Green Belt: Level 4 Guitar Lessons

Major 12-Bar Blues

12-bar blues refers to the 12-measure structure that defines a verse in a blues tune. The chord progressions played over the top are very familiar and predictable, which even an alien could identify with in a few minutes. What's so great about this predictability, is that it allows the player and the listener to breathe variety into the tune through licks, chord coloring and voicing, rhythmic variations and other musical dynamics, such as volume and tone. Think of the structure of the blues as the circular Yin, and all the angular patterns played atop the circular chord progressions as Yang.

The other really great thing about the blues is that it's all about playing with feeling. Once you learn the basic framework, you can play for days on end, and you never have to read music!.

Major Blues Chord Progressions

The Roman numerals at the top of the chapter will be explained in more depth at the blue belt level, but you should know that these represent chords in the harmonic scale. This is what the 12-bar blues chord progressions looks like in the most common major keys for blues:

* The last measure uses a V chord, which is also referred to as the "turnaround" chord, which points the audience in a circle back to the I chord, or the beginning of the progression. This repeats for every verse in the song, and when the song is over, the final chord is a I chord, or back to the tonic.

Quick-Change 12-Bar Blues

"Quick-change" is a variation to the 12-bar blues that has the same basic structure as 12-bar blues, except in the second measure the IV chord is substituted for the I chord.

Exercises:

Play the chord progressions listed in the tables above from left to right. Play them using various rhythm patterns. Play them in open and moveable chord positions you learned in the earlier belt level lessons.

Make sure you always practice the blues with feeling. Focus on the rhythm, and clean chord changes. If you are playing the blues correctly, there should always be a little sweat on your palms and on your forehead.