3 Part Blues Lesson
( Jazz/Blues Lab – Steven Kowalczyk Santoro )
The following is a 3 part lesson which calls upon your sense of creativity, time, pitch,
harmonic memory, groove, listening and performance skills. In order to grasp the aspects
of a basic 12 bar blues I call upon you to do the following:
1. Write a 12 bar Blues. There are many different kinds of blues but I have chosen
this very popular form of the Blues to work with. The Blues are very personal so
you will write your own lyrics. These lyrics will spring from your life experience.
But the guideline or “form” is based on a classic form that you have, no doubt,
heard before. Please listen to some 12 bar blues before you approach writing your
own. Then follow the lyric form I have laid out on page 2.
2. Learn the Chord Progression for the 12 bar Blues. On page 3 I have provided
a progression for this Blues. As a singer, since you are not chordal instrument, I
have outlined the tones that make up each chord written as a walking bass line of
sorts. Learn the quality of each chord by singing each note of the chord
separately but in time.
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