Beginner Blues Lesson – The Most Common Blues Guitar Chords
When it comes to playing the blues there are two things you need to know.
1.) What are the 12 Bar blues
2.) How do I play them
There are some keys which are more used then others. The key of A and E are used more then any other so the chords in these keys make up the most commonly played blues chords.
In this article I’m going to explain the basics of the 12 bar blues pattern, and then show you which chords you need to know in order to play them in the Key of A and E.
12 Bar Blues
The 12 bar blues is a pattern which repeats itself through out most blues songs and is made up of three different chords from a given key.
The three chords you need are the one chord, four chord and five chord. These are easy to find, simply refer to the major the scale for that particular key.
Here is the pattern you would play the chords in:
I – I – I – I – IV – IV – I – I – V – IV – I – V
In the above example I = one, IV = four and V = five.
Blues in the Key of A
First we need to determine what our one, four and five chords are. We can get these from looking at the A major scale.
A – B – C# – D – E – F# – G# – A
So our I chord is the A, our IV chord is the D and our V chord is the E.
By plugging these into the 12 bar blues pattern above you can play the 12 bar blues in the key of A.
12 Bar Blues in the Key of E
Just like in the key of A we can determine what chords we need by looking at the E major scale below.
E – F# – G# – A – B – C# – D
The I chord is the E, the IV chord is the A and the V chord is the B.
Most Common Chords Used
There is some overlap between the chords for A and E. Between the Key of A and the Key of E we have the E chord, D chord, A chord and the B Chord. These are the commonly used chords in a large percent of blues guitar patterns and songs.
To increase the blues appeal of these progressions you’ll want to learn a variation of each chord that isn’t the regular old open chord. An advanced way to play is by learning 7th chords for your blues progressions. While this is outside the scope of this post a blues guitar dvd would allow you to learn the basics to improve your blues skills.
When you learn blues guitar the process isn’t all about technical study, but more about learning the basics and making it your own.
September 28, 2010
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Posted by Jam Man
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