Building Blues Chord Progressions

Video Transcript

For Expert Village this is Mitch Kaplan. In this clip we will be talking about the second type of chord progression, that is the blues progression. It is very handed down from generation to generation, started with people like Buddy Bolden and some of the greats in New Orleans. Now the blues progression is built of three major types of chords. Now here is the first chord, the major seven chord but we are going to make it a blues minor. The next chord, we are going to make it a major seven, actually we are going to lower the seventh a half step to give it a more blues feeling, that’s the four dominant seven. Then we are going to move up one step and we are going to use this as our dominant chord. That is our G dominant chord, then we are going to go back again, we will use that for the one measure and we will go back down. We will hold that for one measure and that is of course the four dominant seven, then we go back to the one minor seven. This is called the minor blues. It is very similar to the major, so here is the four measures of the minor seven chord of the blues progression, then we go to the fourth chord, now is for two measures, then we go back again to the one, for that two measures, then we go to the five chord for one measure, then we go to the fourth dominant chord, make it a little bluesy and we put it together and we come back to the one chord for two measures. Now I am going to put it all together and make it sound like something that you would hear in a traditional band.

Watch these related videos

• 
  Building Blues Chord Progressions

  playlist Views: 3,220

• 
  Building Chord Progressions

  playlist Views: 1,936

• 
  Learn a Practice Progression for Seven Chords in Jazz Guitar

  playlist Views: 2,371

• 
  How to Play Dominant 7th Chords for Jazz Saxophone

  playlist Views: 1,890

• 
  How to Play Minor 7th Chords for Jazz Saxophone

  playlist Views: 2,900

• 
  How to Play Rhythm Blues Guitar: Part 1

  playlist Views: 5,208

Community Members who...

• Favorited this Video
• Rated This Video

Thumbs up or Thumbs down? Be the first to rate this video!

Top Tags