How to Play 12 bar Blues for Rhythm Guitar
In our last lesson we looked at some blues turnarounds in E. In this lesson, we look at basic 12 bar blues rhythm guitar. Listen to this MP3 to hear what we are learning.
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This isn’t too challenging to play so it should be great for beginner level guitarists wanting to play something quick and impressive.
You can download this PDF for the musical score with TAB notation here.
12 bar blues in the key of A uses the A chord, D chord and E chord. That is four bars of A / two bars of D / two bars of A / one bar of E / one bar of D / one bar of A / one bar of E. Here are the three positions for A, D and E.
A position on the 4th and 5th strings
D position on the 3rd and 4th strings
E position on the 5th and 6th strings
Download this free PDF on playing the blues.
Alex Brooke is a performing musician and guitar teacher based in Tokyo.
Thank you. This is just what I was looking for. I have a student new to the instrument and the blues, and this will be the perfect exercise for him. A week with this and some Howlin’ Wolf, and we’ll be on the same page.