should i stay or should i go the clash, hound dog elvis. This hourglass shape fits neatly inside the pentatonic box so its a quick way to start to mixing it with your favorite pentatonic blues licks. This short blues guitar lesson will introduce you to the 12 bar blues form, the chords youll need to play, and the order youll be playing the chords in first off, lets have a look at the chords youll play with a 12 bar blues progression. Here are some of my favourite online music resources.
We can play the swing rhythm we have been using so far. In this lesson, we are going to look at the 12 bar blues, which is a popular chord progression used in countless songs. Click here to download a printable pdf of this lessons notation. How to play blues rhythm guitar like the blues masters. Now you have the basic 12 bar blues progression under your belt why don t you try having a go at improvising over the top. Quickstart for beginners putting your blues shuffle pattern together in an actual blues progression is the next step. The 12bar blues is by far the most popular form for the blues. Beginner 12 bar blues rhythms free guitar lessons by. Blues is not only an exciting, popular and guitar friendly style of music, but a very influential style as well. This time lets move the whole pattern over to the next set of strings.
I will be using the same chord forms found in the basic open position seventh chords lesson that we did here on the site. The blues is the cornerstone of many styles of music and everyone should know how to play a 12 bar blues bass line. It is a framework that virtually any music can work on top of. Les paul vs stratocaster which guitar do you like more. Below are some common dominant chords that will be used in this lesson. The blues scale is very similar to the minor pentatonic scale, but with an additional lowered 5th note lowered by half a stepsemitone, or blues note.
Also learn how to easily adjust this pattern to play over a complete 12 bar blues. In this lesson, we will look at the foundational 12bar blues form, and then explore the minor blues scale. Here you will put the riffs together into a 12 bar progression to complete this blues feel. Twelvebar blues lesson plan for 9th 12th grade lesson. The chord progression is easy for beginners because it only uses three chords, the root, the fourth, and the fifth. In the lesson, ill cover the chords, rhythm and techniques needed to pull off a great 12 bar blues tune. Solo acoustic 12 bar blues in e with lead licks the 12 bar blues is a standard chord progression used in thousands of songs in almost every genre. Next comes the 5 chord, and i kept this part of the 12bar blues riff the same as the basic version we learned in the last lesson.
Each of these songs follows the 12bar blues pattern. In the basic f blues, the 12 bars are only made up of 3 different chords. The gullah net website includes information about the evolution of blues music and how it influenced. Here you learn the holy grail of all blues progressions the 12bar blues. 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.
A 12bar blues is one of the most universally understood chord progressions amongst musicians, no matter the instrument or a players ability and preferred genre. Watch the 12 bar blues shuffle online guitar lesson by truefire from play blues guitar 1. This simple 5 note pattern derived from the mixolydian mode is a great way to get started using the scale quickly. 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. Learn blues guitar from ian argys with an intermediate guitar lesson for the 12bar blues. Learn a funky 12 bar blues rhythm guitar pattern in g. The intermediate 12bar blues riff blues guitar lessons. That means well play the exact same thing on the d and g strings. This 12 bar blues lesson for beginners is divided in two parts, this is part 1. Keeping all that in mind, well be in the key of e blues for the rest of this lesson series. The first sheet includes the chords, second a variety of bass lines, and finally a lyric writing sheet. This lesson is designed for the aspiring blues guitarist looking for that first step to learning the blues.
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. The 2nd most famous blues chord progression is the quick change, also called quickfour. These three chords are the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and the 5 chord. Now weve established a simple riff to use in a swing rhythm on the a and d strings. The vast majority of contemporary blues music is based on what is termed a 12bar format. We will also explore the minor blues scale and look at how its a perfect fit for the 12 bar blues chord progression. In this lesson, i show 10 intro licks with tabs in the style of the great bb king. The chord voicings used add a nice bit of sophistication to the harmony. Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full notefornote transcriptions of. This is probably the mostused riff in blues and rock music. Have students number their papers from one to twelve, representing the twelve measures of the 12bar blues. The 12 bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in all of music. If you dont know your open position sevenths, just do a search for that lesson and download the lesson pdf.