12-bar Blues Shuffle

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Hi there and welcome to 12-bar Blues Shuffle :)

The 12-bar blues is one of the most popular chord progressions in modern music. This progression has twelve bars cycle and that explains the name. It is also called I-IV-V (one-four-five) progression since we have tonic (I), sub-dominant (IV) and dominant (V) chords, another words, the progression is built on 1st, 4th and 5th intervals of a scale (intervals are marked with roman numerals), so it can be E-A-B, A-D-E, etc.

There are many variations of 12-bar blues, this one is 'quick-to-four' variation, with IV (sub-dominant) interval in the second bar, so the progression goes as following:

01 E I
02 A IV
03 E I
04 E I
05 A IV
06 A IV
07 E I
08 E I
09 B V
10 A IV
11 E I
12 B V

The shuffle rhythm is based on eight-note-triplets, and it's quite powerful in combination with a walking bass and added root/sixth and root/flat seventh chords.

Key signature: E Major
Time signature: 4/4
Tempo: 100 bpm

Just add some drive and let's shuffle, enjoy this lesson. Feedback is welcome :)

Dejan

           >                                    >                         
  |--3--|  |--3--|  |--3-|  |--3-|     |--3--|  |--3--|  |--3-|  |--3-|   
  E  E  E  Q     E  Q    E  Q    E     E  E  E  Q     E  Q    E  Q    E   
------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
------------------------------------|------------------------------------|
--------2--------2--L----L--2----2--|--------0--------0--L----L--0----0--|
--1--L--1--x-----1--L----L--1----1--|--2--L--2--x-----2--L----L--2----2--|
--2--L-----x-----2--L----L--2----2--|--0--L-----x-----0--L----L--0----0--|
------------------------------------|------------------------------------|


  |--3--|  |--3--|  |--3--|  |--3--|     |-5|  3  ---5  ---5 ---|--3--|  |--3--|  3  3   
  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E     S  S  E  S  S  E  S E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E   
--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
--------------4--------3--------2-----|--0h-1p----0h-1p----0-------------2-----2--------|
--------------------------------------|--x----------------------------------1-----1-----|
--2-----L--5-----5--4-----4--3-----3--|--2-----L--------2----0--1--2--L--------------2--|
--0-----L-----------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|


  W                  
-------------------||
-------------------||
--7----------------||
--6----------------||
--7----------------||
-------------------||

The sixth part. Second variation. BARs 9 - 12

The first BAR of this part (BAR 9) is B7 chord, with some dead notes to accent the rhythm.

The next (BAR 10) is A7 chord, played identically as the previous one.

The third BAR (BAR 11) is a common and widely used chromatic blues pattern. Take care that the fourth string shall be silent, you can mute it by touching it with left hand ring finger while playing the 5th string.

In the fourth BAR (BAR 12) we have some legato (hammer-on - pull-off) which is typycal for the blues playing. I play it with the upstroke to accent the 3rd string, and notice while you play the legato you pick the B note on 5th string just between the last two notes of the legato part. It may be difficult in the beginning but practice it slowly. At the end of the bar we finish on B7 chord played as arrpegio.

And finaly we end on E7 chord.

And that's it, I hope you liked the lesson and let me know if you need any help :)

Cheers

Dejan

Lesson Questions, Feedback & Comments

Kristofer Dahl	13th March 2008
GMC Founder & Rocker	Awesome to see a new lesson from you Dejan - and what a massive sound you have got there!

Marcus Lavendell	13th March 2008
Instructor	Wohoo!! Cool!

Gabriel Leopardi	13th March 2008
GMC Coordinator & Instructor	Sounds great!

Carlos Carrillo	13th March 2008
Instructor	Dejan!!!Really cool!!!

Joe Kataldo	13th March 2008
Instructor	What a Blues Cool

Bogdan Radovic	13th March 2008
Bass Instructor	Great lesson Dejan!! Thanks!

Muris Varajic	13th March 2008
Instructor	Metal blues,kickin' and rollin'!!

Nick Kellie	13th March 2008
Instructor	nice one!

Dejan Farkas	13th March 2008
Instructor	Thanks guys

Ivan Milenkovic	13th March 2008
Instructor	WOW! You really like those riffs man

DeepRoots	13th March 2008
Member	Really powerfull sounding- cheers!

Toni Suominen	13th March 2008
Instructor	Great lesson, and a brutal tone!

Martin la guitarra	13th March 2008
Member	love it! thx dejan

Jerry Arcidiacono	13th March 2008
Instructor	Strooong blues!!!

Danilo Capezzuto	13th March 2008
Instructor	Evil blues!

The Uncreator	13th March 2008
Fire Up The Blades, Moderator	Excellent stuff, Like Danilo said, its the evil blues!!

Nemanja Filipovic	13th March 2008
Singing Instructor	great man...it is like hevy metal blues

jammer91	13th March 2008
Member	Reminds me of Pantera's Walk. This is a must learn.

Gerardo Siere	13th March 2008
Instructor	Nice riffing

Dejan Farkas	13th March 2008
Instructor	Thank you all, I'm glad you like it

Marcus Siepen	13th March 2008
Instructor (Blind Guardian)	Awesome lesson Dejan, when I read the title I expected something very different, but your heavy blues rocks big time.

JVM	13th March 2008
Member	Cool Dejan, you laid it down man

Pablo Vazquez	13th March 2008
Instructor	Cool! Well done man!

Capt.Z	13th March 2008
Member	nice! my dad likes it too!

OrganisedConfusion	13th March 2008
Member	This is rocking Dejan. Awesome full sound and kick ass blues

Hisham Al-Sanea	13th March 2008
Instructor	very welldone Dejan ..nice 12 bar shuffle

thund3r666	13th March 2008
Member	cool! You let me see an other face of blues... Great music

Dejan Farkas	13th March 2008
Instructor	Very kind of you guys

Tuubsu	14th March 2008
Member	A lor of POWER in this, very cool!

Juan M. Valero	14th March 2008
Instructor	oh man, love this distortion !!!! This lesson sounds great.

Dejan Farkas	14th March 2008
Instructor	Appreciated

SLASH91	14th March 2008
Member	Awesome blues

Carlos Carrillo	14th March 2008
Instructor	fantastic lesson!!!!!! great Dejan

David Wallimann	15th March 2008
Instructor	Great quality there! I love the videos. Thanks!

Dejan Farkas	15th March 2008
Instructor	Thanks guys, i combined here a traditional blues with a heavy sound, I guess I had too much energy at the moment

Luciana Segovia	15th March 2008
Singing Instructor	cooooooooooooooollllllllll

Dejan Farkas	16th March 2008
Instructor	Thanks Luciana

Hammerhead	10th April 2008
Member	Ahhh yes!....thank you!

Dejan Farkas	11th April 2008
Instructor	You're welcome