12-Bar Blues Guitar Lesson

by admin on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | No Comments

Learning the blues is an important step in becoming a well-rounded guitarist. Since the fundamental blues is so plain, many guitarists will use it as a common ground – a means of playing with others who they’ve never played with before.

Think about this: a 50 year old man, and a 14 year old youngsters are trying to play guitar together. Chances are, they’re not going to know many of the same songs. This is when make out a uncomplicated blues will come in handy… one guitarist can play the chords, and the other can either sing, or play guitar solos over those chords. And then, they can trade off, to allow them both have a turn playing lead guitar.

The subsequent delivers instructions for learning a 12-bar blues in the key of A. There is a extremely simple intro and outro which have been included, which might take a little practice to play rapidly, but shouldn’t be too complicated. For the sake of simplicity, the following is presented in a fundamental, nearly “hokey” style. Study it as is, and we’ll diverge the style in upcoming lessons, to make the blues sound a little more attractive.

The Blues Intro:

This is a blues intro at it’s most basic.. just a few chords, and a few single notes, which will guide nicely into the major part of the song.

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The Outro:

This is a basic guitar part that will wrap up the song, the last time you play it. It’s not too long, and shouldn’t be tough to learn, as well.

The 12-Bar Blues:

This is the key part of the song. The song begins with a plain intro, then continues for 12 bars, then goes over (without repeating the intro). The last time the song is played, the last two blocks are replaced by the outro.

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The above gives the common breakdown of the twelve bar blues, and you’ll have to memorize it. Chances are, though, when you hear it played, it will sound logical, and shouldn’t be at all hard to remember. Although the above illustration shows us commonly which chords we will play in each bar, we are going to play a bit more difficult than just A5 for four bars, D5 for two bars, etc. To see precisely what you’ll play for each bar, study the following:

For each bar of A5, you’ll play the above tablature. Play the note on the second fret with your first finger, and the note on the fourth fret with your third finger.

For each bar of D5 and E5, you’ll play the above tablature. Play the note on the second fret with your first finger, and the note on the fourth fret with your third finger.

If you listen to the demo, you’ll notice there’s one small difference not included so far. It is this: the first time through the 12 bar blues, on the 12th bar, we play an unlike pattern on the E5 chord. This is often done at the end of each 12 bars, because it provides the listener and the band a firm way of knowing that we’re at the end of the song form, and we’re going back to the opening again. Here is how you play this very easy pattern:

Circle the 12 bar blues with no intro, and without the outro. Keep going over the 12 bar form, until you’ve memorized it.

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