In this video, we look at some cool chord fragments combining licks and turnarounds with the 12 bar blues.
Blues Chords
A common type of three-chord song is the simple twelve-bar blues used in blues and rock and roll. Typically, the three blues chords used are the chords on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant (scale degrees I, IV and V): in the key of C, these would be the C, F and G chords. It is important to know that guide tones are always the 3rd and 7th intervals of any chord. The 3rd and 7th in a chord are the notes that define a chord. They are much more important than even the root when it comes to describing the character of the chord sound.
Blues is a musical genre known as the folklore of African-American musicians. Its origins are associated with the southern states of the USA, that is the region conventionally called the “deep south”. The very name of the genre (sadness, despair) is related to its nostalgic form, also in the textual layer. Blues pieces touch male-female relationships as well as feelings and emotions (love, loneliness, faithfulness, jealousy). However, blues performers often sing about freedom, work and travel. The songs also feature social criticism relating mainly to racial inequality and political issues.
Many artists are inspired by blues music and combine it with other styles. In this way, such musical mergers as punk blues, soul blues or blues rock. The popularity of this genre in the USA has led to the emergence of regional varieties, such as Louisiana, New Orleans, Texas and Detroit blues. There are also factions characteristic of other countries – British blues and African blues.
