12 Bar Blues Explained

This 5 minute guitar lesson will help you understand what exactly 12 Bar Blues are. This popular chord progression form is also behind many rock, pop, jazz, country and other songs. Learn about bars, measures, I-IV-V and more!

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[cv]

Thorough, concise, simplified. Very nicely done. Thanks

[kristentrahan]

THANK YOU! This is exactly what I was looking for. Sweet, simple, wonderfully insightful and explained.

[gautamgupta]

This helped me a lot. I have been struggling to find one video where someone can tell me the pattern of the blues. Gratitude for you.

[samhaws]

You'll see a lot of 12 bar blues songs have the last measure with the V chord (e.g. B chord for key of E), oftentimes as a dominant 7th chord (e.g. B7). I find this is more common with the blues and blues-rock type tracks. This is often called the "turnaround", in that it melodically prepares the listener for the return to the 1st bar.

[AncientGranules]

Very simple and elegant explanation. Thanks!!

[edcrutchfield]

You just made Guitar 🎸 Life A LOT simpler🎸. Thank you 😅

[markhorton]

Thank You so much for sharing/posting this fantastic tutorial!! You make it easy to follow and understand. I definitely subscribed and liked!

[Peer]

I appreciate this video. I feel enlightened.

[kuroshghasemi]

Wow this helped me so much more than anything else liked and follow.

[Cillitbaaang]

nice. Now i know one more song to play as well!

[donlessnau]

Well done. Thanks. Clear, simple presentation done at a relaxed pace like a normal onversation. Easy to grasp and absorb. So much better than many of the other wannabe celebrities on other sites. Aren't most 12-bar blues song all done in Dom7 chords, though?

[zzhlset]

it helped me a little, now i know that the key is the first chord of the song., what would be the next chord to use if i start in the key of D minor?

[leematthews]

You got a couple of the chords wrong...

[donlessnau]

Anyone know who this guy is and where he's located? This is really very good info.