An Essential Blues Guitar Fretboard Roadmap
Sunday, June 12th, 2011This short lesson shows two essential fretboard patterns you can use to play the blues chord progression in any key.
If you’ve already studied the 12 bar blues progression then you’ll know that it uses three chords known as the I, IV and V chords. You can play these chords in any key by following one of the simple patterns shown below.
To use these patterns you need to know how to play at least one of the following chord types:
* An E7 shape bar chord with its root on the sixth string and an A7 shape bar chord with its root on the fifth string.
* The blues shuffle pattern using two note chords.
These shapes are shown later in the lesson as a reminder, or introduction if you don’t know them yet.
I Chord on the 6th String
Start your blues with a I chord using the E shape with its root on the sixth string. You can play the IV and V chords with the A shape that has its root on the 5th string.
The IV chord’s root is on the 5th string at the same fret as the I chord. The V chord has its root two frets up from this. The relative positions of the chord roots are shown in the diagram below.
I Chord on the 5th String
Alternatively, you can start your blues with an A shape chord. The diagram below shows what the pattern looks like when you start with a fifth string root I chord.
This time the IV and V chords are E shape bar chords with their roots on the 6th string. The IV chord is found two frets back from the I chord and the V chord is at the same fret, right above the I chord root.
The Chord Shapes
Below are diagrams of the sixth and fifth string root chords you can use with these patterns.
You can use the two notes on the lowest two strings of each chord as the starting position for two-note blues shuffle chords.
Use This Knowledge To Play 12 Bar Blues In Any Key
To use these positions to play the 12 bar blues in any key you have to memorize the names of the notes on the 6th and the 5th string of your guitar.
Find the root note for the key you want on either the fifth or the sixth string and then apply one of the patterns above.
