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12 BAR BLUES IN A

12 Bar Blues is by far THE most common progression ever.

Most blues,  many songs by Jimi Hendrix,  Eric Clapton,  and Jimmy Page to name a few.

If you can play the blues you can play ANYTHING!  If you can not play the blues and make it sound good, no amount of chords will help.  Blues is more about feelings and emotion than it is about a lot of chord changes.

A bar is a measure of music that in most cases has four beats.  Tap your foot and count; one two three four.

Each beat will get two strums.  While tapping your foot on the numbers strum down on each syllable as you count aloud.

AND One AND two AND three AND four.

BAR ONE

BAR TWO

BAR THREE

BAR FOUR

BAR FIVE

BAR SIX

BAR SEVEN

BAR EIGHT

BAR NINE

BAR TEN

BAR ELEVEN

BAR TWELVE

A

D

A

A

D

D

A

A

E

D

A to D

A to E

Notice that each bar only has one chord until you get to bars eleven and twelve.  There are two chords here.  Play A for two beats (four strums) and D for two beats (four strums).

Do not automatically change chords every four beats.  Sometimes there is not a chord change for two bars (eight beats).

Pay attention to the dynamics (loud and soft). 

Could use 5th, 7th, or 9th chords or any combination.

Get a mojo goin.

 

For leads you can use the Pentatonic minor or major scale in A

TAB FOR PENTATONIC SCALES