This lesson will focus on the twelve bar blues and it's most common variations, of which there are many. As chord progressions go, the twelve bar blues would have to be the most popular progression on planet Earth, and can be found in some of the music industries most popular songs including "Mustang Sally" (Mack Rice, Wilson Pickett), "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" (The Clash), "Hound Dog" (Elvis) and Led Zeppelin's "Rock & Roll" to name but a few. So let's get straight into it!

0. Contents
1. Twelve bar blues explained
2. Twelve bar blues variations
3. Summary
4. Related lessons & resources

Twelve Bar Blues Explained

If you wish to be a musician, learning the twelve bar blues is simply a must, and every musician will expect you to know at least one variation. First, let's get some basic concepts out of the way, the twelve bar blues is a set number of bars (12) and is the same for each variation, any chord progression with less or more that twelve bars is not a twelve bar blues. Another common trait is the types of chords, at the very least it must have the I, IV & V chords which may or may not be the quality of a dominant seventh. A minor twelve bar blues is the same I, IV & V chord concept except that the I and IV chords are minor, the V is usually a dominant seventh.

So now we know that basic concepts of the twelve bar blues, let's begin to learn the practical side by having a look at the tablature/notation below. The example twelve bar blues below can be played either using the riff, which is another standard blues/rock line, or you may simply play the chords, I would suggest learning the chord changes first and then attempt the riff. So looking at the chords, they are all dominant seventh as I personally like this take on the twelve bar blues, but you could play the A⁷ and D⁷ as plain major chords and leave the G⁷ as is (we will look at variations in the next part of this lesson). Following the chord changes below is pretty easy but if you are having trouble then listen to the audio example below the chart, and if you need to learn chord shapes then have a look at the dominant seventh chord voicings.

Moving onto the riff, use your first finger to fret the fourth string on the second fret, then your third finger on the fourth fret, then your fourth finger on the fifth fret. This riff is simply repeated on the third and fourth strings for the D⁷, then on the fifth and sixth strings for the E⁷. The final bar which is an E⁷, is whats called a turnaround (normally you would stay on the A⁷), turnarounds can be in the form of chords and/or riffs but in this lesson it's a simple eighth note rest followed by an eighth note rhythm on the E power chord, but you could play the full E⁷. Once you have the chord changes and the riff put to memory, it's time to move on to the next part of this lesson, variations of the twelve bar blues.

To download audio sample(s) for later listening, right click on the MP3 link, then from the context menu that appears select Save Target As (Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (Firefox).

Audio Sample Name	Flash	MP3
Example Twelve Bar Blues With Turnaround		example-twelve-bar-blues-with-turnaround.mp3

Twelve Bar Blues Variations

If you haven't guess already, the twelve bar blues comes in many different flavors, and below I will take you through the most common variations. Just remember, to be called a twelve bar blues all we really need is 12 bars, the I, IV & V chords and a general outline of chord changes, there are all sorts of things that can be put in between.

Basic Twelve Bar Blues: This is the standard twelve bar blues with only the V chord being dominant, you need to know these chord changes inside out.

Basic 12 Bar Blues
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	I	I	I	C	C	C	C
IV	IV	I	I	F	F	C	C
V7	IV	I	I	G7	F	C	C

 

Basic Twelve Bar Blues All Dominant: This variation has all of the chords as dominant, certainly intensifies the whole progression, particularly good for slow blues.

Basic 12 Bar Blues All Dominant
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I7	I7	I7	I7	C7	C7	C7	C7
IV7	IV7	I7	I7	F7	F7	C7	C7
V7	IV7	I7	I7	G7	F7	C7	C7

 

Basic 12 Bar Blues Selective Dominant: This is one of my personal favorites, just love the change to dominant on bars four and eight, another good one for slow blues.

Basic 12 Bar Blues Selective Dominant
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	IV	I	I7	C	F	C	C7
IV	IV7	I	I7	F	F7	C	C7
V7	IV	I	V7	G7	F	C	G7

 

Basic 12 Bar Blues With A Turnaround: Technically, the last bar should stay on the I chord and when it changes to a V chord it's called a turnaround, I usually play it as standard but thats because I mainly play blues, if you are playing rock or pop then leaving the last bar as the I chord would be best.

Basic 12 Bar Blues With A Turnaround
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	I	I	I	C	C	C	C
IV	IV	I	I	F	F	C	C
V7	IV	I	V7	G7	F	C	G7

 

Quick Change 12 Bar Blues: Also known as Quick to four or Quick four, the second bar is played using the IV chord, hence the name (IV or 4) and is particularly good for a fast blues shuffle.

Quick Change 12 Bar Blues
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	IV7	I	I	C	F7	C	C
IV	IV	I	I	F	F	C	C
V7	IV	I	V7	G7	F	C	G7

 

10^th Bar Dominant: This variation skips on the change to the IV chord in bar ten and stays on the V chord, good for most styles but especially rock and pop.

10th Bar Dominant
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	I	I	I	C	C	C	C
IV	IV	I	I	F	F	C	C
V7	V7	I	I	G7	G7	C	C

 

4^th Bar Dominant: This one changes on bar four to dominant (I⁷) and adds a nice flavor to the standard twelve bar blues.

4th Bar Dominant
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
I	I	I	I7	C	C	C	C7
IV	IV	I	I	F	F	C	C
V7	IV	I	I	G7	F	C	C

 

Minor 12 Bar Blues: If you a little more experienced I would strongly suggest putting this minor version of the twelve bar blues to memory. Lovely progression, very soulful changes with the addition of a VI⁷.

Minor 12 Bar Blues
Roman Numerals				In The Key Of C
Imi	Imi7	Imi7	I7	Cmi	Cmi7	Cmi7	C7
IVmi7	IVmi7	Imi7	Imi7	Fmi7	Fmi7	Cmi7	Cmi7
VI7	V7	Imi7	I7	A7	G7	Cmi7	C7

Summary

Well I hope you enjoyed learning the twelve bar blues and I hope you also tried some of the variations. Just remember, this is not an exhaustive list, there are many more variations out there but the ones I included in this lesson would be the most common.

Cheers & enjoy!

Related lessons & resources

• Guitar Lessons
• • Open chords part 1

• Music Theory
• • Harmonizing the major scale (triads)

• Reference
• • Dominant seventh chord

External Resources

• Twelve bar blues at Wikipedia.org