How To Play 12 Bar Blues On Acoustic Guitar

by Simon Candy

In this video lesson, you learn how to play a 12 bar blues on guitar.

Blues is essential to know as a musician, even if you don’t consider yourself to be a blues player. This is because it is so prevalent in various genres of music including rock, jazz, country, folk, and would you believe, blues :)

In this lesson, you learn all about the standard 12 bar blues progression in E, including the basic structure of the 12 bar blues plus the variations you will come across from one song to the next.

You also learn the difference between a straight feel verses a swing feel for the blues.

In addition, you learn various ways to approach playing a blues on your guitar.

These include:

• Using a bass line to outline the 12 bar blues progression
• A shuffle approach
• Cool turnaround riffs to make things much more interesting

Blues is something you will jam many times as a musician.

It’s fun and something you can do without any preparation in any situation you may find yourself in, which makes it even more fun!

Watch the video below to learn more:

Blues Chord Embellishments/Extensions

Here is the 12 bar blues using the chord embellishment/extension approach: (watch the video for a full breakdown)

Blues Shuffle

Here is the 12 bar blues using a shuffle approach: (watch the video for a full breakdown)

Blues Bassline

Here is the 12 bar blues using a bass line/riff approach: (watch the video for a full breakdown)

Blues Turnarounds

Here are 3 turnaround riffs you can use in your 12 bar blues: (watch the video for a full breakdown)

• Turnaround 1:

• Turnaround 2:

• Turnaround 3:

Mixing Blues Approaches

Here is an example of mixing together some of the approaches from our blues examples above:

• Chorus 1:

• Chorus 2:

Discover how to create blues fingerpicking arrangements for acoustic guitar with this ebook/audio