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 each chord in the sequence, 3 notes are used to make the shuffle sequence. These are the root note, the 5th note and the 6th note. For example if you were playing the E chord, you would be forming the E chord using the root note (E) and the 5th note (B). You would then incorprate the 6th note (C#) to make the shuffle sequence. This would change for the underlying chord you are playing, but would always be the 1st, 5th and 6th notes of these chords. Below is the tab and sheet music for the blues shuffle in E which shows you the notes to play for the 3 chords in the sequence - E, A and B.

12 Bar Blues Shuffle on Standard Tuned Guitar in Key of E. Created using Power Tab editor

Shuffle Feel

The shuffle sequence is made up of 1/8th notes. However, to get that distinctive sound, these are not played as straight 1/8th notes with equal spacing in between them. Instead the sequence incorporates a triplet feel, which breaks up the spacing between the notes and gives it that distinctive bouncy, shuffle feel. To do this, each note is played as if it was the 1st or 3rd note of a triplet. It is hard to explain in writing, but here is a video and post demonstrating how to do this. The pattern is very distinctive and can easily be picked up by ear.

Triplet Feel Post

 

 

Different Tunings and Different Keys

This blues shuffle can be played in any key and can be easily played across a variety of different tunings. This is why you often see blues music played on guitars tuned to some of the more common alternate tunings. Below is a link to my tabs page which shows the music for this shuffle in different keys and across different tunings. The video at the top of the page also shows me playing these blues shuffles in different keys and tunings.

Here is a link to the tabs for all the 12 Bar Blues Shuffles. 

The 12 Bar Blues Shuffle is a widely used and easy to play sequence which can be adapted to any key and played easily across a variety of different guitar tunings. It can be played over any 12 bar blues piece and is a good basis for writing your own blues music.

Thanks for Reading,

Neil