Check out this free lesson from Guitar Control instructor Jon MacLennan on a 12 Bar Blues Progression Bass Line with free tabs.
Introduction
Hey, how’s it going, everybody? My name is John McClennan and I’m here today with Guitar Control, bringing
you this awesome lesson on the blues. There’s lots of lessons out there where you can learn to play the rhythm to the blues, but one of the fun things to do that is often overlooked is playing a bass line through the blues, on guitar though. So what I’m playing here is a typical line that a bass player in a band would play, but now we’re transferring
that to guitar strings.
12 Bar Blues Progression Bass Line
What we’re going to do is we’re going to outline an E-7 chord. So we’re going to start on the root note, E. Each note happens twice, by the way. And then I’m going to slide into the 4th fret and then I’m going to play the 2nd fret, 4th fret, open D and then I’m going to come down those same notes. Think of it as it just goes up and then it comes down.
So you’ve got… Now, one thing that you’ll want to try and do as you’re practicing this is alternate your right hand picking pattern. So if you did a downstroke, the next thing you’re going to do is an upstroke. It’s just constantly down, up, down, up, down, up. You’re going to do that on E like this. Twice. Then you’re going to go to A, which is basically the same exact riff one string higher. Now starting on the 5th string. Then you’re going to go back down to E. Then finally, you’re going to hit the B-7 chord and you’re going to basically play — we’re outlining the B-7 chord. You’re going to play the 2nd fret and then you’re going to slide to the 6th fret. Four, four, six, six. Open A, four, two, two, four, four. And then there’s a lot of variations you can do on the end. But here’s an easy one. You can do that or you could go… Or you could just keep on walking, which is nice, like this. At that point you would stat back over because you’re at
the end of the 12-bar chord progression.
Jamming With Another Guitarist
One of the things you might want to use this 12 Bar Blues Progression Bass Line For Guitar is if you’re jamming with another guitar player and you’re playing some
rhythm stuff, it might be cool to break it up and just play a bass line behind them. Also, it can be really cool just
to work on that right hand swing, too, as well. E chord.
Conclusion
All right. Well, thanks so much for watching this 12 Bar Blues Progression Bass Line For Guitar lesson and we’ll see you in the next video.
