The chords and scales you need to navigate the 12bar form, as well as some cool licks and turnarounds. Choosing the right blues chords can make your blues rhythm playing sound fresh and full of color. To help better understand the following example, i would recommend taking a read through the learning guitar scales and guitar chords posts. Click this link for to grab your free beginner pdf ebook with pentatonic blues scales, charts and diagrams. These blues guitar chords are used in thousands of blues songs, and, because they are moveable, you can use them in any key see the root note chart if you are not familiar with the note names. These chords, riffs and scales can be expanded in a. A common blues picking pattern in many states was to hit the open bass e string with the thumb and then mute it or choke off the note with the palm of the picking hand. As youll learn in this ebook, there are countless ways to form blues riffs and be creative with them. The chord in the second measure of this progression is also a surprise since its a iii7chord. Blues chord progressions 12, 8 and 16 bar examples. The blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th century. The term chord progression refers to a succession of tones or chords played in a particular order for a specified duration that harmonizes with the melody.
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. Mar 03, 2017 this blues form is a basic 12 bar blues, utilizing only three chords. Apr 01, 2020 blues music most times has a distinct sound and many recognize it by the wellknown 12bar blues progression. Just know that this is a 1 4 5 chord progression, and when youre in a major key, the 1 4 5 chords will all be major chords. In this video i will go over a 3 step process where you learn some basic jazz blues comping and turn them into tools that you can use to comp more freely and develop your own chord vocabulary. The 12bar blues is by far the most popular form for the blues. This is a collection of chords and progressions from the popular music of our day and of days gone by that you can repurpose for your own songwriting, riff developing and everyday guitar playing. Note for note tutorial on comping over a jazz blues in bb. F jazz blues comping jazz chords and concepts guitar. Here is how the formula looks like when applied to the different chords in a jazz blues chord progression in bb. Often these blues progressions will contain dominant chords such as 7th chords.
The first chord progression well learn is the 1 4 5, and weve actually already done this in the rhythm guitar quickstart series by working on our gcd chord progression. Sep 14, 20 this is true of any style of music, including the blues. Chords and chord progressions in blues guitar chord. If we would play over a minor bluesprogression with for instance the chords am7, dm7 and em7 we cant use the major pentatonic scale. For a comping lesson with all of these progressions, refer to the jazz guitar blues comping page w video and pdf. To play blues guitar, first you have to know the basics of guitar in general, which means identifying the parts of a guitar and being able to translate a chord diagram. Based on the i, iv and v chords of any key, the 12 bar blues is one of the most prominent chord progressions in modern music. In order to start kickin around ideas, its important you have a solid foundation in the basic 12bar blues progression. Guitar chord progressions use different combinations of guitar chords from the same key to create a song structure. Chord variations may also be added for harmonic diversity. Blues chords 8 blues guitar chords you must know imusic.
That way you only play the 3, 5, and 7 of each underlying chord. We will learn some common shapes for dominant 7th chords and apply them to the. I hope youve found these 5 jazz blues progressions helpful. These three chords are the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and the 5 chord. Most blues chord progressions are 12 bars long, although there are also 8, 14, 16, 24 or more bar blues changes. Then you can get familiar with common open and moveable chord forms and create your own blues guitar style. These chords are so called as they are rooted on the e and a strings respectively. 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. You need to know what are the chords in the progression, when are chords changing, and how much musical time, or measures, are spent on each chord. With time, youll be able to recognize these progressions as soon as someone plays the first couple of chords. The standard 12bar blues progression contains three chords. While songs in the key of e are very common, the guitar chords can be relatively difficult to play. Blues music most times has a distinct sound and many recognize it by the wellknown 12bar blues progression. The examples well look at are there to spark your creativity in your rhythm guitar playing.
Acoustic blues g major chord progressions for older beginners. Feb 11, 2020 variations of the jazz blues progression. Sep 14, 20 the classic tbone walker tune is a mustknow, and the progression in fig. Chord progression handbook ku scholarworks the university of. Theyre part of the language of music, the proverbial sentences to the words that we know as individual chords. Its probable that the first basic blues guitar chords were not even in standard tuning, given the first tentative attempts to make music were almost certainly tried on home made instruments with less than six strings. Each of these songs follows the 12bar blues pattern. Sep 01, 2016 in its most often imitated form, a blues chord progression can be built by using chords built on the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of any given major scale, producing a 12 bar blues progression in that key. This has to be one of the coolest blues progressions ever. Lets start off with the most common blues progression. The major scales notes lay out the root notes for the chords used in a major key. Olav torvunds chord progressions for guitar a very positive side effect is that it becomes easier to remember songs. The iivi come from the roman numerals used to notate chord functions within a key.
In this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and melody. If you are trying to learn to play jazz guitar and especially comping songs then you have probably. The fundamental chord progression is e, e7, a, a7 and b7. Few things scream guitar as loud as playing the blues. Its much more common for songs to group several chords together into guitar chord progressions to develop an interesting sound. The tonic chord of a blues is a dominant 7 chord, a fact that doesnt fit very well in traditional music theory. 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 musicians such as charlie patton often recorded blues tunes with only one or two chords. These are not lessons, but supplements to my lessons. Starting with some easy blues chords, we of course have e major, which is. Handy recorded by bessie smith this is a st louis blues written by w. Blues music is a relatively easy genre to absorb and the guitar is an excellent instrument in this style. Plus, it often adds diminished chords, for example a half. How to play blues rhythm guitar like the blues masters. Normally, the e chord progression starts with an e chord and i jam along trying techniques from famous blues men, and also surprising myself with completely new sounds. The concept behind these blues chords is fairly straightforward. This is basically the version of the main riff that i extrapolated from the chord structure. Feel free to come back as often as you need and reread the theory.
As with any chord, you can either let the strings ring, or damp them off with either hand. Oct 23, 2014 the dominant 7th chord is the most common used chord in blues. Learn how to apply blues scales to simple soloing, and how to play the 12 bar blues progression. 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. There are numerous permutations of the seventh chord you can apply to your blues playing. Check out my free video lessons on my free lessons page. The dominant 7th chord is the most common used chord in blues. It is the foundation of everything well be covering in the blues guitar quickstart series, so its important to get it down really well.
Check out this selection of free blues guitar lessons from chris. Jazz blues in bb guitar chords easy comping lesson. The i iv v blues progression is sometimes used by jazz musicians such as grant green on slow blues tunes, but hardly ever on medium fast tunes. Today i want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using fingerstyle technique. Well, these two bars could be played using the v chord in both bars instead instead of the v iv cadence. There are many different 12 bar blues forms though. F jazz blues comping jazz chords and concepts guitar lesson. But also the ninth and thirteenth chords are found regularly in blues music to give that extra flavor to a chord progression.
The 12 bar blues is a popular chord progression that, at its root, consists of i, iv, and. Olav torvunds guitar pages chord progressions book of the month january 2005 happy traum. The most notable difference between this progression and the basic 12bar blues occurs in measures seven and eight with the ascending and descending minor chords. Blues guitar minor blues lesson 1, part 1 olav torvunds guitar pages guitar lessons book of the month january 2005 happy traum. Marty schwartz teaches us how to play acoustic blues g major chord progressions. This progression is made up of 12 measures and is based on the iivv chords of a key. The focus of this lesson will be on the essential chord progressions youre expected to know as a blues rhythm guitarist. Trust me, it will make more sense after a few weeks. It was originated by african american in the deep south of america. Chords, patterns and fills for major and minor blues. This chord progression is based around the most important chords. So now anytime youre in front of a lead guitar player you are cool, confident and prepared because youve mastered these 3 juicy blues chord progressions.
Playing and improvising acoustic blues doug young acoustic blues workshop notes q 96 our goal is to be able to play a simple, but effective solo blues guitar piece, hopefully with some improvisation. Few chords, no matter how pretty they sound in isolation, are played that way in actual songs. Here starts a blues course for guitar that include several lessons. This is true of any style of music, including the blues. Dec 19, 2019 jazz blues guitar chord progression in bb. The 16 most important guitar chords approachable music. Marty schwartz teaches you some amazing blues chords that sound. The 10 best blues guitar chords chord progressions, 12 bar blues.
You can use either of these positions for the 1, 4 or 5 chords in a blues progression, but its most common to use the e form for the 1 chord and the a form for the 4 and 5 chords. Jazz blues chords how to make it sound like jazz leave a reply. Handy recorded by bessie smith this is a welcome offer. This blues form is a basic 12 bar blues, utilizing only three chords. If you know that please mister postman is based on a 50s cliche progression in a, this is much easier to remember than the individual chords.
In this first segment many of the core approaches to blues progressions will be laid out for you, so listen up. Playing the chords on a jazz blues is a great way to start your journey into jazz guitar. The key only gives you one small piece of the puzzle. While this is not the first time weve played these type of chords here in blues. Here, no chords strictly speaking, these are positions that you can apply for any tone. Well survey chord patterns that every aspiring blues guitarist needs to know, so if youre just getting started with the blues, this lesson should serve you well. Jun 25, 2011 so now anytime youre in front of a lead guitar player you are cool, confident and prepared because youve mastered these 3 juicy blues chord progressions. In the above example, the last 2 measures use a cadence referred to as a turnaround. Hook by blues traveler from the album four volker neumann posted his chord version of hook in 95 and i am posting a tab version of the song which includes a more detailed version of the main guitar riff. In the next lesson, were going to go over dominant 7th chords. Printable pdf ebook with tabs, analysis and audio files. Here are a couple of the best solutions for playing in e.
Plus, it often adds diminished chords, for example a half step up from the 4 chord position e. This will allow you great freedom by retaining only 8 blues chord forms. The most common chord progressions and how to tweak them. 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. Here is the blues chord progression in the key of c including the variations. Jazz blues chord substitutions guide jamie holroyd guitar.
In this video i will go over a 3 step process where you learn some basic jazz blues comping and turn them into tools that you can use to comp more freely and develop your own chord. Countless songsin many stylesare based on this structure. This video lesson contains 11 essential blues chord progressions and. The easiest blues on acoustic guitar easy blues for. The iivi progression the iivi progression is a signature progression in jazz. The 10 best blues guitar chords chord progressions, 12. Jazz often uses the staple blues chord progressions from above as the foundation and embellishes them by adding other chords from the diatonic scale, such as the 2 and 6 chords. Blues guitar chords comprehensive blues chord chart. It begins with an easy level that explains the basic and when goes into more advanced concepts and various areas like 12 bar blues progressions. Chord progressions the best free chord progression lessons on the web the recipe for music is part melody, lyric, rhythm, and harmony chord progressions. In its most often imitated form, a blues chord progression can be built by using chords built on the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees of any given major scale, producing a 12 bar blues progression in that key. Any chords that are played one after the other will make a chord progression. Printable pdf ebooks for guitarist support my work.
Take some time to memorize this chord progression, because this is important to know. And of course ive also made the jazz blues guitar chords tab, in pdf and as guitar pro 5. Jazz customarily adds the appropriate sevenths so, in jazz, the progression would be dm7g7cmaj7. The first thing youll need to remember is that for every chord progression, there is a root note, also known as the tonic. Similar to the scale, there are certain rules about building a progression, but more on that later. The 12bar means that the song or jam is divided into 12 parts or measures. Being able to play the blues is a great tool for guitar players and musicians in general to get together, jam, explore, evolve and have a great time. The chord progression is a sequence of two or more chords during the segment of the song. Introduction major progressions with primary chords only major progressions. Recall that you would play your open c major chord the i chord, in this case like so.
I have this lead sheet in concert bb, as this is a popular blues key in jazz. Useful for practice improvisation over backing chords and to test quickly new ideas. A key is a group of chords based the major scale or natural minor scale. In the basic blues progression we have the v chord in bar 9 moving to the iv chord in bar 10. Then you just keep repeating that same 12bar pattern over and over for the length of the song. Similar to the scale, there are certain rules about building a. Roman numerals indicate the quality of the chord i. The progression in bar 11 is not a ii v but the approach with leading chords is the same. Easy guitar lesson tabs or backing tracks via paypal.
Discover 8 forms of chords that will allow you to easily play and sound bluesy. In this example, we will add a turnaround progression in the second bar a turnaround is a series of chords that takes the listener from one chord cm7 in this case, and turning it around back to itself using a series of chords dm7b5g7alt in this case. Other common blues progressions include the 8 bar, 16bar, and 24bar blues. Bb jazz blues the basics when playing over a progression like the bb jazz blues you need to be aware of certain things and be able to play different things so that you have the material you need to really improvise following the harmony of the blues. Minor blues comping how to use drop2 chords leave a reply. Otis rush go here for books and videos on blues guitar go here for.
Of course, the typical chord progression would still follow the basic rules, but the shapes and way of playing would have been very different. Truefires director of education, jeff scheetz demonstrates all of the blues guitar chords in the free video guitar lesson, and also explains how. Youll usually hear v iv in most blues tunes, but v v will also work. In blues, we traditionally change the vim and iim chords into dominant chords. Learn everything we can about chord progressions then use them for something else. Its the chords that give the complete lead guitar scenario.