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 bar eleven. 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