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This lesson will show you some essential blues guitar chords and theircommon variations. Bear in mind that there are no set rules onwhich chords you can play, but there are staple chords that havedefined the blues sound for over century.
This lesson goes hand in hand with the blueschord progressions lesson.Simply apply the chord variations you learn here to the forms coveredin the progressions lesson.
You'll probably have come across some of the chord forms shown in thislesson, naturally as you've progressed with learning guitar.
However,I'll show you somemodifications of those common open andbarre chord forms that will give them a more bluesy touch.
Open position blues guitar chords
Openposition refers to chords that useopen strings, mostcommonly chord forms down at the first few frets. Most people learnopen chords as beginners (e.g. E, A, D, C and G major).
They provide uswith full, vibrant chord voicings and, in the context of blues, we'remost interested in the dominant7th variations of these open chords.
E major is the most common blues key on guitar, so you could think ofE7 as the 1 chord, A7 as the 4 chord and B7 as the 5 chord.
E formblues guitar chords
E7Var. 1 | E7 Var. 2 |
| E7add6 | E9 |
| E13 | E7#9 |
A form blues chords
| A7Var. 1 | A7 Var. 2 |
| A7add6 | A9 Var. 1 |
| A9 Var. 2 | A13 |
B form blues guitar chords
| B7 | B9 |
| B7#9 |
Movable blues guitar chords
When you start playing blues further up the fretboard, you'll needchord forms that allow you to play the same chords in any position.These are called movable chord forms/shapes because they keep theirformation as you position them up and down the fretboard.
The most common movable form is the barrechord, which I'm sure you're familar with. Just like withopen chords, there are specific variations of these barre chords thatgive us more of a blues flavour.
The two main barre chord forms used in blues are the E and A form (orshape). These chords are so called as they are rooted on the E and Astrings respectively. You can use either of these positions for the 1,4or 5 chords in a blues progression, but it's most common to use the Eform for the 1 chord and the A form for the 4 and 5 chords.
E form blues barre chords
| Dominant7th (e.g. A7) | Dominant7th Var. 2 |
| 7th Added6th (e.g. A7add6) | Dominant13th (e.g.A13) |
| 7th Sharp9th (e.g. A7#9) |
Aform blues barre chords
| Dominant7th (e.g. D7) | Dominant7th Var. 2 |
| 7th Added6th (e.g. D7add6) |
There are also movable chord forms that don't involve a "barred" indexfinger. Some of these chords are cut down variations of the fullerbarre chord forms, often referred to as "shell chords" because theycontain only the most important chord tones (e.g. the neutral 5th isoften omitted).
Similar tobarre chords, the most common shapes are rooted on the E and A strings.
E string movable blues chords
| Dominant7th (e.g. A7) | Dominant7th Var. 2 |
| Dominant13th (e.g. A13) |
A string movable blues guitar chords
| Dominant7th (e.g. D7) | Dominant9th (e.g. D9) |
| Dominant13th (e.g. D13) | 7th Sharp9th (e.g. E7#9) |
Each time round the blues progression, try mixing different variationsand see what you can come up with.
Other blues chord variations
While it's common to play straight chords through a blues progression,guitarists often use chord or lead phrasing to embellish the 1 4 5sequence.Blues phrasing will be covered in its own lesson, but here are a fewexamples to get you going.
Another example of a common phrase, using our open E major position...
Then, moving to the A major 4 chord...
Another phrasing example on that tonic E major chord would be...
The audio example gives you some ideas on how you can play thatvariation. Will explore blues technique in a separate lesson!
That one is built around the (E) minor pentatonic scale - a staplescale in blues music.
Blues turnaround chord phrases
The turnaround occurs most commonly in the last 2 bars of a bluesprogression. In short, it prepares the listener for the return back tothe tonic and the start of a new 12 bars (or however many bars the formis).
A typical example in the key of E major is a descending chromaticphrase usingthe top 3 strings as follows (again, the audio example shows you a fewways you can play it, for example picking vs strumming)...
Or, based on our E major phrase from before...
It's also common to use an ascending. chromatic phrase during theturnaround asfollows...
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