Part 2 - 7th Chords & The 12 Bar

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 1

#

ELECTRIC BLUES ESSENTIALS LEVEL 1


BACK TO COURSES INDEX

Before tackling this course, you should be comfortable with all the
material from PART 1 - DIRTY BLUES

7th Chords &


The 12 Bar

In unit 2 we dive into the theory that


makes up our blues base, the dominant
7th chords and the 12 bar format. For the
dominant 7th chords we tackle the
theory behind the shapes and then how
to play them in 5 positions of the neck.
We then put this into practice whilst
learning the 12 bar structure, with an
awesome upbeat, Chicago blues shuffle!
Check out the first video to get started
and click here to check out the Materials
Section below to access backing tracks
and interactive tab!

Lesson 7

Lesson 8

Lesson 9

Lesson 10

Lesson 11

Lesson 12

Essential Blues Guitar Lesso…

LESSON 7: THE THEORY


Let’s start by looking at the chord
construction for the dominant 7th chord,
as well as why we 1/2 use them in the
blues. So, to construct a dominant 7th
chord you need to take the following
notes from any major scale:

root, 3rd, 5th, b7th

This demonstrates clearly that the chord


is based very mch on a major chord (with
the root, 3rd and 5th being a major
chord) and then we bring in a minor
element, which is the b7th. This
construction creates a totally unique set
of chord known as dominant chords.

Dominant Chord
Purpose...

This unique set of chords has a very


strong need to resolve. The interplay
between the major 3rd and flat 7th
creates a sound that has more
tension than a major or minor chord,
and therefore it is often used to
navigate to a resolve. For example,
you would often use a dominant chord on
the 5th degree of your major scale as it
creates a stronger tension, that you can
resolve to the root chord again. As we
take this theory deeper and deeper, you
can use dominant chords to cycle
between keys (but we’ll get to that in
another course!).

In the blues, we deliberately want to


have a ‘tense’ sound pretty much all the
way through, creating little moments of
resolve all the way through, but never
fully resolving... Giving the impression
that the music can go round and round
forever (as it often does!). This is why we
use dominant chords all the way through
a 12 bar blues, and this concept is totally
unique to the blues. So, with that in mind,
let’s take a look at the structure of a basic
12 bar.

|I|I|I|I|

| IV | IV | I | I |

| V | IV | Turnaround |
Turnaround |

First up, the I, IV and V symbols are


Roman Numerals, and they represent 1, 4
and 5. It is important to consider your 12
bar blues a 1, 4, 5 style, as you can then
place it into any key you like! When we
say 1, 4, 5, we mean that we want you to
take a key, for example A major, and take
the 1st chord (A major), 4th chord (D
major) and 5th chord (E major). You then
make them all dominant 7th chords and
finally put them into the format above.
Simple!

Round And Round We


Go...

Your first task is to practice this structure,


using ay dominant 7th shapes you may
already know. If you don’t know any
shapes yet, just listen to the video a few
times to get the sound into your head.
You can even try listening to a few 12 bar
backing tracks on YouTube or actual
records from your favourite blues players.
See if you can spot the changes as
written above. NOTE: This is the most
standard 12 bar struture, but of
course there wil be variations to
that. We’ll tackle a few more of those
later in the course.

MATERIALS:
INTERACTIVE TAB &
BACKING TRACKS
Below are the materials for this group of
lessons. Click on the tab icon to open our
super cool interactive tab player (this will
allow you to slow down the tab and play
along with the video). Alternatively, jump
straight in with the backing tracks below.
Good luck!

! " 00:00 01:15

Chicago Downtown Blues

Chicago Downtown Blues (Drum and


Guitar)

Chicago Downtown Blues Backing Track

Chicago Downtown Blues Backing Track


(-10%)

Ready to move on? Remember to check out every


lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...

Part 3 - Major & Minor


Scales
In unit 3 we will be coming back to our lead guitar
playing and talking in depth about the major and
minor crossover in the blues. We can use both the
major pentatonic of the key, and the minor
pentatonic of the key to create tasty licks!

ONLINE GUITAR LESSONS

Learn to play guitar

PRIVATE GUITAR LESSONS

Aylesbury
Bath
Belfast
Berlin
Birmingham
Bournemouth
Brighton
Bristol
Cardiff
Chesterfield
Crewe
Darlington
Derby
Dublin
Eastbourne
Edinburgh
Exeter
Glasgow
Guildford
High Wycombe
Leeds
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Maidenhead
Manchester
Newcastle
Nottingham
Oxford
Rotherham
Seaford
Sheffield
Worthing
Skype

LATEST NEWS

YGA Blog

CONTACT YGA

Are you a guitar tutor?


Contact
About Cookies
Privacy Policy

© 2021 Your Guitar Academy Ltd

You might also like