Progressing  with the 12 Bar Blues

• Learn the Blues Scale in C!

• To follow this lesson it is probably best if you can already get around the chords to the basic 12 Bar Blues pattern in C. That lesson is here....

• This lesson is also easier if you have the Lesson Sheet in front of you. Download it here and print it out.

• There are many ways to play the 12 bar blues and many ways to make them more advanced, interesting and challenging.

• We are going to progress by;

  • changing the chord shapes

  • learning to add extra notes and 'shuffle'

  • connecting the chords by adding 'runs'

First, the basic pattern in the key of C;

     C 2  3  4 C 2  3  4  C      C7

     F     F       C      C

    G7   F       C      C    

First Progression: Change The Chord Shapes

• Instead of using the basic chords we are going to change all of them to the 'seventh' versions...

The pattern now looks like this;

     C7 2  3  4 C7 2  3  4   C7      C7

     F7     F7       C7      C7

     G7    F7       C7      C7    

Second Progression: The 'Shuffle'

• We are going to replace each chord shape with a chord shape and an extra note to play or 'shuffle' to

	Instead of C we are now going to use a C5 chord, played with the first finger covering both the A and the E strings. This is sometimes called a 'half-barre.' Using an up and down strumming pattern we are going to alternate between C5 and C5 with the added yellow note. In Tab notation it would look like this... A --3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3-- E --3--3--5--5--3--3--5--5--3--3--5--5-- C --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-- G --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--
	Press play to listen to what it will sound like...
	When you play it make the down stroke longer than the up stroke On the recording this is the number - "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and..." The shorter 'and' gives it the 'shuffle' blues feel we are after!

Instead of the chord of F we are now going to use a F chord with an added 3rd finger note ('D') Using the same up and down strumming shuffle pattern as above we are going to add in the yellow note. In Tab Notation it would look like this... A --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-- E --1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1-- C --0--0--2--2--0--0--2--2--0--0--2--2-- G --2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--

Press play to listen to what it will sound like...

Instead of the G chord we are now going to use a G chord with an added 4th finger note ('C') Using the same up and down strumming shuffle pattern as above we are going to add in the yellow note. In Tab notation it wuold look like this... A --2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2-- E --3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3-- C --2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4-- G --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--

Press play to listen to what it will sound like...

Third Progression: Adding Walks or Runs to connect chords

• These are tricky! So take your timelearning them!

• First lets look at connecting the initial chord of C/ C7 to the second chord, of F.

• We are going to start this run in the last bar of the C count so...

   C 2  3  4 C 2  3  4 C 2  3  4 RUN

In Tab notation the run looks like this... A --3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--|- E --3--3--2--2--1--1--0--0--|- C --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|- G --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|-	The run starts from this C5 shape and although more challenging to finger like this it helps with the run down.
Press play to hear what the run will sound like...

The next walk is from the F chord back to the C chord...

   F2  3  4  RUN   C 2  3  4   C 2  3  4

In Tab notation this run will look like this... A --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|- A --1--1--1--1--1--1--1--1--|- A --0--0--2--2--3--3--4--4--|- A --2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2--|-
Press play to hear what that will sound like...

The next run is the final finish to the whole 12 bar and is played over two bars or the final two chords...

G7    F7       RUN     RUN     

The Tab Notation will look like this... A --3--3--3--3--3--3--3--3--|--3-3-3--3----------|---1------------|- E --3--3--2--2--1--1--0--0--|--0-0-0--0----------|---0------------|- C --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|--3-2-1--0----------|---0------------|- G --0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|--0-0-0--0----------|---0------------|-

Press play to hear what it will sound like...

So putting all of the shuffle and the runs together it looks a little like this... 

CSHUFFLE CSHUFFLE CSHUFFLE C5RUN

FSHUFFLE  FRUN   CSHUFFLE  CSHUFFLE

G SHUFFLE FSHUFFLE C5run1 C5run2

Press play to hear what it will sound like...

Final Challenge!

 For your final progression you could try playing all the variations on the 12 bar blues to the original backing track.

So!

• Original Basic Chords

• Seventh Chords

• Shuffle pattern

• Shuffle pattern with  runs

• FREE CHOICE!

The Blues Scale in C

This is very useful for improvising along to the above chord sequence of the 12 bar blues

Learn the scale then use it to make up your own order, or improvise a solo part along with the chords.

A ---------------------------1----3--|--

E ------------1----2----3------------|--

C --0----3---------------------------|--

G -----------------------------------|--