Learning 7th Chords To Make The Blues More Bluesy

Learning the blues isn't tough, it's simply a series of steps you need to learn then build on top of one another.

For starters, the very first thing to understanding and learning the blues is learning the format of most blues tunes which is known as the 12 bar blues. Since the 12 bar blues is a topic all it's own you may want to take time to look for a 12 bar blues guitar lessons video or article to explain.

A quick primer video can be watched here about the 12 bar blues that can help.

After you learn the simple form of the blues you're able to learn it in multiple keys all over the guitar neck.

Learning the blues in different keys simply means knowing the notes in a particular scale and then being able to pick out the notes you need to build that keys 12 bar blues pattern.

Example: 12 Bar Blues in C

{First, let's look at the scale. The C major scale has no flats or sharps:The C major scale has no flats or sharps so it looks like this}

C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

To make the 12 bar blues pattern first grab the one chord then the four and the five chords from that scale. So for this example that will be the C, F and G.

Let's take these basic concepts and make em even more bluesy.

Seventh Chords

When playing blues guitar the seventh chord is often used to substitute for major or minor chords. I'm going to share with you a very simple form you can learn and slide up and down the neck so you can start playing 12 bar blues using 7th chords right away.

We're going to learn a C seventh chord to base the rest of this on. Below is the tab for the C7 chord, note you do not strum the 6th string, low E when playing this chord.

e————-

B—–1——–

G—–4——–

D—–2——–

A—–3——–

E—–X——-

Taking this chord shape you can move it up the neck to any fret, and so long as you don't strum the top or bottom strings it's entirely moveable. Here is what the tab looks like for the moveable chord.

e——X——

B—–1——–

G—–4——–

D—–2——–

A—–3——–

E—–X——-

By adding in a bit of musical theory we can move that chord shape around to make numerous other chords.

The root note of the chord, on the A string is going to stay consistent no matter where you play it on the neck. So the 3rd fret on the A string when you're playing this form in the open position is a C. This makes it a C seventh Chord. What would happen if you slid this entire chord shape up the neck to the 5th fret on the A string? You're not playing a D Chords. If you slide it up two more frets, which is a full step, you'll be playing an E7th chord.

That's all there is too it. This one chord shape, knowing where the root note is and then sliding it around the neck to find your different variations.

Have a good time with these and experiment. I find all kinds of neat ideas when I start playing things with 7th chords beyond just the 12 bar blues, and if you'd like to learn more about the blues why not consider a learn guitar dvd.

These dvd self study course are becoming the most effective way to learn guitar at home.