Blues Chord Progressions & Variations

This chord lesson is all about the blues. We all know the chord progression for a typical blues, but there are so many variations that it's hard to know them all.

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The blues originated in the USA and evolved from African, European and Latin influences.  The blues had a very big influence on jazz.  Nowadays every jazz musician has some blues in his repertoire.

There are many many different sets of blues progressions, going from the basic original blues to the more modern variations like the bebop and Coltrane blues changes or the changes played by Miles Davis or Thelonious Monk.
The foundation however stays the 12 bar blues with a set of 3 chord changes.

Here are some characteristics of the blues:

• Most blues chord progressions are 12 bars long, although there are also 8, 14, 16, 24 or more bar blues changes.  There are many different 12 bar blues forms though.
• The tonic chord of a blues is a dominant 7 chord, a fact that doesn't fit very well in traditional music theory.
• The blues is not only about chord changes and scales, but is also about a certain sound, a feeling.
  Responsible for that sound are the blue notes:  a lowered 3rd note and a lowered 5th note.
• The 3 basic chords of a blues are all dominant 7 chords.

For those of you who want to know more about jazz & blues theory I strongly recommend
The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine.

A good guitar book about jazz blues is All Blues for Jazz Guitar by Jim Ferguson.

  Questions or feedback about this blues chord progression lesson? Discuss it at the Jazz Guitar Forum...