Everything about The 12-bar Blues totally explained
The
12-bar blues is one of the most popular
chord progressions in popular music.
It has a distinctive form in both lyrics and chord structure which has been used in songs in many forms of
popular music. Most commonly, lyrics are in three lines, with the first two lines almost the same with slight differences in phrasing and interjections:
» I hate to see the evening sun go down,
Yes, I hate to see that evening sun go down
» 'Cause it makes me think I'm on my last go 'round
:
W.C. Handy's "
St. Louis Blues"
The chord progression is simple to identify after some study and attention as it rises and falls in a regular and very familiar pattern. The blues can be played in any key, but
guitar and
bass players prefer open chords, that is, chords with several open strings: E-A-B7 or A-D-E7. Keyboardists may prefer C-F-G7 or G-C-D7. (These are termed, respectively, the
tonic,
subdominant, and
dominant in the discussion below.)
The 12-bar blues chord progression is the basis of thousands of songs, not only formally identified
blues songs such as "St. Louis Blues", "
Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "
Hound Dog", but also
gospel songs, such as "
I'm So Glad (Jesus Lifted Me)", jazz classics like "
One O'Clock Jump" and "
Night Train", pop and rock songs, including
Glenn Miller's "
In the Mood",
The Beatles' "
Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", and
The Clash's "
Should I Stay or Should I Go",
Top 40 hits like
Fabian's "
Turn Me Loose", "
At the Hop" by
Danny and the Juniors, and the "
Theme from Batman". The vast majority of
boogie woogie compositions are 12-bar blues, as are many
instrumentals, such as "
Rumble" and "
Honky Tonk".
Many songs written in the blues chord progression don't use the three-line form of lyrics. For instance, "
I'm Movin' On" has a verse in the first four bars and a chorus in the final eight bars:
» That big eight-wheeler rollin' down the track
Means your true lovin' daddy ain't comin' back.
» I'm movin' on, I'll soon be gone
You were flyin' too high for my little old sky
» So I'm movin' on.
"
At the Hop" has a twelve-bar verse followed by a twelve-bar chorus.
The blues chord progression
~Standard Note Style~
C
CCC C
CCC C
CCC C
CCC
F
FFF F
FFF C
CCC C
CCC
G
GGG F
FFF C
CCC C
CCC
or
| Chord |
lphabetic |
umerical |
oman
Numeral |
| Tonic | T |
1 |
I
|
| Sub-dominant | S |
4 |
IV
|
| Dominant | D |
5 |
V
|
Chords can be represented with a few notation systems. A basic example of the progression would look like this, using
T to indicate the
tonic,
S for the
subdominant, and
D for the
dominant, and representing one
chord. The tonic is also called the 1-chord ("I" in
Roman numerals), the sub-dominant, the 4-chord ("IV" in Roman numerals), and the dominant, the 5-chord ("V" in Roman numerals).
These three chords are the basis of thousands more
pop songs which thus often have a
blue sound even without using the classical 12-bar form. Using the above notations, the basic chord progression can be represented as follows.
| I |
I |
I |
I |
| IV |
IV |
I |
I |
| V |
IV |
I |
I |
phrases, though they often come in threes, don't coincide with the above three lines or sections. This overlap between the grouping of the accompaniment and the vocal is part of what creates interest in the twelve bar blues.
Many variations are possible. The common "Quick to Four" variation uses the subdominant chord in the second bar, yielding:
Further variations can be built up by combining these, and other, variations.
Seventh chords are often used just before a change, and more changes can be added. A more complicated example might look like this, where "7" indicates a seventh chord:
| T |
T |
T |
T7 |
| S |
S7 |
T |
T7 |
| D |
S |
T |
D7 |
When the last bar contains the dominant, that bar can be called a
turnaround.
There are also
minor 12-bar blues, such as "
Why Don't You Do Right?", made famous by
Lil Green with
Big Bill Broonzy and then
Peggy Lee with the
Benny Goodman Orchestra. Major and minor can also be mixed together, a signature characteristic of the music of
Charles Brown.
Finally, here's an example showing the pattern in the key of D, and how it fits with the lyrics of a given verse. One chord symbol is used per beat, with "-" representing the continuation of the previous chord:
D - - -
Woke up this morning with an
G - - - D - - - D7 - - -
awful aching head
G - - -
Woke up this morning with an
G7 - - - D - - - D7 - - -
awful aching head
A - - A7
My new man had left me
G - - G7 D - - - D - A A7
just a room and an empty bed.
» ::From
Bessie Smith's "
Empty Bed Blues".
While the blues is most often considered to be in sectional
strophic form with a
verse-chorus pattern, it may also be considered as an extension of the variational
chaconne procedure. Van der Merwe (1989) considers it developed in part specifically from the American
Gregory Walker though the conventional account would consider hymns as the provider of the blues repeating chord progression or harmonic formulae (Middleton 1990, p.117-8).
| I7 |
IV7 |
I7 |
V7 I7 |
| IV7 |
VII7 |
I7 |
III7 VI7 |
| II7 |
V7 |
I7 VI7 |
II7 I7 |
"Twelve-bar" oddities
- "St. Louis Blues" is unusual in having a bridge, the famous habanera that gives it a Spanish tinge.
- Eccentric boogie woogie pianist, Cripple Clarence Lofton frequently truncated the chord continuation, ending up with some verses at nine, ten, or eleven bars.
- The blue yodels of Jimmie Rodgers, the singing brakeman, are usually of twelve bars, including the repeated first line, but the three lines of lyrics are delivered across the first eight bars, with Rodgers' trademark yodeling obbligato filling the last four.
- Chuck Berry's "Oh Carol" is a 24-bar blues, with each line doubled in length by the addition of a guitar lick after the vocal part.
- The melodies of The Beatles's "Day Tripper", Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade", and "Boddisatva" by Steely Dan start with the first eight bars of the 12-bar progression.
- Blues Traveler’s song “Warmer Days”, from their debut album, is a thirteen-bar blues. The tenth bar is repeated in each verse.
- Led Zeppelin’s song “Rock and Roll”, from their runically-titled fourth album, alternates the progression length within the song. Each instrumental verse (including the introduction and the guitar solo) is a twelve-bar blues, while each sung verse is a 24-bar blues, with each bar of the progression being held for two bars instead of one.
- David Lindley’s version of “Mercury Blues”, from the El Rayo-X album, uses a variation on the progression. The ninth bar uses a minor chord on the submediant rather than the dominant, and the tenth bar uses a dominant rather than a subdominant. (In Roman-numeral notation, the third line would be written VIm-V-I-I.) The other bars are as in the basic progression. (As originally written by K.C. Douglas, the song uses a standard progression.)
- Queen's song "I Want To Break Free" uses the twelve-bar pattern for its verses, with a different chord progression only for the middle eight. However, its arrangement (particularly the use of synthesizers) is different from a typical twelve-bar song.
- Steely Dan’s song “Chain Lightning”, from the album Katy Lied, has a twelve-bar structure and rhythm, but only uses some of the basic progression. The fifth and sixth bars use the mediant, while the seventh and eighth bars use the subtonic. The ninth and tenth bars use the subdominant and the dominant, but in that order (rather than reversed, as in the standard progression). In Roman-numeral notation, the progression runs as follows:
| I |
I |
I |
I |
| III |
III |
bVII |
bVII |
| IV |
V |
I |
I |
- The song “Mother”, written by Andy Summers and included on The Police’s Synchronicity album, uses a twelve-bar minor-chord blues structure in 7/8 as its musical accompaniment.
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