Blues Guitar Lessons - How to Play the Blues

The most common form and the first you'd learn from any blues guitar lessons is the 12 bar blues progression, which consists of the root or tonic "one" chord, the subdominant "four" chords and the dominant "five" chord.

So, basically, once you learn how to play guitar chords and strum a few different rhythm patterns, you can have a fairly vast repertoire of songs that you'll be able to play at your disposal.

Below is a list of those I, IV, V (one, four, five) of the most common beginner guitar chords.

Key of A major: A, D, E
Key of C major: C, D, F
Key of D major: D, G, A
Key of E major: E, A, B
Key of F major: F, Bb, C
Key of G major: G, C, D

Paint by the numbers
Here is the most common form of the 12 bar blues patterns is with each numeral representing one bar:

I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I V

By merely plugging in the three chords from any of the keys listed above for the I, IV and V chords on this chart, you can figure out how to play guitar chords using this progression in six different keys.

Shuffle along to Memphis
Although there are many different rhythmic variations that you can use when you learn how to play guitar playing the blues, the most common rhythm is the shuffle, which has a "swing" feel to it. Although the shuffle has a feel all of it's own, it can be best described as each beat being divided into three sub-divisions (call triplets) instead of the two divisions found in most rock music.

Students are commonly told to express triplets, "one-trip-let two-trip-let three-trip-let four-trip-let" with an even amount of time for each syllable.

To achieve the swing feel, the middle syllable is silent: "One- -let two- -let three- -let four- -let..."

This feel can be articulated on the guitar with a down stroke strum for the downbeats (the one, two, three and four), and an up stroke for every "let": down- -up down- -up down- -up down- -.

Variations on a theme
There are a couple of commonly used variations of the 12 bar blues chord progression that you'll find in most blues guitar lessons: the quick four and the long five.

The quick four changes to the four chord on the second measure, and back to the one for the third and fourth measure:

I IV I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I

The long five holds the five chords for an extra measure rather than moving down to the four chord for the tenth measure:

I I I I
IV IV I I
V V I V

It is not uncommon for each of the chords; the one, four and five, to be used in the dominate 7 forms. The "standard" seven chords you learned when you were learning how to play guitar chords. For example, if we were to play the progression in the key of A, the three chords we use would be A7, D7 and E7.

The flat 7 in these chords is considered a "blue note", a sound that is characteristic of the blues.

Another one of these notes is the minor 3rd. The minor third that the lead player is playing against the major third the rhythm guitarist is playing is among the coolest sounds in the world.

The 12 bar blues progression can also be played in minor keys. The natural minor form is:

Im Im Im Im
IVm IVm Im Im
Vm IVm Im Vm

The harmonic minor scale makes the five chord a major chord, and just for fun we'll use flat sevens on all the chords in this version of the progression:

Im7 Im7 Im7 Im7
IVm7 IVm7 Im7 Im7
V7 IVm7 Im7 V7

Call me Mr. Blue
And here's a abbreviated list of some of the better known blues songs where you can hear what you learned from these blues guitar lessons that can help set this musical institution into your music consciousness:

Johnny B. Goode
Move it on over
Mind Your Own Business
Kansas City
I'm Moving On
Shake Rattle & Roll
Hound Dog
Little Red Rooster

Once again, for anyone who wants to know how to play guitar, the 12 bar blues is a great way to add tons of songs to your ready-to-play, and instantly you'll have hundreds of songs in common with the brotherhood of musicians worldwide.

I could go on, and on, and on, but space here is limited. Here's a great resource for blues guitar lessons that dives deeper into this and includes free video examples. Now, go forth and make music!