How to Play the 12 Bar Blues Shuffle
The 12 Bar Blues Shuffle is a standard musical sequence which has been used in blues music for decades, and it has formed the structure for numerous famous blues pieces. In this post, and the corresponding video, I want to have a look at this 12 Bar Blues sequence and how to play it. Chords The 12 Bar Blues employs a standard chord sequence across 12 bars of music in 4/4 time. Although there are numerous variations on this, here I will show the standard chord sequence. It utilises 3 chords which are scale degrees I, IV and V of the corresponding key that the music is played in. The table below shows it for the Key of E but it can be changed to any other key, you just need to know the relvant scale degrees for that key. So for the key of E, the three chords that are used are E, A and B. BAR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Scale Degree I I I I IV IV I I V IV I I Chords in Key of E E E E E A A E E B A E E Notes For e