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The 12-bar progression shown below is a more common form of the 12-bar blues than the one that was shown on page 1. This one improves on the previous one in 2 important ways: 1. We play 7th chords instead of major chords. Seventh chords have a much dirtier, more bluesy feel. If you want to play blues, you should learn all your seventh chords better than you know your major chords. 2. We use the IV chord (A7) in the 2nd bar to make the progression a little more interesting. So as you can see, we have slightly altered the progression to: I-IV-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-I/V Also, try using different fingerings of the E and A 7th chords to see which you prefer: E7 E7 A7 A7 Also, this B7 fingering is easier than the one in the lesson chord chart: B7 Once you get used to this, you've got your 12-bar E blues progression down! Now let's flip to the next page and add an A blues progression to our repertoire...

• Play The Musical Example

• Sound Problems?

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