A great way to expand your knowledge of the standard 12 bar blues progression is by tweaking a chord here and there for a specific sound.
Tweaking the 12 Bar Blues Pattern
After mastering the standard 12 bar blues pattern, move on to getting a solid handle on quick change blues.
From there, the sky is the limit as far as chord substitutions go within a 12 bar blues progression. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at a sweet sounding progression in A that features the II7 chord (B7). This sounds a little out of place at first since blues players like me are usually rooted in the I, IV and V chords.
TB072But this chord placement is nothing short of elegant. Work through the chord changes (especially in the last 4 bars) to get a sense of have a surprising chord can bring new life to a tried and true progression.