Blues Chord Progressions Rock N Roll printable pdf download

Blues Chord Progressions Rock N Roll

Blues Chord Progressions – Rock n Roll

Introduction

Blues chord progressions have been a musical staple for almost a hundred years and are still used

in all styles of music to this day. Rock n roll artists like Elvis and Little Richard bought these

progressions into mainstream popularity, and the tradition has been carried on ever since. This

sheet looks at the rock n roll 12 bar blues and shows a few different versions of this popular

progression.

The 12 bar blues uses only 3 chords and regardless of the key you are playing in the relationship

between these 3 chords is always identical. It employs what we call the 1 – 4 – 5 pattern. These

numbers relate to the notes in the scale of the key you are playing in. It is important to remember

that a 1 chord is simply the first chord you play in a song, that chord that defines your key. In the

case of blues the first chord of the song almost always defines the key. So if your first chord is a

G, you are playing in the Key of G. Now that we have our 1 chord and our song key we can now

work out the 4 chord and the 5 chord by simply following the major scale of our song key. This

can be shown below.

If we were playing in the key of A it would look like this

12 Bar Blues

Here is standard version of a 12 bar blues progression in the key of G. Below shows the number

of bars (12) with the chord you will play on each bar (the chords are referred to by their number

and letter).

Bars:

Chord:

1(G)

4(C)

1(G)

4(C)

5(D)

4(C)

1(G)

The tab over the page follows the 12 bar progression above, in the key of G and uses the Rock n

Roll/Status Quo style rhythm/chords.

Blues Chord Progressions Rock N Roll