Blues Guitar Chords.. the easy way!

Today kicks off a new series of Blues Guitar Chords.


Blues progressions typically follows a 12 bar pattern based around three Dominant 7th Chords:


||: A7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  D7  |  D7  |  A7  |  A7  |  E7  |  D7  |  A7  |  E7  :||


There are lots of variations of this basic progression, but they all tend to be elaborations of the basic 3 chord 12 bar above.


We've look at many different ways of playing dominant 7th chords on the guitar before, but today we'll look at playing through a blues progression with the least possible effort

7th chords use these degrees of the major scale: 1, 3, 5, b7
A7 uses the notes: A, C#, E, G

If you're playing with a band you can be sure that the bass player will be playing the root note. The most important notes of the chord are the 3rd and 7th, in A that's C# and G. So today's guitar chord will just play these two essential notes of the chord:
As you can see, this is the easiest way to play through a blues chord progression, only two fingers needed!

The great thing about this is when you play through the blue chord progression, you don't have to jump up to the 10th fret to play your D7 chord, keep the fingering exactly the same and move down one fret:

D7: D, F#, A, C

To play the E7 chord, keep the fingering exactly the same and move up one fret:

 E7: E, G#, B, D
We can now play through the whole 12 bar blues progression with one shape and moving only one fret in either direction.As well as being easy to play this demonstrate an important idea when linking chords together: voice leading, that is making sure that chords flow by having each note move a small distance to the next.

We'll be building up from our basic Blues Guitar Chord progression day by day, so tune up and tune in tomorrow for another Guitar Chord Of The Day