Easy Blues on Acoustic Guitar for Beginners
Combine Chords and Melody
The Blues is one of the simplest styles of music of the 19th Century.
Today I want to show you how to play an easy 12 bar blues on your acoustic guitar using the fingerstyle technique.
In this guitar lesson, we are going to combine chords and melody. This is an entertaining approach because it allows you to play the melody along with the chords.
I did my best to write the easiest blues arrangement for beginners so that almost everyone can give it a try and have fun playing this easy Blues.
Watch the video several times to learn the sound of each chord, then grab your guitar and play along.
Let’s get started.
1. Twelve Bar Blues Structure Explained
The twelve-bar blues is the most popular blues structure in popular music. This structure is the number one formula every guitar player learns.
The most prominent characteristic of the twelve-bar blues is the use of Dominant 7th chords. These chords can be played in many different blues variations, but the most common twelve-bar blues is played with I7 – IV7 – V7 chords of a key.
This lesson will learn the 12 bar blues in A, or called “Blues in A.”
1.1 Twelve Bar Blues Structure n.1
Below you can see the blues structure presented in its most simple form. Notice that all the chords are Dominant 7th or called 7th chords.
Some of the chords will be repeated several times, others just twice.
I recommend that you play the chords along with the sheet music. Each chord should be strummed or plucked four times (as shown by the repeat sign) in a steady beat and as evenly as possible.
1.2 Twelve Bar Blues Structure n.2
A simple variation for the twelve-bar blues could be adding the D7 on the second bar.
This is a straightforward change that will make a huge difference, especially if you want to play a slow blues.
Adding the additional D7 chord on bar number 2 will make the blues progression less static and more lively.
2. Twelve Bar Blues Chords | Dominant 7th Chord
In this section, I will show you how to play the dominant 7th chords, also called blues chords.
The blues chord’s main characteristic is the extended 7th (the seventh note starting from the root note) added to the chord.
A basic major or minor chord is made of three notes, the I III and V degree of the scale. These three notes are the root note (I), the 3rd (III), and the 5th (V).
The Dominant 7th chord will have these three notes, I – III – V plus the VII degree. The additional note we add to the chord is called “extension,” and the chord will be called “extended chord.”
In the example below, I will show you the difference between the C major chord and the C7 chord (dominant 7th).
2.1 Twelve Bar Blues Chord Diagram for Beginners
It’s time to learn how to play the twelve-bar blues chords.
As I mentioned, there are so many different ways of playing blues chords. Let’s get started with the blues chords for beginners, which are chords played in the neck’s first position.
I suggest that you strum the chords several times. Adjust the left-hand position using the three left-hand golden rules we talked about in the beginner course. Try to fix any string buzzing and noise.
Note: The disadvantage of learning such easy blues chords is that you can’t transpose them in a different key. If you want to play, for example, a blues in C major, you will have to learn the C7, F7, and G7 shape.
2.2 Twelve Bar Blues Chord Diagram with Bar Chords
Another way of playing blues chords is to learn the ones played with bar chords.
The advantages of learning the blues chord progression with the bar chords are that they can be easily transposed in different keys.
All you’ll have to do is move the chord in a different position to play a different chord. The shape will be the same.
Check the diagram below if you want to learn how to play the twelve-bar blues chord progression with bar chords. Notice that the E7 is played without the bar chord, but the absence of open strings makes this chord easy to transpose in a different neck position.
2.3 Twelve Bar Fingerstyle Blues Chords
Now let me show you my favorite twelve-bar fingerstyle blues chords.
The awesome thing about playing blues chords with the fingerpicking technique is that we can simplify the chords a lot.
In this section, I will show you how to play blues chords on three strings only. This is possible because we will only pluck the three most important notes of the Dominant 7th chord, the I – III – VII.
These are the notes we will play for each chord.
- A7: A – C# – G
- D7: D – F# – C
- E7: E – G# – D
Check the tab below to learn the fingerstyle blues chords.
3. Twelve Bar Blues in This YouTube Lesson
Now that we discussed the basics of the twelve-bar blues, it’s time to dive into the lesson I posted today on my YouTube channel.
In this lesson, I will show you how to combine chords and melody over twelve-bar blues.
So far, I know that we only covered a few basics, but I trusted me. I really did my best to make this blues as simple as possible.
Also, I think that with the information you learned so far, playing the blues could be kind of boring. Nobody wants to strum a couple of dominant 7th chords all day long.
Instead, we will focus on how to play the blues on acoustic guitar using the fingerpicking technique. I don’t consider this lesson to be the “Blues for Absolute Beginner” type of thing but more of a simple, intermediate twelve-bar fingerstyle blues.
Learn one chord at a time if you have to, but don’t get demotivated just because it sounds difficult.
There are three elements in this twelve-bar blues (in order):
- The melody
- The percussion
- The chord
3.1 Easy Blues Melody with The Pentatonic Scale
The melody in this blues lesson is straightforward.
Each red box contains many single notes (most of the time 4) that can be played with either a guitar pick or the right-hand fingertip.
The scales I used for the blues melody are the A major and A minor Pentatonic scale.
The melody structure goes as follows:
- A7 and E7: Melody using the A major Pentatonic.
- D7: Melody using the A minor Pentatonic.
3.2 The Percussion
Practice this simple percussive approach I call “Thumb Slap,” in which you strike the bass note with the thumb while simultaneously strumming the top three strings with the middle finger.
This percussive approach is only used one time for each bar.
Percussion in the yellow square.
3.3 The Blues Chords in This Lesson (Power Chords)
In this lesson, the chords are straightforward and different from what you learned in this article.
Because we are playing a slow shuffle blues, the basic blues chords for beginners, the blues chords with bar chords, and the fingerstyle chords we learned at the beginning of this article won’t work.
Instead, we are going to use a different type of chord called “Blues Power Chord.”
The Blues Power Chord has two notes only; the I and V. We can play around with the V degree and go up a whole step.
Notice how the chords in the square have two notes.
For the A7, you will play two notes on the 4th string. The first one is on the 4th fret, the F sharp note (F#), the 6th note from the Root note A. The second note on the 2nd fret, the E, is the 5th note from E.
We will follow the same chord structure for the D7 too.
Check it below.
4. How to Practice these Blues
I worked really hard to write the easiest arrangement for beginners. I don’t think there is any other way to make this solo easier than that.
If you are a beginner and want to start playing around with these easy Blues, you are more than welcome!
Follow these three steps:
- Learn the melody first. Focus only on the top two strings and spend a little bit of time learning the melody.
- Once you familiarize yourself with the melody, add the single percussion on the strings.
- The last step will be to add the chords.
As always, take things step by step and learn one thing every day. Don’t get frustrated if one day you don’t see the progress. Keep moving forward and have fun playing guitar.
4. Additional Resources – The Pentatonic Scale in Blues
The Pentatonic scale is the most used in Blues.
This scale is just five notes (from the word Penta) and is the most popular scale for guitar players and other musicians.
One of the reasons why guitar players love the Pentatonic scale is its simple shape. The Pentatonic formula is straightforward:
- For the major Pentatonic, only play the I II III V VI from the major scale.
- For the minor Pentatonic only play the I III IV V VII from the minor scale.
Check the diagram below to learn the difference between the major and minor Pentatonic in A.
4.1 Difference Between the Major Scale and Major Pentatonic
4.2 The Difference Between Minor Scale and Minor Pentatonic
4.3 The Pentatonic Scale Positions
There are five different Pentatonic positions.
The Pentatonic scale is just 5 notes. If we play the scale from each degree (note), we will generate five Pentatonic shapes (also called Pentatonic positions).
Let’s take the A minor Pentatonic scale as an example.
The notes from the A minor Pentatonic scale are A – C – D – E – G – A. In the Tab below, I will write the scale starting from each degree of the scale.
Notice that the Pentatonic positions are numbered from the starting note. If we start the scale with the note G, which is the 5th degree of the scale, we will call this position “Position V.” If the scale starts with note A (1st degree), we will call this “Position I).
4.4 How to Memorize the Pentatonic Scale – Pentatonic Box Pattern –
One of the most effective ways to memorize the Pentatonic scale patterns is by visualizing the scale as a bunch of 1-3 and 1-4 patterns.
I was inspired by Steve Stine’s lesson called “1 Weird Trick to Memorizing Pentatonic Patterns,” He explains the Pentatonic scale can be easily visualized as a group of 1-3 and 1-4 patterns.
In fact, when you start playing around with the scale, you realize that the notes only have either two or three frets distance from each other.
Let me show you an example of the diagrams below.
Another scale is called the Pentatonic Blues scale, but we will not discuss this scale in this lesson.