Blues Guitar Chords – 12 Bar Blues

Blues continues to evolve into whatever best suits its time period. Through the years, the main change that blues music has experienced is changes in chord progression.

Blues music began with 8–bar chords, progressed to 16–bar chords, then ventured on to 9–bar chords. Eventually, in the 1930’s, blues made a decision so to speak, and settled on 12–bar chords played in 12/8 time signature. The chord chart for blues guitar chords is as follows:

Chord progression is the order the chords are played in. On the blues chord chart, the Roman numerals represent the degrees of the progression. Since C is being used, it represents “I.” A simple way to think of the Roman numerals is this: A, B, C, D, E, F and G correspond directly to a number. If the root note is C (as below) then the next numerals would be II (D), III (E), IV (F, which is used) and so on. Using that chart, if you plug in C (the letters in place of the Roman numerals), this is what the chart would look like:

With 12–bar blues, lyrics are usually arranged in three lines. The first two lines of lyrics are the same with very minimal differences, and the third is unique. An example of 12–bar blues lyrics might be:

“Oh, I really hate the rain,
Oh, how I really hate the rain,
How come everyday can’t be plain?”

Now, let’s try adding 12–bar chords to the song. Remember, all you need is at least 3 different chords to alternate. We will use e7, a7 and b7 (E minor, A minor, and B7) for chords. If you follow the chart from the beginning of the article, then my song would become something like this:

Em – – – Am – – – Em – – – Em – – –
“Oh, I really hate the rain,
Am – – – Am – – – Em – – – Em – – –
Oh, how I really hate the rain,
B7 – – –Am – – –Em – – – Em – – –
How come everyday can’t be plain?”

You see? Writing a song in 12–bar chord progression is about as natural a process as using the restroom! It really does come naturally, and eventually, you can be writing all your music using this blues method.

Now, returning to chord progression. As was already mentioned, chord progression is chords played in a specific order. With 12–bar blues guitar chords, all you need for a song is at least 3 different chords that you alternate using the chord chart. For example, A, D, and E7 could be used.

As far as blues chords are concerned, they are always played as 7th chords, giving the music that “blues” sound. Any chord can become a blues chord; all you need to do is add a 7th key note to it. Creating blues chords is just that simple!