The Basic 12 Bar Blues Form
If you know how to play the blues you can play with musicians all over the world, from Chicago to Tokyo to Berlin. The blues has become a universal language.
But I hate to tell you this. Just knowing how to play a few blues licks is not really knowing how to play the blues. You have to know at least the basic 12 bar blues form to be on the same page with other musicians.
In my years teaching at Columbia College in Chicago, I’ve had many students who can shred pentatonic licks and blues licks, but when it comes time to playing the tune or a 12 bar blues they get lost.
If you go to the 4 chord at the wrong time you will most definitely look like you don’t know what you’re doing. Ok here’s the form.
- 4 bars of the 1
- 2 bars of the 4
- 2 bars of the 1
- 1 bar of the 5
- 1 bar of the 4
- and 2 bars of the 1
- (Or 1 bar of 1 and 1 bar of the 5)
It sounds more complicated then it is. Now the last 2 bars are the tricky part. This is what you have to keep your ears open for, because people play the last 2 bars differently all the time. It’s what’s called the turnaround, in that the last 2 bars turn the tune back around to the top, or beginning of the
tune.
We’ll talk more about turnarounds in an upcoming article/video.
Here’s what the blues it looks like written out.
12 Bar Blues Chord Chart
The form itself is pretty simple once you get used to it. The key is to learn the harmonic rhythm (when the chords change) thru repetition. It has to become second nature so you don’t have to think about it. Don’t play the form once or twice and figure you got it, no you don’t.
When you play a blues on a gig you literally play the form. Well I don’t know exactly for I never counted, but if you have solos it can be up to 50, 60 times. Get a friend to jam with you, or get a looper and loop the changes. And learn it in all 12 keys!
One way to do that is go thru the circle of 5ths C G D A E B F#(Gb) Db Ab Eb Bb F. Here’s the chord chart for the first 2 keys in the cycle, C major and G major. You should create them for the other 10 keys.
12 Bar Blues Chart in C Major and G Major
The trick to making it sound good is:
- The groove you play, what kind of rhythm you lay down playing the chords.
- The chords you use, as in the voicings you choose to play.
- Instead of playing chords, play a riff for the rhythm part, (Listen to Born Under A Bad Sign by Albert King as example).
Some tunes necessitate one or the other of these 3 factors but many times the player uses his or her own discretion as to what to play.
Our next article will go over some ways you can do just that.
Peter Lerner has toured with Grammy award winning pianist Ramsey Lewis and has played duets on NBC and CBS with acclaimed trumpeter Orbert Davis. Peter has performed with Bill Russo’s Chicago Jazz Ensemble at the Jazz Showcase where he performed with such luminaries as Lee Konitz.
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