Writing the Blues

Chapter::Structure

Chapter Summary:

Musically, we’ll look at the 12-bar blues… 12 bars of music that repeat, giving structure to the song, both instrumentally and allowing for call and response vocals.

Article::Chords

Blues songs are built off of the I, IV and V chords of a particular key:

Key	I chord	IV chord	V chord
E*	E	A7	B7
A*	A	D7	E7
C	C	F7	G7
D	D	G7	A7
F	F	Bb7	C7
G	G	C7	D7

*most common "old blues" keys in standard tuning

To get the “blues feel”, you play the 7th of the IV and V chords to create the bluesy dissonant feel.