Blues Progressions
There are many blues progressions out there but the grand daddy of them all is the 12 bar blues progression. The 12 bar blues progression is usually in 4/4 time but you will see it in other time signatures too. The chords used in the 12 bar blues are usually the 1 4 and 5 chord of whatever key you are in. Let’s work in the key of E for this lesson.
If you wanted to make a standard 12 bar blues progression in the key of E blues you would use the 1 4 and 5 chords. In the key of E those chords would be E A and B. For the first four measures you would play a 1 or E chord. The next two bars are the 4 or A chord. Go back to the E chord for two bars. Next, play one bar of the 5 or B chord, one bar of A, one bar of E and end with one bar of B. Check out the following image for a simple chord chart of the 12 bar blues in E.
Other common blues chord progressions include the 8 bar blues, 16 bar blues, minor blues, quick-change blues and more. Check out the this video lesson about the 12 bar blues progression. If you are looking for more blues guitar lessons there are tons of resources out there. If you are more of a beginner guitar player there are lots of places out there for fun beginner guitar lessons.
