Im so glad my spring recital is over, but this month is still somehow very booked. This image demonstrates how you would find the i, iv, and v chords in the key of a using the a major scale. Just the blues scale can be considered a basis for a particular key blues. Learning to play a 12 bar blues can open a world of music for your playing. When you see a group of musicians getting together to play everyone seems to know what to do almost magically. Print it out, practice the notes a few times, then come back here. Its called the 12 bar blues because its only 12 bars long. The information in this lesson is essential to understand how the blues is constructed and how it is most commonly played. Learning the 12 bar blues progression is basic to understanding the roots of american popular music. Occasionally you might come across slight variations in the form or the harmonies, but if you start with this basic form, those little changes will be easy to pick up as you encounter them. If someone asks you to play a blues in g, they are most likely referring to a 12 bar blues. The 30 musthave blues piano licks blues groovewindow.
Most jazz standards are 32 bars long and so the blues form is less that a third of the length of a typical jazz standard. Some people will be chosen to lead in singing blues songs with their own made up words. The 12 bar blues is one of the most iconic song forms ever. There are other variations, such as the 8 bar and 16 bar, but 12 is the most prominent.
When you see a group of blues musicians play together, everyone magically seems to know. This progression is usually broken up into three groups of four measures. Wellknown country blues musicians include leadbelly, blind lemon jefferson and robert johnson. The blues emerged towards the end of the 19th century. The bass line itself is an essential part of this tune, so lets dive right into the intervals that make up the pattern. Creating, performing and participating in the arts music intermediate students will compose simple pieces that reflect a knowledge of melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, timbrel, and dynamic elements a. Blues chords how to play the blues david piano play it. Jun 29, 2018 it doesnt matter whether you are a complete beginner or a long time classical player, as learning to play the 12 bar piano blues chords will only take a few minutes.
Its also a really fun way to jam with other musicians. A simple jazz blues sequence usually changes to chord iv at bar 2 and back to chord i at bar 3 and uses a iim7 v7 at bar 9 often. That means that youll have three chords to keep in mind, the i chord e, the iv chord a, and the v chord b. For example, you could memorize the chords in the key of e, then worry about getting other keys later on. How to play 12 bar piano blues chords learn piano blues. Piano lessons music lessons guitar lessons piano teaching teaching aids 12 bar blues chords middle school music music worksheets blues music the blueswritten and research activities for middle school music studentsthis resource is an 18 page pdf file.
It is a succession of chords whose roots descend in fifths from the second. It is built of only 3 chords making it really easy to play and a perfect skill to learn as a. Start dreaming fantastic colors and emotions with the outstanding blues composition by stan getz for alto saxophone transcription. Playing the 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of c 4.
Now you have the basic 12 bar blues progression under your belt why don t you try having a go at improvising over the top. Its simple, fun, and can entertain everybody if done right. Here are the blues scales in all 12 keys listed in circle of fifths order. In the basic f blues, the 12 bars are only made up of 3 different chords. They assimilated local music styles, changed the instrumentation, the chords and chord sequence, added special notes or modified scales. Thats when itll start to sound more like the blues and get more fun. This book and audio package is solely devoted to providing you with all the technical tools necessary for playing 12bar blues with authority. Today i want to talk to you about the 12 bar blues. This is because at one time or another they learned the 12 bar blues progression. The i chord is f, the iv chord is bb and the v chord is c. That is, the main body of a song follows a set pattern of chords over 12 bars of music that is repeated over and over. Had the author included more material, this could be a 5 satr book. Play 12 bar blues on the electric blues guitar how to.
Blues piano tutorial chord progression 12 bar blues youtube. I progression twofiveone progression is a common cadential chord progression used in a wide variety of music genres, including jazz harmony. Now if youre into playing blues music youre probably also eager to play some gospel music. Chord variations may also be added for harmonic diversity.
Here are some simple tunes i teach to year 8 to recap the basics. In the last blues lesson 12bar blues, you learned how to play the 12bar blues in the key of f, using simplified 2note chords. Aug 28, 2015 12 bar blues online fiddle lessons forums tunespecific help and comments request a lesson. And if you want to learn jazz piano, please do check out my website.
Click this link to open some simple 12bar blues for fiddle. Some songs may have several different patterns to give them a bit of variety, but the guts of the song will normally be based on a set chord pattern for every 12 bars of music. The blues scale is very similar to the minor pentatonic scale, but with an additional lowered 5th note lowered by half a stepsemitone, or blues note. How to play boogie woogie and 12 bar blues on the piano. Jul 21, 2002 blues musicians tend to use phrases and patterns rather than scale runs, though jazz variations of blues can be based on a 12 bar blues structure and can include jazz and blues style patterns alongside each other. Pf principles training piano basics pf principles training crucial chord knowledge pf principles training identifying song structures.
The term chord progression refers to the way the chords move or progress from one to another. The basic 12 bar blues progression can be played in any key and will use the i, iv, and v chords from that key. Improvise your own solo using the notes provided during the middle section. This scale is much used above all in blues,pop,jazz,soul,funk,rhythm and blues,rock. The 12 bar blues is easily one of the most popular chord progressions in music. The most common musical form of blues is the 12 bar blues. This chord progression is based around the most important chords.
This 12 bar blues uses the repeatedchord technique which was a hallmark of the ray charles style. How to play 12 bar blues on the piano when it comes to jazz, the first thing you should learn is how to play the 12 bar blues. How to play twelve bar blues with pictures wikihow. Mar 16, 2008 i went to the crossroads, fell down on my knees. The only alterations are a a few ninths are added to a few chords, and b.
The vast majority of contemporary blues music is based on what is termed a 12bar format. The traditional 12 bar blues requires only 3 chords, and you can choose to play in any key you like. This is not technically a 12bar blues, but its in the same style. In the final lesson in this series were going to build a 12 bar blues progression and, using the blues scale in the right hand, improvise over the top. Play the 12 bar blues on the piano in both major and minor tonalities. To play it, you change measure 2 from a i chord to a iv chord. Its time to take it to the next step and learn to improvise with the 12.
Thus learning the form in one place completely makes it easy to transpose to any key. Play advanced jazz and blues riffs on the piano how to. Based on the i, iv and v chords of any key, the 12 bar blues is one of the most prominent chord progressions in modern music. Make one more blues using the rest of the 30 musthave blues piano licks. The chord progression is easy for beginners because it only uses three chords, the root, the fourth, and the fifth. Eb, gb and bb are the so called blue notes of the scale. Cover lots of 12 bar blues stuff and improvisation, hope it is of use to some of you. Given a piece of music, it is interesting to count how many times each of the individual twelve musical notes is played, and understand their relative weight, or importance, in the piece. It doesnt matter whether you are a complete beginner or a long time classical player, as learning to play the 12 bar piano blues chords will only take a few minutes. Once you master the material in the book, you can reuse the cd backing tracks with licks from other books like david bennet cohens blues piano or mark harrisons blues piano. Mar 29, 2019 the twelve bar blues are a chord progression a set structure of movement to build a blues song. Blues music paved the way for many other genres of music we know and love. However, the backing tracks on the cd are outstanding.
The bass line in this song is built around a 12 bar blues framework in the key of e. My blogging has been rather sporadic so far this month this is a busy time of year for piano teachers, isnt it. It was their way to express sadness, distress and pain. It also covers how to play a 12 bar blues in any key. Once you have that down, well apply more notes to the same set of chords. The 12 bar blues progression with slight variations basslines.
This image shows the standard 12 bar blues progression using roman numerals. If you do that, youll find that 12 bar just falls right under your fingertips. The ray charles 12bar blues piano lick piano lesson. This early style of blues was known as country blues and was usually a solo singer accompanied on guitar or piano sometimes with added harmonica or drums. If it did, it would make this a bar blues pattern instead of 12. The term 12 bar refers to the number of measures, or musical bars, used to express the theme of a typical blues song. Track 4 has the entire, uninterrupted, 12 bar blues progression. Oct 19, 2014 here are some simple tunes i teach to year 8 to recap the basics. This video teaches a little boogie woogie trick using the 3rd and 7th of a chord on the piano or keyboard. The focus of this lesson is to learn 24 blues licks, but with a twist.
Once youve cracked it, its no exaggeration to say that these simple ingredients can provide you with a lifetime of pleasure. This set of worksheets is designed to enable students to play a 12 bar blues piece taken from a music activity book. If we analyse the chords numerically, this is what we get. In this lesson were going to explore the harmonic and rhythmic structure of the blues. This colourful chart has some examples of common variations on the common 12 bar blues form. Count and play your way through 12 bar blues change how to. In order to learn about the 12 bar blues we first have to discuss the development of the blues. A 12 bar blues is performed, as the name implies, by playing twelve bars in a given arrangement that are repeated through a song. Piano improvisation technique corcoran high school. Playing the 12 bar blues chord progression in all 12 keys 5.
Blues sheet music to download and print top quality pdfs. There are plenty of arrangements, based on chord progressions, to use. It includes pdf sheet music files and interactive sheet music for realtime transposition. The ray charles 12 bar blues piano lick free online. The twelve bar blues are a chord progression a set structure of movement to build a blues song. It is assumed that you are familiar with the 12 bar blues progression. You also learned easy righthand patterns using three of the six tones in the blues scale f, eb and ab. Introduction in this lesson, you will learn about the chords used in the 12 bar blues chord progression. In the example below, a simple 12bar f blues is shown followed by a similar one with. A basic 12 bar blues piece that will set you up for any blues song. The term 12bar blues has become synonymous with blues music and is the basis for an incredible body of jazz, rock n roll, and other forms of popular music. This variant can be played with or without a turnaround.
A 12bar blues is performed, as the name implies, by playing twelve bars in a given arrangement that are repeated through a song. The 12 bar form is the most basic and common type of blues form. In the above example, the last 2 measures use a cadence referred to as a turnaround. Alright, now that we know how to play the 12 bar blues with by grooving with the seventh chords we can learn about all the different possible chord progressions which can be added to the plain 12 bar blues scheme. The 30 musthave blues piano licks blues transcription and bass arrangements. Many thanks see below for embedded slideshare of basic 12 bar blues in c. Print and download in pdf or midi 12 bar blues walking bass line.
Blues scale in general it can be used on every chord but above all on min7 th and dominant 7th chord. If your third or fourth grader is starting to think about taking up a musical instrument, help him get the basics of reading notes with this handy sheet. The 12 bar blues is a chord progression used in blues and rock music that lasts for 12 bars. The bible of blues riffs beginner to intermediate lesson duration.
Blues musicians tend to use phrases and patterns rather than scale runs, though jazz variations of blues can be based on a 12 bar blues structure and can include jazz and blues style patterns alongside each other. Blues piano tutorial, part one structure of 12 bar blues youtube. Since most blues songs are in 44 time each bar or measure will receive 4 counts or beats or foot taps for that matter. The blues was first being sung by the slaves who where brought to america from africa. Although blues music has evolved over time, a fundamental chord progression called the 12 bar blues still lives on. Whatever key youre in, the 12 bar blues only has three chords, based. The 12 bar is an extremely common structure when playing blues. How to improvise with the 12bar blues making music magazine. The 12bar is an extremely common structure when playing blues. A common variant of the 12 bar blues is to use a quick change. Jazz piano chords for beginners 3 easy chord progressions. In the notation below, i notated a repeat sign to indicate the use of a turnaround. Following on from the improvisation we did in part 3, the next step. The evolution of the blues formed many different styles often named by the area where it was created, like delta blues, chicago blues or texas blues.
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