webhank

apparently it’s now time to get rhythmic in my musical journey – 12 Bar blues is one of the most popular “formulas” for chord progression in modern music.  At its most basic it is simply the I, IV and V chords in a key (1, 4, 5).  For example, in the key of G we have the following notes.

So to play 12 Bar Blues in G, we’ll play G, C, D. The basic pattern would be

Or in our case of playing in the key of G, the notes would be.

I am a computer geek by trade, so I like patterns – they make my brain happy so here’s something else that’s nice about 12 Bar Blues on the guitar.  If you play it in basic barre chords the example above would look like this (in it’s most basic, stripped down format).

|-----------|
|-----------|
|-----------|
|-----------|
|--5-5-5-5--|
|--3-3-3-3--|

|-----------|
|-----------|
|-----------|
|--5-5------|
|--3-3-5-5--|
|------3-3--|

|-----------|
|-----------|
|--7-----7--|
|--5-5---5--|
|----3-5----|
|------3----|

Why is that cool?  Because it’s a movable format.  Find any note on the low E string (nice diagram here) and you can use that as your starting note in the key or your I note.  Keep your finger position the same but move the root note down a string to the A string for the IV note.  Then move your hand position up 2 frets and you’ll find your V note.  Pretty cool, very simple.