B.B. King | Mark Twang Live

Different Faces of the 12-Bar Blues

Author: Twang

Piano players and other musicians who desire to learn
the foundations of purely American music should begin
with the blues. This music kind began more than a
century ago. Today’s jazz, hip-hop, rock-and-roll and
rhythm and blues owes a debt to it.

Certainly, the word “blues” evokes a sense from the
mood of being blue. The songs has those qualities, but
in its own way it is also capable of getting extremely
uplifting. Numerous blues songs are cries of hope for
much better days to come.

The blues form developed out of the African-American
experience. The music we call blues is a touchstone
back to their struggles in America and their growth as a
people to much more freedom. Blues songs are rooted
in work songs, field chants, singing and talk. They also
have their basis in spiritual songs and country ballads.

The first blues emerged out from the Deep South, in
Texas, Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta. The songs
sang from the struggles from the worker and the
impoverished lives numerous of them lived. Their
excellent toil and sacrifice had articulation in stories,
with numerous of them presented in song kind.

A big boost to the stature of the blues came in 1912,
when William Christopher Handy transcribed and
published the song “Memphis Blues.” He was an

African-American dance orchestra conductor. He gave
himself the name “Father from the Blues” simply
because of his tireless efforts to write, transcribe and
publish blues songs to get it to the masses.

The blues progressed from the Deep South towards the
north and entrenched itself in cities such as Chicago
and Detroit. The music changed as it moved northward.

No longer all about the poor conditions within the south,
the music began to speak from the urban environments

African-Americans were now living in.
The blues changed even much more in the ’40s and ’50s
as radio continued to spread its songs all more than
America. New electronic innovations lent the blues a
various sound, with electric guitar at the forefront.

Musicians carried this fresh electric sound with blues
elements into the rock and R & B genre, which
developed.

Those who hear that blues sound in much of today’s
songs may not understand that the music is extremely
basic in its construction. A piano player desiring to learn
the blues can understand its elements quickly with a
little bit of study.

The most common blues heard and played are the 12-
bar blues. Blues musicians found they could express
their thoughts fully in a mere 12 bars or measures of
songs. However, there is room in these 12 bars for
much creativity, whether musical or lyrical.

Almost all of blues songs is in 4/4 time. This means
there are four beats in each bar. Within a bar, each
quarter note receives one beat. Further, a 12-bar blues
song is broken down into three sections of four bars
each. Musicians usually build blues chords on the first,
fourth and fifth notes of an eight-note songs scale.

These kind the blues chord progression. The first chord
is typically prominent within the first four bars. The
second four bars normally highlight the fourth chord of
a scale, and also the last four bars highlight the fifth
chord of a scale.

For the lyrics to a blues song, the AAB pattern is
predominant. A singer will sing the first and second
four-bar verses with the same lines sung in each. The
third four-bar verse will have various lines. Therefore A
and A refer towards the verses with the same lines; the

B refers towards the verse with different lines.
There can be different 12-bar segments in a blues song.
When one 12-bar section gets resolved with the last four
bars answering the previous eight, a new motif can
develop within the next 12-bar section. In addition, while
the 12-bar blues are the most common kind in the blues
arena, there are exceptions to it for variety and
experimentation.

Within the 1950s and 1960s, there was a movement in
Britain, which brought about the “British Blues.” They
were followers from the American blues tradition and
very strict in following this form to a tee. This ended
within the middle 1960s as the musicians from this
country began to develop their own blues concepts and
styles, although still based on the pioneering American
blues school of thought.

The blues lends itself to much from the piano music
available for playing today. Its influence is apparent in
Broadway show tunes, film songs and much songs of
the love-ballad type. Blues music can be a welcome
addition to any pianist’s repertoire.