What Is the 12-Bar Blues?

by Rebecca Bogart | Jan 10, 2016 | Improvisation and song writing

Do you want to play the 12-bar blues on ukulele? Here’s your chance to learn what the 12-bar blues is.

According to Wikipedia:

The 12-bar blues or blues changes is one of the most prominent chord progressions in popular music. The blues progression has a distinctive form in lyrics, phrase, chord structure, and duration. In its basic form, it is predominantly based on the I-IV-V chords of a key.

12-BAR BLUES ON UKULELE IS A COMBINATION OF STYLES

12 bar blues

The Blues uses both European and African musical elements. With its combination of European harmony and the African heritage of call and response, rhythmic complexity, and blues notes, the 12-bar blues gave the world a new form of music from America, a style of music that has revolutionized the world.

Most American popular music grew out of the 12-bar blues. The first rock songs (Johnny B. Goode, Rock Around the Clock, Ain’t Nothin’ But a Hound Dog) were blues songs. Try to pay attention to the chord changes. Once you learn the Blues changes, you have the skill to play all these songs! Check out our lesson videos below on Johnny B. Goode and Rock around the Clock.

The easiest version of the 12-bar blues on ukulele is the chord progression shown above. Each chord stamp stands for a measure of music.

blues scale for ukulele

Musical improvisation means to make up music as you are playing. Songs that use the 12-bar blues often have a section where one musician makes up new melodies. The music above shows an example of the blues scale for ukulele.

Here’s a video to help you learn how to do some easy improvisation using the 12-bar blues on ukulele.

You may notice that there are flats in the music. Those flats are called blue notes.

BLUE NOTES

This is a note or group of notes that are different than the notes used in Western folk music. Usually, in the blues, we play the different note near its next-door note so our ears can imagine the note that belongs on the African scale. In staff notation, a blue note will have a flat, sharp or natural in front of it.

ABOUT THE BLUES SCALE

The blues scale is a group of musical sounds that are spaced in the specific way that is used in blues music. The blues scale probably came with African people to the United States. In the key of C, which is the same as all the white keys on the piano, a blues note will be a flat or sharp next to a white key. When we add a black key to the white key scale, the music sounds different. The black key, for example, E flat, added in on top of the white key, such as E, gives the music a bluesy feel.

The added black keynotes are an attempt to approximate African scales. Western folk music tends to use 8 notes per octave, while African folk music tends to use 5 notes equally spaced per octave. Some of these African scale notes do not exist in Western musical instruments. For example, if you look at a piano keyboard, you can see that there ARE five black keys but the spaces between them are not equal. Thus, when you sing or play a flat note and somebody else is playing a regular note, your ear hears the sound the flat note and the regular note make together as bluesy.

BLUES LYRICS

Blues lyrics will often take on a recognizable form as well. Because there are three groups of four measures, the phrasing often works like this:

The lyrics in the first phrase state some kind of problem.
The lyrics in the second phrase restate the same problem in stronger language.
The third line of lyrics will resolve the problem state in the first line.

Anthropologists and ethnomusicologists believe that the blues grew out of African American work songs. A leader of a group of workers would call out to all the other workers, who would then sing a response. This form of music is called “call and response” and is common in a lot of African Music.

The 12-bar blues with its European harmony and African heritage of call and response, rhythmic complexity and blues notes offers a completely new form of music from America, a style of music that has revolutionized the world.

Happy Strumming!

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Teach a Rest Position

Create a standard position players use whenever they are listening:

Place the ukulele flat against the body.
Rest the strumming hand gently on the strings.
Keep both hands still.
Look toward the leader.

Call it “rest position” and demonstrate it at the group’s first meeting. Use the same phrase consistently: “Ukuleles in rest position, please.”

This physically mutes the strings and gives everyone a clear visual signal that playing has stopped.

Use One Attention Signal

Choose a signal that can be seen or heard across the room. Possibilities include:

Raising one hand
Playing a short, distinctive chord
Saying, “Rest position”

Explain the signal before rehearsal begins: “When you see my hand raised, finish the chord you are playing, mute your strings, and look up.”

Avoid competing with the group by repeatedly talking over the instruments. Give the signal, pause, and wait until everyone is ready.

Set a Clear “No Noodling” Expectation

Many players noodle because they are excited, nervous, practicing a difficult chord, or unaware that it is distracting. Address the behavior without embarrassing anyone.

Try saying:

“Between songs, please mute your strings so everyone can hear the instructions. We’ll always give you a moment to check chords before we begin.”

Then build short, intentional practice windows into the session:

“Take 20 seconds to find the opening chord.”
“Quietly check the change from C to G7.”
“Let’s try that strum together once.”

Players are more likely to stop playing at random when they know when practice is welcome.

Amplify the Leader, Not the Entire Room

In larger groups, a small microphone, portable speaker, or amplified ukulele can save the leader’s voice and make directions easier to follow. Amplification should provide clarity—not to overpower the players.

Test the equipment before the session, position the speaker where everyone can hear it, and keep spoken instructions short. A microphone cannot replace an attention routine, but it makes a good routine much more effective.

Create Predictable Transitions

Noodling often fills uncertainty. Tell players exactly what is happening next:

1. “Finish the final chord.”
2. “Rest position.”
3. “Turn to page 14.”
4. “Find a C chord.”
5. “Watch for my count-in.”

Use a visible or audible count-in before every song. Once players learn that nothing begins until the leader counts them in, spontaneous starts become less common.

6. Operate iPads for music.

Many ukulele groups read off iPads, and everyone buys the same app. forScore is one of the common ones, but don’t get anything until the group leader tells you which one they use. From there, the leader or the singer/songwriter shares the music by AirDrop, so everyone is reading off the same page. Corrections land with the whole group at once, and nobody is working from an outdated copy.

A Simple Group Agreement

At the beginning of a session, say:

“To help everyone hear and learn, we use rest position whenever someone is speaking. When I raise my hand, please mute your strings and look up. You’ll have time to check chords before each song, and we’ll always start together on the count-in.”

The goal is not silence for its own sake. It is to create a group in which instructions are brief, rehearsals move smoothly, and everyone gets more time to make music together.

Here’s a list of etiquette expectations from ukulele group members to make the group learning more effective and fruitful for everyone.

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What Is the 12-Bar Blues?