The twelve-bar blues (or blues changes) is one of the most prominent
chord progressions in
popular music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
. The
blues progression has a distinctive form in
lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, ...
,
phrase
In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
,
chord structure, and
duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the
I,
IV, and
V chords of a key. Mastery of the blues and
rhythm changes are "critical elements for building a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
repertoire".
Background
The blues originated from a combination of work songs, spirituals, and early southern country music. The music was passed down through oral tradition. It was first written down by
W. C. Handy, an
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
composer and band leader. Its popularity led to the creation of "
race records" and the popularity of blues singers like
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was t ...
and
Ma Rainey. The style of music heard on race records was later called "
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...
" (R & B). As the music became more popular, more people wanted to perform it. General patterns that existed in the blues were formalized, one of these being the 12-bar blues.
Basic progression
The basic progression for a 12-bar blues may be represented in several ways.
It is shown in its simplest form, without the common "quick change",
turnarounds, or seventh chords. For variations, see the following section.
*Chord notation in the
key of C:
:
*Functional notationchords are represented by T to indicate the
tonic, S for the
subdominant, and D for the
dominant:
:
*
Roman numeral notationI represents the tonic, IV the sub-dominant, and V the dominant:
:
Variations
Shuffle blues
In the original form, the dominant chord was repeated on the twelfth bar; later on, the V–IV–I–I "shuffle blues" pattern became standard in the third set of four bars:
:
Quick to four
The common quick-change, quick to four, or quick four variation uses the subdominant or IV chord in the second bar.
:
Seventh chords
Seventh chords are a type of chord that includes the 7th scale degree (that is, the 7th note of the scale). There are different types of 7th chords such as major 7ths, dominant 7ths, minor 7ths, half diminished 7ths, and fully diminished 7ths. These chords are similar with slight changes, but are all centered around the same key center. Dominant 7th chords are generally used throughout a blues progression. The addition of dominant 7th chords as well as the inclusion of other types of 7th chords (i.e. minor and diminished 7ths) are often used just before a change, and more changes can be added. A more complicated example might look like this, where "7" indicates a seventh chord:
:
Bebop blues
This progression is similar to
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...
's "
Now's the Time", "
Billie's Bounce
"Billie's Bounce" (also known as "Bill's Bounce") is a jazz composition written in 1945 by Charlie Parker in the form of a 12 bar F blues. Some sources claim that the song was dedicated to Dizzy Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie's agent, Billy Shaw, al ...
",
Sonny Rollins's "
Tenor Madness", and many other
bop tunes. Peter Spitzer describes it as "a bop
soloist's cliche to
arpeggiate this chord
79 (secondary dominant">V/ii = VI
79)">secondary_dominant.html" ;"title="
79 (
V/ii = VI
79)from the third (chord)">3 up to the ninth">9."
:
Minor blues
There are also minor twelve-bar blues, such as John Coltrane's "Equinox (standard), Equinox" and "Mr. P.C.". The chord on the fifth degree (music), scale degree may be major (V
7) or minor (v
7). Major and minor can also be mixed together, a signature characteristic of the music of
Charles Brown.
:
Other variations
"
W. C. Handy codified this blues form to help musicians communicate chord changes." Many variations are possible. The length of sections may be varied to create
eight-bar blues or
sixteen-bar blues.
Melodic line
As the chords of a 12-bar blues follow a form, so does the melodic line. The melodic line might just be the melody of the piece or it might also include lyrics. The melody and lyrics frequently follow an AA'B form, meaning one phrase is played then repeated (perhaps with a slight alteration), then something new is played. This pattern is frequently used in the blues and in musical genres that have their roots in the blues.
See also
*
Eight-bar blues
*
Sixteen-bar blues
*
Bird changes
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Twelve-Bar Blues
Chord progressions
Song forms
Jazz genres
Blues music genres
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Jazz terminology
12 (number)
de:Blues#Das Blues-Schema