Essential 12 Bar Blues in E with Beginner Blues Strumming. This lesson is from the Andy Guitar Beginner Guitar Course.
The 12 Bar Blues is a very common musical form, using a distinctive chord progression we have all definitely heard before as it spans many genres of music.
We are learning it in the Key of E here, as we know all the chords including the 7th versions now too, so we just need to understand the chord changes. When it all comes together for you, we can add cool tricks to make sound even more like a classic blues!
The chords for a 12 Bar Blues in E are:
E for 4 bars (E7 for last bar to signal change)
A7 for 2 bars
E for 2 bars
Then, the last 4 bars are quicker changes just lasting 1 bar each chord
B7 for 1 bar
A7 for 1 bar
The final two bars are what we call the 'Blues Turnaround' going back to the start
E7 for 1 bar to B7 to finish it off
Now we need to equip ourselves with 2 other essential components:
A Blues Shuffle rhythm
Palm muting
Blues Shuffle rhythm
Play Through 1 with shuffle
Palm muting
Play Through 2 with palm muting
