12 Bar Blues

First you need the open (GM) pentatonic (P) plus the blues notes(*) to add color, tension, what have you.

       I   II III  IV  V   VI VII
E-P-||-*-|---|-P-|---|-P-|-*-|-P-|
A-P-||-*-|-P-|---|---|-P-|---|---|
D-P-||---|-P-|-*-|---|-P-|---|---|
G-P-||---|-P-|-*-|-P-|---|---|---|

note that VII = Open 1 course above.
* = Bb, F here

Practice with and without * and you can lay down notes inside most anything in the key of GM. * + P works great with following, the 12 bar blues.

         G7  (I)           C7   (IV)          G7    (I)         G7   (I)  
E---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
       ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .

         C7  (IV)          C7   (IV)          G7     (I)        G7   (I)
E---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
       ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .

         D7  (V)         D7 or C7 (V, IV)     G7  (I)         D7    (V)
E---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
A---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
G---||-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
       ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .   ^ . : . : . : .

if you are ending, the last V, the turnaround chord, is no longer needed, so findish with some sort of I. You can see this goes to any key easily, just make all major chords 7-chords. In this tuning, here are the open chords.

G7 : 0021      C7 : 0210     D7 : 2032

Comments

[bean-o]

this makes no sense buddy.you gotta be hebrew to read that..

[jetman_james]

there is nothing here! what am i looking at?!? this guy is crazy for thinking that this makes sense. lost!

[stpd1]

under normal circumstances, i would be proud to be the first to compliment your lesson, but it sucked way too bad

[bmw6511]

horrible don't understand a damn thing..........it sucked pretty bad

[adm]

can you even play a 12bar blues? oh dear lord does th sh*t ever end?

[noelswan]

i cannot even understand this S#*!, i have never seen anything that bad

[blu9999]

how did UG accept this?

[blu9999]

now i get it, the UG Team wrote it.

[fender_strat_21]

I LOVED THE LESSON!

spam deleted

[les_player89]

hey wouldnt it be that you have to be jewish to read that. cuz its hebrew they read correct?

[rockerdude yay]

this is absolute crap.

and don't *** with the Jewish people

[sito]

Sorry. It doesn't make much sense to me. I have seen other 12 bar blues lessons that make much more sense. At least you tried! Maybe you can try again.
Peace.

[lil_angus_young]

What the????

[geeks_kick]

Wow, that was stunning





ly bad

[Midori: DDR God]

???

[The Uproar]

i was tryin too learn the 12 bar blues and ,well.....you've just confused me!!!

[Reggy]

AT least the chords are right....:O

[hanoverfist86]

whats to understand? he gives you the tuning for an open blues scale, maps out the scale, and gives you a progression to play it over. its straight to the point and leaves it up to you to play as you like.

[98789]

errr..... what am i looking at cus i really do not know

[iggy pop]

didn't make much sense to a dumbass like me

[MoshkI]

issa good article..i think it should be put in a more advance section...for advance players..i think... anyway..UG team is too lazy to tab it out..see the chords? lick them..then youll have your 12bar blues!!!

[dickie_kak]

what a waste of everyones time.

[zepway]

ur not dumb lol .. the UG team cant even be arsed to do some decent ****ing lessons for their own collumn.

iggy pop wrote:

didn't make much sense to a dumbass like me

[The Final Cut]

hmmm...yup


...nope...

uhh...wait a sec.....

still nope...

yeah i dont get this

[theatticinmyhed]

dont understand one word of it

[firebreath07]

If you read this carefully it makes perfect sense... you just need a small amount of background in theory.

But isn't G7 just 1st fret on the high e string and strum D string down?

[leafy]

gwhaaaaa?

[linkinwayne]

Worst UG article ever. By a mile.

[Private_Kickass]

...huh?

[MissouriTiger]

Geez, if I had a music theory background, I wouldn't be looking for 12-bar blues lessons on the internet. Btw, Justin Sandercoe has an excellent 12-bar blues lesson on youtube. Peace. -GN

[asfastasdark]

Uhm... Herman Lee, can you translate this for me?

[papag421]

Duh, huh, have you ever even heard the blues, whats with the 7ths?