Module 6: The bluesLesson 1intermediate⏱ 60 min, then 10 min a day for two weeks

The 12-bar blues and the jazz blues

Learn the basic I7–IV7–V7 blues, the jazz-blues changes in F with the ii–V, the VI7, the #IV°7 and the turnaround, and transpose the form to every key.

Why the blues comes first

Ask a jazz musician to "play a blues in F" and they will play twelve bars of a very specific chord progression without looking at a chart. The blues is the common language of the jam session, the first tune at every audition, and the form that the great recorded solos (Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green) return to again and again. It is also a compressed course in jazz harmony: the jazz-blues changes contain a ii–V, a secondary dominant, a passing diminished chord and a turnaround, and each of these reappears in every standard you will ever learn.

This lesson gives you the form in three stages: the basic three-chord blues, the jazz blues in F with every added chord explained, and the same changes in Bb and every other key. By the end you should be able to hear where you are in the form at all times, which is the real skill: a soloist who loses the form is lost, however good the notes are.

The basic 12-bar blues

The simplest blues uses three dominant seventh chords: I7, IV7 and V7. In jazz every one of them is a dominant seventh, even the I chord, which is what gives the blues its sound. The twelve bars divide into three four-bar phrases.

• Bars 1–4: the I chord. This is "home" and the first phrase of the melody.
• Bars 5–8: the IV chord for two bars, then back to I. The move to IV in bar 5 is the strongest landmark in the form; if you can hear it, you can always find your place.
• Bars 9–12: the cadence. V7 in bar 9, IV7 in bar 10, home in bar 11, and the V7 in bar 12 that pushes you round to the top again.

Here are the three chords in F and in every other key. Notice that the roots are a 4th apart (I up to IV) and a 5th apart (I up to V), so the shape of the form on the neck is the same in all twelve keys.

The first exercise is nothing more than the roots and 5ths of the basic blues in F in half notes, two to the bar. It looks trivial; it is not. Play it with the metronome clicking on beats 2 and 4, count the bar numbers out loud ("one, two, three, four" for bar 1, then "two, two, three, four" and so on), and do not stop at the end of bar 12: go straight back to bar 1. The aim is to feel the three four-bar phrases as units, not as twelve separate bars.

\tempo 120
.
\ts 4 4
:2 1.6{ch "F7"} 3.5 | 1.6 3.5 | 1.6 3.5 | 1.6 3.5 | 1.5{ch "Bb7"} 1.6 | 1.5 1.6 | 1.6{ch "F7"} 3.5 | 1.6 3.5 | 3.5{ch "C7"} 3.6 | 1.5{ch "Bb7"} 1.6 | 1.6{ch "F7"} 3.5 | 3.5{ch "C7"} 3.6 |

The quick change

The first alteration almost every player makes is to put the IV7 in bar 2 and return to I7 in bar 3. This is called the quick change (or "quick four"). It stops the first four bars from sitting on one chord and is the default in jazz. From here on, every blues in this module uses it.

The jazz blues in F

Jazz musicians decorate the three-chord blues with chords that lead somewhere. Every addition below follows a single principle: a chord may be preceded by its own V7 (a secondary dominant), and a V7 may be preceded by its related ii7. The result is the standard jazz blues, written here in F:

Take the additions one at a time:

Bar 4: the ii–V into the IV chord

Bar 5 is Bb7, and the V7 of Bb is F7, which is already there in bar 4. Jazz players make the second half of bar 4 an explicit dominant and put its related ii chord, Cm7, in the first half. The numeral is written v7 (lower-case, a minor chord on the 5th degree) because it is not diatonic to F major: it is borrowed to set up the IV chord. Bar 4 is therefore a ii–V in Bb (Cm7–F7) that resolves to Bb7 in bar 5, exactly like the ii–V–I you know from major keys, except that the "I" is a dominant chord.

Bar 6: the #IV diminished chord

Bar 6 is the most characteristic sound in the jazz blues. Instead of two bars of IV7, bar 6 becomes a diminished seventh chord a half step above the IV: Bdim7 in F. Look at the table above: Bdim7 and Bb7 share three notes, so the diminished chord is really the IV7 with its root pushed up a half step, and that raised root wants to continue up to the C in the F7 of bar 7 (or to F itself). You will hear this as "IV going home through the back door". It is written #IV°7.

Bar 8: iii7–VI7, the chain into the ii–V

Bar 9 is Gm7 (ii7), and its V7 is D7, so D7 goes in bar 8. D7 is the VI7 of F: a secondary dominant (V7 of ii). Many players precede it with Am7 (iii7), giving a two-chord bar, Am7–D7, that is itself a ii–V in G minor. If you keep the whole of bar 8 as F7 or make it D7 only, both are correct; Am7–D7 is the most common choice in modern charts.

Bars 9–10: the ii–V

In the basic blues bars 9–10 are V7–IV7. In the jazz blues they become ii7–V7: Gm7 in bar 9 and C7 in bar 10. This is the real ii–V–I of the key of F, resolving to F7 in bar 11.

Bars 11–12: the turnaround

The last two bars send you back to the top with a turnaround: I7–VI7 | ii7–V7, two chords per bar. In F that is F7–D7 | Gm7–C7. The VI7 is again a secondary dominant of the ii chord. On the final chorus, players replace the turnaround with a plain I7 for two bars (or an ending), so always know which chorus is the last one.

Hearing the changes: guide tones

The fastest way to learn any progression is to play its guide tones: the 3rd and 7th of each chord. Those two notes define the quality of each chord, and when you move from chord to chord they usually move by a half step or stay put. Play the exercise below slowly and listen to how each pair of notes "explains" the next chord. Everything is in one position (frets 0–4), on strings 4, 3 and 2.

\tempo 100
.
\ts 4 4
:2 2.3{ch "F7"} 1.4 | 1.3{ch "Bb7"} 0.4 | 2.3{ch "F7"} 1.4 | 3.3{ch "Cm7"} 2.3{ch "F7"} | 0.4{ch "Bb7"} 1.3 | 0.4{ch "Bdim7"} 1.3 | 2.3{ch "F7"} 1.4 | 0.3{ch "Am7"} 4.4{ch "D7"} | 3.4{ch "Gm7"} 3.3 | 2.4{ch "C7"} 3.3 | 2.3{ch "F7"} 1.2{ch "D7"} | 3.4{ch "Gm7"} 2.4{ch "C7"} |

Things to notice as you play:

• Bar 4: the 7th of Cm7 drops a half step to become the 3rd of F7. This is the standard ii–V voice-leading move.
• Bars 5–6: the two guide tones of Bb7 are also guide tones of Bdim7. The chord changes underneath but the notes do not; only the bass (and your ear's sense of tension) moves.
• Bar 8: the 7th of Am7 falls a half step to the 3rd of D7. Same move as bar 4, a whole step higher.
• Bar 12: the 7th of Gm7 falls to the 3rd of C7, which then wants to go back up a half step to the root of F7 in bar 1.

The jazz blues in Bb and in every key

Bb is the second home key of the blues (horn players love it), and you will be asked for the blues in C, G, Eb and Ab at sessions. The table gives the eight chords of the jazz blues in every key; the order of the bars is always the one in the F table above.

Here is the guide-tone exercise again in Bb, in a higher position (frets 3–8). Play it until the sound of the form in Bb is as familiar as it is in F, then transpose it yourself to C and G using the table.

\tempo 100
.
\ts 4 4
:2 7.3{ch "Bb7"} 6.4 | 6.3{ch "Eb7"} 5.4 | 7.3{ch "Bb7"} 6.4 | 8.3{ch "Fm7"} 7.3{ch "Bb7"} | 5.4{ch "Eb7"} 6.3 | 5.4{ch "Edim7"} 6.3 | 7.3{ch "Bb7"} 6.4 | 5.3{ch "Dm7"} 4.3{ch "G7"} | 8.4{ch "Cm7"} 8.3 | 7.4{ch "F7"} 8.3 | 7.3{ch "Bb7"} 6.2{ch "G7"} | 8.4{ch "Cm7"} 7.4{ch "F7"} |

The turnaround in detail

Because bars 11–12 come round every chorus, you need the turnaround under your fingers in several forms. The exercise below plays three two-bar versions back to back, with the root and 3rd of each chord as quarter notes: the basic I7 | V7, the standard I7–VI7 | ii7–V7, and the iii7–VI7 | ii7–V7 variant that many players prefer because the chords move around the cycle of 4ths without ever sitting on the I chord.

\tempo 100
.
\ts 4 4
:4 3.4{ch "F7"} 2.3 5.3 4.2 | 3.5{ch "C7"} 2.4 5.4 3.3 | 3.4{ch "F7"} 2.3 0.4{ch "D7"} 4.4 | 5.4{ch "Gm7"} 3.3 5.3{ch "C7"} 5.2 | 2.3{ch "Am7"} 1.2 0.4{ch "D7"} 4.4 | 5.4{ch "Gm7"} 3.3 5.3{ch "C7"} 5.2 |

Form awareness: never get lost

Form awareness is a skill you practise, not something that arrives by itself. Three habits build it:

1. Count bars aloud while you play the root exercises: "one-two-three-four, two-two-three-four, ... twelve-two-three-four". After a week, count silently; after two, you will simply know.
2. Listen for the landmarks: the IV chord in bar 5 (the first strong change), the diminished chord in bar 6 (the "lift"), the ii–V in bars 9–10 (the cadence), and the turnaround in bars 11–12. If you can hear those four events you can always re-enter the form after a mistake.
3. Sing the roots of the jazz blues over a recording. Put on any medium-tempo blues in F (Charlie Parker's "Now's the Time" and "Billie's Bounce", Sonny Rollins's "Tenor Madness" in Bb) and sing the root of each chord as it goes by. When you can do that through three choruses of someone else's solo, your form awareness is where it needs to be.

Quiz