Blues ‘Ukulele Chords & Progressions

More lessons and information on the chords and chord progressions can be found on the Lessons page

What is a Blues Chord?

Really, there is no such thing as a "blues” chord. There are just "chords” we use in a blues progression.

What is a Chord?

A chord is three or more notes sounded together or almost together. It is that simple!. A chord can be as simple as a three note triad. All the way up to a fancy jazz chords like G13+9.

The Blues Chord Progression

There is, such a thing as a “blues” chord progression. But not just any chord progression can be a blues chord progression. For a chord progression to be a blues progression, specific chords from the key or central tonality or their direct substitutes must appear at particular spots in the progression. We call this post chords.

The “chord changes” or progression part of the blues is commonly twelve measures or bars. Here is a 12 bar blues chord progression in the key of C major.

		|  C (I*)        |          |	          |           | 
		|  F (IV*)       |          |  C (I*)     |           | 
		|  G or G7 (V*)  |          |  C (I*)     |           | 

*post chords

The C, F and G or G7 chords are the I, IV and V chords in the key of C major. Here are all the chords, as triads for the key of C major:

		C	Dm	Em	F	G	Am	B°
		I	II	III	IV	V	VII	VII
		

The V chord can commonly be a 4-part 7th chord. Sometimes called a dominant seventh. In the key of C major the V chord can be a G7 chord.

What makes “this” a blues progression?

* Post Chords - Measures one, five, seven, nine and eleven are critical measures where the I, IV and V chords MUST appear or their direct substitutions for a progression to remain a blues progression.

We can call these chords and the positions that they must fall in, post chords.

The most common form of a blues chord progression is twelve measures in length containing three, four measure sections:

• 4 measures of the I chord. ( measures 1, 2, 3 & 4 )
• 2 measures of the IV chord ( measures 5 & 6 )
• 2 measures of the I chord ( measures 7 & 8 ).
• 2 measures of the V chord( measures 9 & 10 )
• 2 measures of the I chord( measures 11 & 12 )

Totaling 12 measures

While other measure lengths are possible, such as eight and sixteen measures, the twelve measure form is the most common.

A Simple, Basic Blues Example A

The simplest blues would actually be the I chord for the twelve measures. Or, an indeterminate number of measures as the blues where first sung by the field slaves of the south. We will start with the basic form that is common now.