Basic 12-Bar Blues

Okay, although this is a lead guitar course, we need to understand the chord progression so we know how to solo over it.

Most blues songs have a 12 bar (ie. measure) song structure. This means the song lasts for 12 measures and then repeats. It just loops over and over. Here’s an example of E blues:

Here’s an mp3 of how it sounds.

Notice the last measure has an E which leads us back to the beginning chord which is A. The E chord is a fifth above the A chord which is a common device, because it is a strong movement.

With Dominant 7ths chords this would be:
The standard 12-bar blues progression would be:
E7 | A7 | E7 | E7
A7 | A7 | E7 | E7
B7 | A7 | E7 | B7

We use Roman Numeral notation so that we can transpose this to other keys. So the previous progression would be:
I | IV | I | I
IV | IV | I | I
V | IV | I | V

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