Chord & FretBlues · twelve-bar — Electric guitar
What is the Blues · twelve-bar progression?
The Blues · twelve-bar progression is E → A → E → B → A → E (I – IV – I – V – IV – I), in the key of E. Read as harmonic function it moves tonic → subdominant → tonic → dominant → subdominant → tonic, arriving home on a cadence. Play one chord per bar and let it loop.
Four chords, a whole story: E (I, home) → A (IV, the stroll) → E (I, home) → B (V, time to come back) → A (IV, the stroll) → E (I, home). Hit play. First pass, just listen. Second pass, follow with your finger on the names — and notice that by the second-to-last chord, your body already knows E — home — is coming.
Electric guitar
The amplified tone holds each chord for a long time, so a few well-chosen notes keep ringing on their own while you leave room for the rest of the group. This is the electric guitar's home ground: pop, rock, blues, funk and soul were shaped around its sound, whether you strum full chords or play short, tight chord stabs behind the singer. Its home chord E keeps its lowest note on E and rings 3 open strings.
Cadences — Harmony comes to rest here — hear every cadence type and train your ear · see it in Chord & Fret
Save this progression in Chord & FretReharmonize — Want richer substitutions? Reharmonize the progression in a tap · use it in Chord & Fret
Learn each chord of the trip
This is one shape of E. In Chord & Fret, you open every position of all 6 chords in this progression along the neck — on any instrument, and hear each one. Open in Chord & Fret →
Metronome — Drill this change in time, with tap tempo and subdivisions · open in Chord & Fret
This chord has dozens of siblings that didn't fit the page. All of it is in the Chord & Fret app, pocket-sized, in your phone's store.