Hey there, Your Guitar Tutor have been taking trips from Brighton to London to film guest guitar lessons with the phenomenal Fusion guitarist Max Clilverd. Max’s lessons are on Blues guitar and the 12 bar form and how you can slowly add more elements to adapt its harmonic content and bring a simple Blues to life. Throughout this series you will learn to take a Blues from its most form to a Jazz Blues.
Max discussed the 12 bar Blues form in A using chords I- IV and V. This is the best place to start and will allow you to jam with other musicians and share musical ideas.
12 Bar Blues
A7- A7- A7- A7
D9- D9- A7- A7
E9- D9- A9- E9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBggiVpDLwQ&feature=relmfu
You may have be wondering why he uses the D9 and E9 chords in this Blues, this is simply an alternative to playing all dominant 7th chords and each dom9 chord be switched out for 7ths if you wished.
Chords for the 12 Bar BluesÂ
Simple 12 Bar Blues in A
When playing along with Max it is important that you try to adjust your feel to fit the rhythm he is playing the chords with. This is just one way you could play the Blues but it is certainly a great place to start.
The foundation of this blues is built from the major scale and the names I- IV and V are the chord numbers relative to the tones of the major scale. If you want to learn more about major scale theory then please read Be The Guitarist.
Tom Clark