Blues Songs For Beginners

@Ballymoney_Bailey_Boy

Welcome to the forum Ian. Check out this song lesson which should answer your question: https://www.justinguitar.com/songs/eric-clapton-before-you-accuse-me-chords-tabs-guitar-lesson-bs-501

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Just to add to @socioā€™s suggestion: donā€™t be frightened by the fancy finger work in the opening demo. The lesson also shows how to play the basic shuffle rhythm. The relevant part of the video is from 1:45 to 5:20. Spoiler: the B7 is not played as a 2-finger chord.

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Just had a look/listen to some of the songs on the play list. Most of these are way to quick with zero chance of keeping up. Have you seen Scuttle Buttin - Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even if I knew the chords there is no way of playing that quick, or ā€˜grabbing the vibeā€™. There is just too much going on as well as just playing the chords.

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Apart from Pride And Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan I donā€™t really hear the 12BB progressions in the playlist. Am I missing something here?

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Stuart, I donā€™t know what exactly you are looking for when searching for blues songs. But I can suggest ā€œChocolate Jesusā€, Tom Waits and ā€œFolsom Prison Bluesā€ from Johnny Cash, both are around 100 bpm, Chocolate Jesus in the App is even only at 68 bpm.

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Hey @Stuartw, I just had a quick listen for you, apart from Mannish Boy which is a one chord song I can hear 12bb in all of them.

Do you mean you are not recognising the 12 bar progression, or do you mean something else?

If the former, 12 bar progression is indeed more subtle in some and might be hard to recognise. After a few months of daily listening to blues, it should become obvious (as an added bonus you start to recognise some changes like I-IV, V-I, V-IV in other songs as well). Iā€™ve been listening to blues almost every day for a couple of years now and I still canā€™t recognise it in some slow blues songs. Iā€™ve only very recently started hearing it in Thrill is Gone.

Sweet Home Chicago and Crosscut Saw are others that Iā€™d suggest listening to as relatively easier ones to recognise.

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Emma - try BB King - Spotlight On Lucille.

All music, no lyrics just as you ordered.
Itā€™s not just a small blues trio, thereā€™s some brass and you may or may not like the sometimes wine-bar light blues-jazzy vibe of some tracks. Well worth a listen.

Iā€™m kind of in the same boat. Finished module 13 yesterday and just thought that there is no way Iā€™m going to be able to play those tracks. So Iā€™m just going to practice different rhythms with different versions of the I-IV-V chord progression for a bit, and then work on playing over some backing tracks using the minor pentatonic scale until Iā€™m happy I can work it up and down the neck without it continuing to sound like a dying seagullā€¦

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Nope. Itā€™s definitely not just you Stuart.

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Helen - sorry to contradict your recommendation of two fine songs but they are not 12-bar format.
Chocolate Jesus is an 8-bar progression and Folsom is a 20-bar progression.

If you overlook the ā€˜7ā€™ part of the B and just think E, A, B then you can also play this as simple 2-string chunka-chunka.
Like this:

Or like this:

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There are loads of 12-bar blues backing tracks in all keys on Spotify. They have no lyrics. Some are very slow. They are a great resource for getting your ear in and for playing along with.

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@Richard_close2u Sorry, maybe I was on the wrong path. The title of the thread is ā€œBlues Songs for Beginnersā€
Stuart wrote in his first post;

I thought, the question was mainly about keeping up with speed at that point in Blues songs in general, not neccessarily 12 bar Blues songs. Thats why I wrote

I answered to his first post.

In his second post, Stuart referred to the 12 bar blues progression, obviously because heā€™s having troubles to recognize the progressions while hearing the songs which have those progressions.
I understood two different subjects, maybe a lack of language or coffee in the morning, or both :wink:.
However, you are our highly esteemed expert and I appreciate your intervention in any case! Stuart, listen to Richard, he knows best! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hey Stuart,

The basic 12 Bar Blues format is so common that thereā€™s a million permutations of it, with musos putting there own spin on it. Its what makes it so cool. Some can be more obvious than others though.
Iā€™m working on some T-Bone Walker at the moment. Perhaps take a listen to T-Bone Shuffle or Stormy Monday. They are blues classics that have the very distinct sound.

Cheers, Shane

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Andrew - I know you were trying to help and Iā€™m sorry if my reply came on as strongly dismissive. The lesson does have that title ā€¦ but it is all about 12-bar format blues songs.
:slight_smile:

All good, Richard. I got it wrong. My fault, you are right (as always :joy:). The thread is categorized on the specific lesson. Didnā€™t see that in the moment I answered. What to learn? First: read, second: think, third: answer :wink:. Never discuss with a math teacher :joy:!

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Nit hearing the 12BB.

Thanks. Iā€™ll give them a listen.

Thanks. Iā€™ll give them a listen.

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Not sure why I forgot to tell you but the trick to recognising the chord progression is to focus on and listen to the bass more than any other instrument!

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Hey @VirtualM, looks like itā€™s been a while since you posted this but if still interested, Iā€™ve been having a blast listening to these two playlists. One is instrumental blues piano, the other is instrumental blues guitar:

Guitar: Spotify

Piano: Spotify

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So the practice item is " * 10 Song Work (5 strums, 5 shuffle!): 10 minutes." but I donā€™t feel that the preceding lessons allow you to use any of these for practicing. They are all well above the Module 13 skill level , unless I have missed something. How are we to practice songs if we canā€™t play them?

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