I am looking to really get the 12-bar blues down. I am aware of the Before You Accuse me lesson but am also hoping someone would have a suggestion for a relatively easy (or one I could simplify) song that I may be more familiar with that follows pretty closely a standard 12-bar blues progression. I am familiar with much of Cream and the Rolling Stones work so that might be somewhere to start.
Any suggestions?
Sunshine of Your Love is a classic of course. You could start with that. Cream also covered Sitting on Top of the World. I haven't listened to the song in a while but from what I remember it's a 12-bar blues. Strange Brew too...
You might also want to check out Robert Johnson, Freddie King, BB King, Albert King, Lightnin Hopkins, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Chuck Berry, etc etc etc. You really can't miss with any of these guys.
Check out the lesson on "Kansas City", also in the Beginner's lessons on GN.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
I addition to the other suggestions for songs -- Justin Sandercoe on youtube has a nice 12 bar piece called Blues Solo (in slow, medium and fast) and there's tab available at his website. The often recommended Blues You Can Use book/cd has some great 12 bar stuff too.
I think the best way is to understand the format itself. Start by just playing a 12-bar blues in A, using open chords:
A-D-A-A
D-D-A-A
E-D-A-E
A 12-bar blues consists of 3 parts, and each part has it's own function. The first four chords is to open the subject of this round. For example: [A]When I woke up this morning [D] I didn't know what to sing [A] [A]
Now the next four chords are used to repeat exactly the same: Yeah when [D] I woke up this morning [D] I didn't know what to sing [A] [A]
For the final four chords (called turn-around) you say your actual message, for example: [E] I guess I'm getting old [D] cause I can't remember [A]anything [E].
After you get the principle make up your own lines. Play around with faster and slower blues tempos. Do this for a little while and before you know it you can just pick up any 12-bar tune you run into.
I found it really helpful to read thru Fore You Accuse Me and Roll Over Beetoven and THEN start the lesson on Kansas City ....
... also the whole way I have been learning songs is by understanding the intervals - because intuitively a string of letters doesn't mean too much !
... this is not so easy to visualize on the guitar but picture a child's xylophone with 8 notes making one full octave and each note is assigned a number from 1 to 7 with the last note the same as the first (1).
The blues always uses chords based on the 1st note (whatever chord is starting the song) and the 4th and 5th. ALWAYS. And always in the same 2 basic patterns.
BTW Ignar is showing the 'complicated' blues :wink: ... in the basic pattern the first 4 measures are the same (i.e. chord #1 ).
If we move the whole thing over to the key of E we get Kansas City (and if you take the time to count the notes up from E you will see A is the 4th and B is the 5th):
E/E/E/E
A/A/E/E
B7(cuz it's easier to play than B)/A/E/E
And that is my two cents for the day 8)
What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's really all about?
~ why yes, I am available on youtube ~
http://www.youtube.com/stellabloo
Alot of the Doors and early Fleetwood Mac song fall into the 12 bar blues progression. Once you begin looking into to the 12 bar blue progression its quite easy to recognize by your self by ear. Also worth noting is that this progression is fantastic when being to write your own songs.
