12 Bar Blues - Music Lessons For You

I’m going to use the key of F for this because I think a lot of piano players like blues in F because it lays down on the keyboard real nice. Below is a very standard blues progression that everyone has played. This is the take off point for the other variations to follow.

F7 | Bb7 | F7 | F7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | F7 | F7 | C7 | Bb7 | F7 | C7 | (each chord is played one measure each)

Here is a variation that jazz players might play.

F7 | Bb7| F7 | F7 | Bb7 | Bb7 | F7 | D7 | G7 | C7 | F7 D7 | G7 C7 | (note: the last 2 measures are 2 chords in one bar i.e. 2 beats for each chord).

Here’s another one to check out. This one gets a little more jazzy because of the chord substitutions used extensivley.

F7 | Gb7 | F7 | Cm7 B7 | Bb7 | B dim 7 | F7 E7 | Eb7 D7 | Gm7 Db7 | C7 | F7 D7 | Db7 C7 |

This on coming up is referred to as Parker Blues because it’s the chord progression that Charlie Parker used for the tune “Blues for Alice”

F6 | Em7b5 A7 | Dm7 G7 | Cm7 F7 | Bb7 | Bbm7 Eb7 | Am7 D7 | Abm7 Db7 | Gm7 | C7 | F6 D7 | Gm7 C7| (repeat)

Comparing the Parker blues to the Jazzy progression you’ll notice that both progressions start with a 1 chord and have a 4 chord in bar #5 and a 2 chord in bar #9 both are essentially the same but the Parker blues utilizes the 2-5 progressions down in whole steps to get from the original 1 chord to the 4 chord in bar #5 and the rest of the chords move down in half steps to get from the 4 to the 2 chord in bar #9.

We can also mix and match these progressions. You might want to take the first 4 measures of the Parker blues then add the other progressions from the earlier jazz blues to make a completely new set of chords, then all you have to do is add a melody on top and you have a new Blues tune.

Although blues is not an overly complex musical style, I’m going to answer a couple of questions I get from time to time about the blues scale. The first question is “What is a Blues scale” and the second question is “What is a Major Blues Scale”. I think for all practical purposes I’ll use the Major scale as a way to construct a blues scale.

Here is an F Blues scale (sometime called an F minor blues scale):

F Ab Bb B C Eb F If you number them it would be F=1 Ab=2 Bb=3 B=4 C=5 Eb=6 F=1
Here are several ways of viewing or constructing a blues scale:
1. a series of scale degrees: 1 b3 4 #4 5 b7 1 (Using the parent major scale measured from root)
2. a minor pentatonic scale plus a tritone (#4)
3. a series of intervals; minor 3rd, whole step, half step, half step, minor 3rd, whole step

DON’T JUST READ THIS ARTICLE PLAY THE SCALE AND TRY IT IN A FEW OTHER KEYS KEEPING THE SAME FORMULA.

What is a major blues scale?

Here is a F major blues scale:

F G G# A C D F If we numbered them we would have, F=1 G=2 G#=3 A=4 C=5 D=6 F=1

Here are several ways of viewing or constructing a Major blues scale:

1. A pentatonic scale plus a #2
2. A series of intervals; whole step, half step, half step, minor 3rd, whole step, minor 3rd
3. a series of scale numbers; 1 2 #2 3 5 6 1
4. the second mode of a minor blues scale

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Tag Archives: 12 bar blues

The most standard Blues progressions and some variations

Getting the Blues