20. The 12-Bar Blues
The blues is one of the oldest of all musical styles, and many of today’s most popular musical genres take their origins from it. As bass players, it’s a style that we will be called upon to play often, so it’s important to have a solid grounding in the basics. To that end, this video course will focus primarily on the 12-bar blues progression, a chord sequence that has formed the basis of countless blues, rock and roll and pop songs. You’ll also learn more about the shuffle feel and of course, you’ll learn to play some blues basslines.
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This course is 39 MINUTES long and contains the following videos, each of which can be selected from the video player above:
1. The 12-Bar Blues Chord Sequence
This video will explain the 12-bar blues chord sequence, which is based on chords I, IV and V. You’ll also learn about the shuffle feel here.
2. Exercise #117
This simple blues bassline makes use of the second box shape that was covered in an earlier course. This exercise is a 12-bar blues in G.
3. Exercise #118
This exercise makes use of a classic blues walking line. As you’ll discover, a walking bassline is a quarter-note line which clearly outlines the sound of the chords.
4. Exercise #119
This is a rock and roll blues in the key of A. This line consists of continuous eighth notes and is played with a straight feel.
5. Exercise #120
This is a blues in the key of E, played with the shuffle feel. You’ll notice that some triplet rhythms appear here – they fit perfectly with the shuffle feel.
6. Exercise #121
This is a much slower example of a blues. Triplet rhythms are used on the final beat of most of the bars here, really reinforcing the shuffle feel.
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