12-Bar Blues: What is it? - Page 2

by Jim Burger The 12-bar progression shown below is a more common form of the 12-bar blues than the one that was shown on page 1. Note that the strumming pattern sounds jazzier because it's automatically generated, but if you want to just strum straight quarter notes as on the previous page, that's probably the best way to go until you're comfortable with the progression and the chord changes. This progression improves on the previous one in 2 important ways:

1. We play 7th chords instead of major chords. Seventh chords have a much dirtier, more bluesy feel. If you want to play blues, you should learn all your seventh chords as well as you know your major chords.

2. We use the IV chord (A7) in the 2nd bar to make the progression a little more interesting.

So as you can see, we have slightly altered the progression to: I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-I/V

This is a more "modern" form of the blues which is more common now than what was shown on the previous page. The switch to the IV in the 2nd bar is known as a "Quick Change".

Also, try using different fingerings of the E and A 7th chords to see which you prefer: cho|0|2|0|1|0|0|E7|cho cho|0|2|0|1|3|0|E7|cho cho|x|0|2|0|2|0|A7|cho cho|x|0|2|2|2|3|A7|cho|cr|Also, this B7 fingering is easier than the one in the lesson chord chart: cho|x|2|1|2|0|2|B7|cho |cr|Once you get used to this, you've got your 12-bar E blues progression down! Now let's flip to the next page and add an A blues progression to our repertoire...