12 Bar Blues
12 Bar Blues is a pattern of chords which repeats every 12 bars. There are hundreds of well known songs based on this chord progression, i.e., they contain basically the same chords in the same order. 12 bar blues is commonly used in Rock music and is the basis of Blues music.
Some well known Rock songs which use this 12 bar chord pattern are:
- Original Batman TV Theme
- Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
- Rock Around the Clock - Bill Haley
- Roll Over Beethoven - Chuck Berry
- Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley
- In the Mood - Glenn Miller
- Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard
- Shake, Rattle and Roll - Bill Haley
- Barbara Ann - The Beach Boys
- Johnny B Goode - Chuck Berry
- Dizzy Miss Lizzy - The Beatles
- Surfin' USA - The Beach Boys
The following 12 bar Blues is in the key of A major. When a song is said to be in the key of A major, it means that the most important chord (and usually the first chord) is the A chord. This pattern of chords will probably sound familiar to you. Instead of writing a chord symbol above each bar of music it is common to only write a chord symbol when the chord changes, e.g., the first four bars of this Blues are an A chord. To help keep time accent (play louder) the first strum of every bar. End this 12 bar Blues by strumming an A chord.
The following Blues progression is the same as the previous one except that it is in a different key. Notice the similarity in sound.
