Hey there, I’m gonna show you how to play a basic 12 Bar Blues in the Key of E. Now this is a foundation
key element in learning to play guitar and I’ll explain more why this is so important
but its gonna be easy and it’s gonna be fun.
Hi there, I’m Tomas Michaud of Real Guitar Success.
Today I’m gonna show you what I considered one of the foundational elements of learning to play guitar. It’s the 12 bar blues
pattern. We’re gonna do it in the key of E because that’s the most common for guitar playing or at least the most popular.
This is not just about blues and I’m hoping of course you wanna learn to play blues too
but really there is so much music that has its foundation of basic blues pattern. So
when you’re learning this, I’m hoping, I’m gonna teach you the chords.
I’m gonna show you the pattern. I’m gonna show you ways to practice it
but as
importantly I’m gonna train you to hear this basic pattern
so when you’re listening to songs you can hear where this pattern crops up in all kinds of music
so let’s start with the basic chords. We’re gonna use three chords for the basic pattern. An E chord
so I’m using an open E chord with my second finger on the third fret on that fifth string.
I’ve got my third finger next to it on the second fret also and first finger on the first fret,
fourth string
So if you already know this, practice the chord a little bit. A good way to practice
just put the fingers on, strum it, see how it sounds then take it off and do that a little bit
a little each day so it starts getting a little bit easier anyway. We’re not going for perfect here.
Now the next chord is the basic A chord and were gonna play it this way today.
There are many forms of this by the way and this is just one common usual form
so I’m using three fingers.
First finger is on the fourth string that’s D string by the way, second fret,
all on the second fret. The second finger is right next to it on the third string and the third finger is on that second string.
Some of you, this will be a bit of a squeeze, its okay. Do the best you can.
There are other forms, one of them
I commonly used was kind of a partial bar
but if you knew I’d encourage you to at least try this one
and see if you can get used to it and again, you want to learn many forms. And
then finally a B7 in its simplest form. It looks like this and
were gonna put that pinky down on the first string as well.
Now go for the fingering, that’s the fifth string (2:50) by the way, fifth string, second fret,
just my second finger. First string is on the first fret fourth string,
now I’ve got my third finger on the second fret on the third string. I’m skipping the second and playing
third fret on the first string B7.
So to start with just strum these basic chords with me E four times, go ahead, just do the best you can.
Remember you’ll gonna have time to go back and practice the chords and then the progression. Now the A chord
Got it?
and now the B7
It’s okay to put your fingers on one at a time for now
eventually you don’t wanna get (3:47) go on together. It just takes practice.
Now the basic pattern. Were gonna play 12 bars
bars that’s the same as 12 measures by the way. Bars and measures we used that word interchangeably in music and
blues more commonly used bars
so were gonna play 12 bars of E first. Now that is the same as 16 beats. Each
strum is gonna be one beat so I’m gonna go 1,
2 you can try it along with me... 3,
4 that’s one bar,
second bar 1, 2, 3, 4 second bar and then the third bar
normally then pause for instructions purposes then the last bar that was 16 strums.
Now were going to the A chord and were gonna do two
bars of the A chord and that’s a total of 8 each bar, 4 each bar that’s 8 strums.
This is 2, 3, 4 and then the next bar
so that makes 6 bars total of 4 to E and 2 to A. Now were going back to the A 2 more bars
and again. For now, just strum straight down.
You’ll see, I have a video on the strum later. A little fancier strum so that’s 8 bars total.
Now were gonna go to the B7. Go ahead and finger that, give me a second... 4 strums,
4 beats that’s one bar.
Now to the A again put your fingers down, that’s four times,
okay. Now E 11 bar by the way 4 times and bar 12 is the B7
Okay
So were gonna do that again but this time no stopping.
I want you to play along with me to the best you can.
You’re gonna have time to stop the video, practice the chords and come back if you need to.
So let’s just start. I’m gonna give you a 4 count and then were gonna strum straight down.
I’ll count the bar so you know where you’re at. Here we go
one
two ready
Start E
1, 2,
and 3
and the fourth bar
going to A now A
(6:28) 2 bars of A and back to E one bar 7 and going to bar 8.
Now one bar each for the B7 that’s 9 going to A, 4 and 1 2 back to E and the last bar is B7 and this
leads us back to the beginning.
And go to parties bars are either and ones are each of the B79
The B7 chord
has a feeling of
of wanting to go
back to the E chord which is the beginning of the tune.
Okay so that’s the full basic pattern. You wanna practice your chords in that basic pattern. Again
you’re practicing the chords and getting used to the sound.
After a while, you’ll just kinda know where you’re at without having to count which bar you’re at
I wanna show you also next step version.
I called this an extended version because it has two more chords not terribly complicated. We’re gonna add these two chords
chords E7 and to make the E7 let’s start with the E chord right.
Now take your third finger off .
Was that easy or what?
See once you got the E, the E7 is abreeze again that’s E take the third finger off and I got E7.
Now let’s also go over to A7. Put your A fingers in place and
make it A7 with a second finger in there, that’s A7, another easy one huh. Again
you got to get the a first, but that's why I fingered it this way at first a
you gotta get the A first but that’s why I finger it this way at first. A and then take your second finger off
so you wanna practice this a little bit before you try the progression just try E
and then take it off and then put the finger back on and see how it sounds.
Shake out your hands, it all gets tense. Let’s try it again. Stop a second anytime.
Try the A first and take your second finger off, A7,
shake it out and try it again.
Okay, now for the progression same 12 bars,
nothing's taken away
Were gonna add some chords so let’s gonna alternate between the E and E7 and
then when you play and A its gonna be an A and A7
That's the only change
I’ll show you how it goes. And if you want to play along, if you have the download sheet which by the way if
you are on YouTube head over to my blog and you can get the download sheet. You can follow along the sheet as well
So here we go
one two
ready hit it A one bar E
and then we go A7 now A7, take off
your finger back to E that’s the third bar, the fourth bar E7,
, good so now to the fifth bar
A and were gonna alternate, go to A7,
second finger off
and now back to the E chord and were gonna alternate starts with E,
E7,
one bar B7, nothing to alternate there
and the A chord, no alternating,
good
E and one bar B7
okay so that’s extended version. You play along with me, you just play the extended 12 bar blues. One little tip
I wanna give you, some people the B7 is a particularly difficult chord because of the pinky.
Eventually you wanna learn to play this but here’s a trick to get started.
Just take the pinky off and it almost sound just as good to play with three fingers. So that’s my second finger on
on second fret fifth string, first finger on the fourth string first fret,
third finger on the fourth string
second fret, that’s a mouthful and then
just leave the pinky off. It sounds okay
Bear with me. Yes
so hope that helps
Make sure to practice this up because I’m gonna have a part two which will show you a cool strum for this
progression that will really make it sound like blues. If you’re watching this on my blog just go down below and there’s a place
where you can download,
sign up and get the
cheat sheet which will have the patterns, the 12 bar blues patterns that you follow along and I also included a
play along track to make it even more fun. You’ll gonna enjoy this. Or
Or if you are on YouTube, head over to my blog.
There’s should be a link down there in the description
and it will get you to the place where you can download the cheat sheet and the
play along track. Thanks for joining me. I’ll see you again soon.