You can hear how this is starting to give a bit more energy and groove to the song. Have a listen to this bassline that is based on a broken chord pattern and see if you can have a go at playing it: So, we can have a go at making the bassline more complicated. This works fine, but the groove is quite limited. It is possible to play blues piano with a very simple left hand bass just using a single note for each chord: When the chord changes to an F in bar 5 then we will change our bass note to F, etc… So, if we are playing 12 bar blues in C then the 1st bass note we play will be the note C as C major is the 1st chord in the progression. The bassline is built on the root note of each chord. The groove of a twelve bar blues piece is largely built on the bassline, which provides a foundation for the rhythmic feel and also the chord structure. In order to do this we need to have a look at the bassline, the chords and the melody.įor each part I am going to give you a beginner task to try followed by a more advanced task.
#Walking papers blues song how to#
We are going to have a look at how to play some 12 bar blues on the piano.
It follows the standard blues progression in B flat major and is a great example to listen to:
This song by Chuck Berry recorded in 1959 is one of the most famous 12 bar blues songs. Here are just a few famous 12 bar blues examples: There is a huge back catalogue of blues music. Have a listen to this example of quick-change blues in E major: This is called quick-change or quick four and can be very effective. You will often find that composers change the chord in the 2nd bar from Chord I to Chord IV. It can also be played in both major and minor keys.ġ2 bar blues in a minor key gives a fantastic moody feel to a song! The example above was in C major, but we could have 12 bar blues in G, in E Flat or even in C sharp major if you felt like a real challenge!! One of the most obvious ways is that it can be played in any key! There are many ways in which you can vary the typical 12 bar blues structure. We call this 12 bar blues in C as it is played in C major.Ĭan you hear how the overall structure has a clear sense of balance to it?Īlso, you can hear how I have used chord V in the 12th bar as a turnaround chord because the piece is continuing. Let’s have a listen to how the twelve bar blues progression sounds in C major played on the piano:
The chord pattern in C major is as follows: Let’s try this standard progression out in C major. However, if the piece is continuing then chord V is often used – this is called a turnaround chord. The chord in the 12th bar is chord I if the piece is finishing. You can see clearly that it has 12 bars (hence the name!!) and uses the primary chords (I, IV, V). Have a look at this diagram of the progression: The 12 bar blues progression uses chords I IV V – the primary chords and is typically in a 4/4 time signature. In this lesson we are going to learn the standard blues progression, listen to some famous examples of 12 bar blues songs and learn to play some blues on the piano. 12 bar blues is a chord progression that defines the number of bars or measures in a typical blues song structure.