Blues Chord Progressions Pdf

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Blues music is a relatively easy genre to absorb and the guitar is an excellent instrument in this style.

Blues course

Here starts a blues course for guitar that include several lessons. It begins with an easy level that explains the basic and when goes into more advanced concepts and various areas like 12 bar blues progressions.
Lessons:

  1. A turnaround bar is a bar that substitutes a V chord for a I chord in the last bar of the progression — bar 12 in a 12-bar blues. A true full turnaround is, at minimum, a two-bar phrase that goes from the I chord to the V chord. There are many variations to the turnaround; the following figure shows you only one.
  2. We’ll survey chord patterns that every aspiring blues guitarist needs to know, so if you’re just getting started with the blues, this lesson should serve you well. Let’s start off with the most common blues progression: the 12-bar form. Countless songs—in many styles—are based on this structure. 1 shows its basic.

The short and concentrated guide

The must-have chords in blues

The dominant 7th chord is the most common used chord in blues. But also the ninth and thirteenth chords are found regularly in blues music to give that extra flavor to a chord progression. They add a little bit of jazz flavor. Choosing the right blues chords can make your blues rhythm playing sound fresh and full of color. This PDF method contains 11 guitar lessons with chord studies, tabs, standard notation, analysis & audio files about the main blues progressions used in jazz music. 25 Altered Jazz Guitar Lines This PDF eBook method contains 25 altered jazz guitar licks with tabs, patterns, scale charts and audio files to master, apply and develop the altered.

The first chords to learn if you want to get a bluesy guitar sound are those that give another color to the sound than the usual major chords and are known as Dominant 7th chords.

E7

A7

B7

Common blues progression

The standard type blues progression is extremely common and are, with some slight variations, present in other styles as well. When you play it, the chance is big what it sounds familiar to you ..


E7 – A7 – E7 – B7 – A7 – E7


Hopefully you get some bluesy sound from it. In blues, things repeat them self a lot. The progression above is short and instead for ending at the last E7 you could add B7 as a turnaround and when begin with the same progression all over again.
As mentioned, we are using so-called dominant chords here, which are common in blues. Try the same chord sequence without any seventh notes and you will lose the blues sound.

Blues rhythm (how create a blues feeling with the strumming)

Strumming in a steady rhythm will not bring that blues feeling. A fundamental thing is on which beats to put extra emphasize. Then playing blues, count 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 .. and start with one downstroke on every count. Together with that try to emphasize (i.e. play a little harder) the first and third in every four strokes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 ..
The rhythm is not always the same, slow blues, for example, are often played in 12/8 time.

Besides the chords

Chords aren't everything, you probably want to put in some licks here and there between your chords and also doing some embellishment. And if some other is playing the rhythm guitar, you could jam over it by using some blues pentatonic scales (this site doesn’t focus on scales, but you won't have any problem finding information about it on the web, a recommended resource is GuitarScale.org).

Blues shuffle

Even if you are unsure about what a blues shuffle is, you have almost certainly heard it. A blues shuffle is something you probably want to be able to play, it is one of the most distinguish things that could be heard off when a guitar is near.
A basic blues shuffle could look like this in a tablature:
Try it and you will hopefully recognize a familiar sound. A shuffle is technically played in 12/8 time but is often notated in 4/4 time with triplet feel.

Blues guitarists

Listen to blues music will be a great benefit for you in the quest for the real blues feeling. Among the classic blues guitarists are names like the following:

  • Robert Johnson
  • Lead Belly
  • Muddy Waters
  • Son House
  • Howlin' Wolf
  • John Lee Hooker
  • T-Bone Walker
  • Elmore James
  • BB King
  • Earl Hooker

The 'next generations' of blues guitarists incorporated such names as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Tips for more in-depth readings:
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Read also Give your chords more blues feeling.

Jam tracks

Here are some jam tracks to practice with. The following jam tracks are for blues and involves only drums.

Jam track 1
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Jam track 2
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Jam track 3
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<< See all styles

This is the fourth part in my ‘Breaking Down the Blues’ series. In the previous parts, I covered the 12 bar blues progression, the extended box pattern of the blues scale, and I demonstrated some blues licks. Here are links to the previous parts:

In part four, I’ll talk about the second most common chord progression in the blues: the minor blues progression. In comparison with the progression I had covered in part one (which I’ll now refer to as the major blues progression), the minor blues progression has a darker, smoother sound to it.

There are a number of similarities between the minor blues progression and the major blues progression:

  • They both are 12 bars long.
  • Both feature the I, IV and V chords (although the numerals are lower case in the minor blues progression).
  • The blues scale can be used to solo over both progressions.

There are also a few differences, which I’ll talk about below. I’ll also demonstrate how to put the progression together in a couple different keys, and go over some blues tunes that use this progression.

Form 1

There are actually quite a few variations of the minor blues progression out there. Most of these variations are slight deviations from two common forms of the progression, both of which I’ll cover in this lesson. I’ll start by going over the form that is the most similar to the major blues progression. This form of the minor blues progression uses 4 chords: the i chord, the iv chord, the v chord, and the V chord.

The i, iv, and v chords will all be minor 7th chords, and are therefore indicated by lower case roman numerals. The V chord will be a dominant 7th chord, which is the same type of chord used for all the chords in the major blues progression. The key of the the chord progression will determine exactly which chords will be used.

I’ll start by showing the progression in the key of A minor:

In the key of A minor, the A minor 7 chord (Am7) is the i chord. The D minor 7 chord (Dm7) is the iv chord, Em7 is v, and E7 is V. As you can see, from a roman numeral standpoint the progression is the same as the major blues progression. Here’s a chart showing this progression in roman numerals instead of chords:

You can go about figuring out the chords for the key you are playing in using the same method that I outlined in my article about the major blues progression. To do so, you’ll just need to know the notes on the 6th and 5th strings of the guitar, and a few movable chord shapes. In case you don’t know the notes on the 6th and 5th strings, here’s a diagram showing them:

To locate the i, iv and v/V chords in any key, start by finding the root note of the i chord on the 6th string. The root note of iv will then be on the same fret but on the 5th string, and the root of v and V will be two frets higher than iv. Here’s a diagram of what I describe, with the root notes of i, iv and v/V in the key of A minor:

Then, just build the chords you need off those root notes using some movable chord shapes. There are many ways you could do these chords, but here are some movable chords I like to use in this type of situation:

You just need to position these chords so that their root notes (indicated by the circle with an R in it) are on the notes I diagrammed above. To do these chords specifically as Am7, Dm7, Em7 and E7, they would be like this:

For an example of doing this in another key, lets put together the progression in G minor. First, let’s find the root notes of our chords:

Kontakt 4 crack mac download. Our root notes are G for I, C for iv, and D for v/V. So, our chords would be Gm7, Cm7, Dm7, and D7. Here’s how you could do them using the movable chord shapes:

Let’s plug them in to our 12 bar progression:

And there you have it, the G minor blues progression.

Form 2

Now let’s go over another form of the minor blues progression. This one is equally, if not more, common than form 1 of the progression. It’s very similar to form 1 in that it will still feature the i, iv and V chords. It will also feature the VI chord, and the 12 bar progression will be slightly different than form 1. First, let’s look at the roman numerals of the 12 bar progression:

The progression is exactly the same as form 1 except for the 9th and 10th bars, where we now have the VI chord going to V. Locating the VI chord is easy: its root note will just be a half step above V. Here’s a diagram showing where it would be if we were in the key of A minor:

The VI chord will be a dominant 7th chord, just like V. If we are in the key of A minor, the VI chord would be an F7, making all our chords for the progression Am7 (i), Dm7 (iv), E7 (V), and F7 (VI). So, form 2 of the A minor blues progression would be this:

If we were to put the progression together in G minor, our VI chord would be Eb7, and therefore our progression and chords would be this:

Scales and Soloing Over the Progression

When it comes to soloing over both forms of the minor blues progression, there are a number of choices available to you. An advanced guitarist taking more of a jazz approach to soloing over this progression might use a handful of modal scales, as well as some usage of the harmonic or melodic minor scale. Regardless of the approach or style that is being used, the blues scale would feature heavily in any guitarist’s scale choice, and it can sound great even if it’s the only scale used.

For both form 1 and 2 of the A minor blues progression, you could use the A blues scale (meaning the A minor pentatonic scale, plus the blues note). For the G minor blues progression, you could use the G blues scale. If you’re unsure of what I mean about this, go ahead and check out part 2 of this series for a broader description.

Minor Blues Songs

Jazz Blues Chord Progressions Pdf

To wrap things up, I thought I’d list out some songs that use the minor blues progression. This progression can be found in many styles of music. Obviously it’s often found in blues songs, but you’ll see it at least occasionally in rock, funk, soul, and jazz as well.

Some jazz tunes:

  • Mr. PC by John Coltrane (form 2 in C minor)
  • Equinox by John Coltrane (form 2 in C# minor)
  • Birk’s Works by Dizzy Gillespie (form 2 in F minor)
  • Stolen Moments by Oliver Nelson (form 2 in C minor during the solos)

A couple rock songs that use the progression are:

  • Long Train Running by The Doobie Brothers (form 2 in G minor)
  • Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd (form 2 in G minor only during the keyboard, sax and guitar solos)

Some blues tunes you’ll hear it in:

Jazz Blues Chord Progressions Guitar Pdf

  • The Thrill is Gone by B.B. King (form 2 in B minor)
  • As The Years Go Passing By by Albert King (a slightly modified form 2 in B minor)
  • Life is Hard by Johnny Winter (a slightly modified form 1 in C minor)

Blues Piano Chord Progressions Pdf

Warren Haynes photo credit: iaintright / CC BY-NC-SA