12 bar blues in g chords

Learn typical chords for blues in keys such as e, a and c. Also 12 bar blues examples with chord progressions. Once you can play a closed using barre chords 12 bar. It lends itself very well to a swinging style blues such as key to the highway by big bill broonzy, or living with the blues by brownie mcghee. 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. Of all the chord structures that a harmonica player should be familiar with, this is probably the most essential.

The easiest blues on acoustic guitar easy blues for. A v3 x 3 a7 x 1 d7v4 x 2 av3 x 2 ev3 x 1 dv3 x 1 av3 x 1 ev3 x 1 with the chords in the blues chord chart above, you can pretty much interchange any chord and apply it to a particular 12bar blues pattern. 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. The standard 12bar blues progression has three chords in it the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and then the 5 chord. 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. In the key of c the chords would be c major f major and g major. Here you will learn many 12 bar blues progressions, from the most basic ones to more complex. For example, if you want to know what the chords are for playing in g, you take the 4th and 5th notes which are c and d. Mastery of the blues and rhythm changes are critical elements for building a jazz repertoire. In the past ive introduced the 12 bar jazz blues progression, which is a more musically sophisticated cousin of the simpler onefourfive blues chord changes that most people are familiar with and serves as a more harmonically ambitious framework that jazz musicians almost universally prefer to solo over and use as a vehicle for improvising rich, colorful melodies that allude to. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the i, iv, and v chords of a key. But if you play only 9th chords over a slow 12 bar progression it may sound boring. Hope you have a nice jam with me and thanks again for supporting martymusic the gear i use. This means that if you want to know what the 3 chords are of a 12 bar blues chord progression, you only need to locate the 4th and 5th notes of the key.

The most fundamental way to play chords in the style in blues is to adopt a 12 bar structure. Lets use the same structure or progression as its called when it comes to chords and just replace the chords. The chord grid below shows the chords for each bar of the 12 bar blues progression in g major. This is the starting place for jamming the blues with. 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. Although blues music has evolved over time, a fundamental chord progression called the 12 bar blues still lives on. Now well check out how to add the dominant 7 note to the next group of open chords. Some 12bar blues just use one background chord that plays behind the entire tune.

Then well go d7 for 1 bar, c7 for 1 bar and finally g7 for 1 bar to d7 for 1 bar. When looking at the more basic 12 bar blues chord sequences i. Minor key blues, which should also be learned, has a minor i and iv, and a dominant v7 as in major key blues. One of the instruments will play a riff that brings it back to the top. The turnaround is usually the last 2 bars of a 12 bar blues. Blues progressions are almost exclusively played in 44 time and dominated by the root i chord, with the iv and v chords providing that extra bit of. The basic 12 bar blues progression can be played in any key and will use the i, iv, and v chords from that key. Dominant seventh blues chords blues guitar lessons. The 12bar blues chords the standard 12bar blues is a iivv chord progression most typically divided into three fourbar segments. In the final bar, v7 is usually used before a repeating a chorusthis called a turnaround and i is used for the last chorus. In this lesson you will learn of the main foundations to the blues, the standard 12 bar blues progression. Bear in mind that there are no set rules on which chords you can play, but there are staple chords that have defined the blues sound for over century. Today i want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using fingerstyle technique in this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and melody.

It is very common in blues music to add 7ths to the major chords giving that classic blues sound. 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. Blues guitar chords comprehensive blues chord chart. It was originated by african american in the deep south of america. As i mentioned above, you can use the 12 bar blues progression to play blues in any key. If youve studied chords any, you might know a little about keys. Example 1 shows the standard chord changes for a 12 bar blues in the key of f. The blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th century. Blues music paved the way for many other genres of music we know and love. To learn it you can break down the grid into three sections of four bars each. Below is a list of the i, iv, v chords of the 12 bar blues chord progression in all 12 keys. Youll hear this sequence in s of songs, either in this pure form or with a couple of simple variations.

The basic structure of the 12 bar blues is 3 lines of 4 bars each. The name 12 bar blues comes from the number of measures or bars in most blues songs twelve. A 12 bar blues structure often consist of only three chords i, iv and v. 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. A really important skill in playing blues is being able to play your 12 bar blues rhythm shuffle in any key. Well first cover the chords that make up this progression e7, a7, b7. Easy blues chord progression other ways to play the b7 chord another variation used in common blues chord progressions is the a7 shape on the 4th fret. The quick four is a variation on the 12 bar blues with a different second bar.

Learn how to play a 12 bar blues free guitar lesson. The quick four is a variation on the 12bar blues with a different second bar. I talked about a 12 bar blues progression in the key of a where a is the i chord, d is the iv, and e is the v, and also the keys of g g, c, d and d d, g, a. However, most blues tunes have a chord progression, or sequence of chords. Below is an animation of the chords used in the 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of c. Looking at the progression, youll see that you play the g chord for four bars, the c chord for the next two, back to the g chord for two, then one bar each of the d, c and g.

For the blues in any other key, wed do the exact same thing. Lets take a look at the chord progression for the 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of c. Each part of the blues verse starts with a different chord, and that helps you know where you are in the verse. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In this banjo lesson well take a look at a blues in g using the blues scale, major blues scale and arpeggios for the chords in the 12 bar blues, played in g, plus well also learn a number of licks to suit these chords. The last seventh chord shape we need to learn to play through our blues progression is a b dominant seventh chord, and this is actually a bar chord.

Lets start by looking at a simple 12 bar blues in a. G b em he was an american poet laureate, c d one of my teachers forgot to tell me about him in school, g b em probably cause his poems got bad words in them. In the minor variation of the 12 bar blues, minor 7th chords are substituted for the i7 and iv7 chords. The i chord is followed by the iv chord in the second bar, then back to the i in the third. It is not only the basic structure for blues, but is also used extensively in rock, country, jazz and pop music. Practice each section separately until you master it, then put them together to play the whole 12 bar blues. Should you need to know how to read tabs click here read me all tabs are standard tuning. Easy blues guitar chords in key of g not playing guitar. In the first four bars, the chords are almost identical to a traditional blues. Colorful jazzblues chord substitutions guitar world. Well do 4 bars of g7, then 2 bars of c7 and back to 2 bars of g7. We could replace the 12 bar blues chords with jazz chords or compose rock riffs. One place where it really works is in a 12 bar blues. The twelve bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music.

The 12 bar blues in the key of g will require that you learn the following 7th chords. If you learn the shape, you can move it all over the fretboard to attain 7th chords in all pitches. Easy blues on acoustic guitar for beginners combine chords and melody. Blues progressions are almost exclusively played in 44 time and dominated by the root i chord, with the iv and v chords providing that extra bit of flavor to keep things interesting. Heres the basic 12 bar blues chicago blues in the key of a. Blues progressions in major and minor guitar chord. Blues in c would plug in the chords c, f, and g into the 12bar blues structure. Play 12 bar blues chords using simple video lessons. A simple trick that lets you play 12 bar blues in any key. If you learn the shape, you can move it all over the fretboard to attain 7th chords. 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. We have an official 12 bar blues tab made by ug professional guitarists. This lesson will use dominant 7th, dominant 9th, and dominant th chords. 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.

Examples of chords to use and other instructions are presented below. As part of this lesson well dive into some ideas to help you take your licks to the next level. The final bars of the 12 bar form constitute the turnaround, named as such because it sends you back to the beginning of the form for another chorus. Below are some common dominant chords that will be used in this lesson. G g g g c c g g d c g most of that should make sense to you. Blues if often played with a 12 bar structure, a socalled 12 bar blues. An even less commonly used form, but still good to know about. As in a traditional blues progression, both the i and iv chords are dominant in quality. Youll learn how to play a 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of e. To finish, remove your third finger from the g string. As most electric slow blues tunes it uses 9th chords instead of 7th chords the first example of a common chord substitution. This is probably the mostused riff in blues and rock music.

In example 1 below, a 12 bar blues progression is shown in the key of g, using open position dominant 7th chords, the type of chord typically associated with a bluesy sound. Blues chord progressions 12, 8 and 16 bar examples. Looking at various variations to the regular 12 bar blues shuffle is the first step to send you down that path. Chorus g b em i got, twelve bar blues, c d g too many bars to choose.