12-Bar Blues Form
“The Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1870s by African-Americans from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, and spirituals.” (quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues on 5-13-20).
The Blues brought to American music (and the world) a music form that has become a staple of jazz, R&B, pop music, latin music genres and other genres not listed here. This form is a great way to explore music within a band setting and to get introduced to improvisational techniques. In my opinion, it to be a fantastic way to teach about form, analysis, music theory, scales, phrasing, improvisation, time, and feel, amongst other musical aspects. (Click on the button to the right to learn more about the Blues)
Within this education page, the focus will be primarily on the 12-bar blues form, also known as A-A-B form.
For further resources, this wikipedia page about the 12-Bar Blues form is a great resource. It goes into a lot of depth. Can you go straight here by CLICKING HERE! (12-Bar Blues Wiki) or on the button to the right.
I have listed videos that would be good resources to be introduced to the blues and simple methods to improvise over them.
At the bottom of the page are multiple Blues progressions that I have explored in my playalong videos that are available to see/hear and play along with on my youtube page. Click on the button to the right to see that playlist.
Here is a great intro to the 12-bar blues form. Check it out and use the below examples of the form versions that I discuss in the video.
Start with this video first as a primer to get into 2 scales that will help with improvising over the blues form.
In this video, I break down how the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale function in the major 12-bar blues form as a way to improvise through the form.
You just need to play the minor pentatonic or blues scale from the 6th (or 13th) of the major key you are in. Watch the video for examples and more details!
In this video, I break down how the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale function in the minor 12-bar blues form as a way to improvise through the form.
You just need to play the minor pentatonic or blues scale from the minor key you are in. Watch the video for examples and more details!
Version 1 - Major blues (Bare minimum chords)
These are the main chords in the structure that have to be present in order for it to be considered a blues form.
Version 2 - major blues (Most Common Version)
This version of the Blues form is this structure/frequency of chord changes.
Version 3 - Minor Blues (Alternate B-section chords)
Found this version from a video of “The Thrill is Gone” by B.B. King. Still a blues but centered on the minor mode of the 12-bar blues.
Version 4 - Minor Blues (more common version)
More common progression of a minor blues, similar to version 2 above but in a minor key. All minor chords could also be played as a minor 7th chord, which is what I normally gravitate towards when making my videos and recordings.