Most commonly, lyrics are in three lines, with the first two lines almost the same with slight differences in phrasing and interjections.
I hate to see the evening sun go down, Yes, I hate to see that evening sun go down 'Cause it makes me think I'm on my last go 'round
W. C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues"
However, many songs exist that are written in the blues chord progression do not use the three-line form of lyrics.
For instance, "I'm Moving On" has a verse in the first four bars and a chorus in the final eight bars:
That big eight-wheeler rollin' down the track Means your true lovin' daddy ain't comin' back.
I'm movin' on, I'll soon be gone
You were flyin' too high for my little old sky So I'm movin' on.
Hank Snow's "I'm Moving On"
Here is an example showing the 12 bar blues pattern and how it fits with the lyrics of a given verse. One chord symbol is used per beat, with "-" representing the continuation of the previous chord:
Twelve-bar blues 55
I IV I I7
-Woke up this morning with an awful aching head IV IV7 I I7
-Woke up this morning with an awful aching head V - - V7 IV - - IV7 I - - - I - V V7
My new man had left me, just a room and an empty bed.
From Bessie Smith's "Empty Bed Blues".
Another example, "Johnny B. Goode" (written and first recorded by Chuck Berry), applies a "shuffle" or "light 'swing'" rhythm to one of the more common twelve-bar progressions:[citation needed]
Line Pickup Measure 1 Measure 2 Measure 3 Measure 4
1 Deep A (I) down in Lou'siana, close to
D (IV) earth and wood, where A (I)
lived a country boy named A (I)
Johnny B.
Goode.
3 He E (V) never really learned to
read or E7
play a guitar just like a- A (I)
-ringin' a bell.
Another progression, D-D7-G7-A7, appears in this collection (Axelsson & Strängliden 2007, 55).Wikipedia:Please clarify
"Twelve-bar" examples
The 12-bar blues chord progression is the basis of thousands of songs, not only formally identified blues songs. The vast majority of boogie-woogie compositions are 12-bar blues, as are many early rock songs.[13]
• Ray Charles' "What'd I Say" (1959) opens with the twelve bar blues. Other examples of twelve bar blues include:
• Muddy Waters' "Train Fare Blues" (1948)
• Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" (1954)
• Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" (1954).[14]
• Duffy also uses the twelve bar blues progression in her song "Mercy" [citation needed]
•• Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula"
•• Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog"
•• Louis Prima's "Jump, Jive and Wail"
•• Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues"
•• Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime"
•• Little Richard's "Tutti Fruttii"
•• White Stripes' "Ball and Biscuit"
Examples of altered or extended progressions include Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man".[15]
You may also find many improvised versions of this piece, often seen in piano practise books, and as simple tunes to try out a musical instrument, such as this one, played in the C key. Play Wikipedia:Media helpFile:Improvised Twelve Bar Blues.mid
Twelve-bar blues 56
Analysis
The twelve-bar blues, a chromatic chord progression, is a logical formula for blues music: without the dominant's major minor seventh chord (in C: G7), the sequence does not accord with the tonal "V-I" relationship. Instead, it would be based mostly on a plagal cadence—an IV-I change (in C: F-C). The key is fully verified with the V7 (G7) chord,[citation needed] but only after going over the subdominant (F) and tonic (C).
Additionally, the chord progression meshes elements of major and minor. The major-minor (dominant) seventh chords used on each degree alone seem to fall in some grey area between the strong, content major chord and the somber, conflicted minor chord.[citation needed] The subdominant's seventh chord is of note here, because of its odd relationship with the tonic.
In classical music, the dominant (major-minor) seventh chord on the tonic would almost certainly resolve elsewhere (rather than being resolved to), especially its subdominant (from C7: to F). While, at first it seems to resolve well to the subdominant, this is merely a tonicization (brief leave to another key), because of the earlier emphasis on the dominant seventh (C7), and because of the dominant seventh that appears on the subdominant, an element found in the Dorian mode. Traditionally, the seventh of the subdominant chord would not be flattened, as it would contradict the third of the tonic chord. This undermines the expected resolution and also questions whether the actual tonic is major or minor in quality: this seventh chord (F-A-C-E♭) resolves back to the tonic by resolving both up a step to (E♭-->E) (mediant), and down a step to from (F-->E) (leading tone); and down harmonically to I.
When returning to the I7 chord, the major third sounds like a Picardy third resolution, and the minor seventh no longer seems to resolve to the sixth (B♭-->A, the third of IV; instead it seems like a blue note that adds a tense, funky, thick color to the tonic.
In jazz
Jazz is considered to have some of its roots in the blues,[16] and the blues progression is one of several blues elements found in jazz such as blue notes, blues-like phrasing of melodies, and blues riffs. Tunes that utilize the jazz-blues harmony are fairly common in the jazz repertoire, especially from the bebop era.
A twelve-bar jazz blues will usually feature a more sophisticated—or at any rate a different—treatment of the harmony than a traditional blues would, but the underlying features of the standard 12-bar blues progression remain discernible. One of the main ways the jazz musician accomplishes this is through the use of chord substitutions—a chord in the original progression is replaced by one or more chords which have the same general "sense" or function;
in this case occurring especially in the turnaround (i.e., the last four bars). One well-known artist that sang this form of jazz was Billie Holiday, and almost all well known instrumental jazz musicians will have recorded at least one variation on this theme.
The 12-bar blues form, in the commonly played key of B♭, often becomes:
Bb7 / Eb7 / Bb7 / Bb7 / Eb7 / Edim7 / Bb7 / Dm7 - G7 / Cm7 / F7 / Dm7 - G7 / Cm7 - F7 //
Transposed to the key of C:
C7 / F7 / C7 / C7 / F7 / F♯dim7 / C7 / Em7 - A7 / Dm7 / G7 / Em7 - A7 / Dm7 - G7 //
where each slash represents a new measure, in the jazz-blues. The significant changes include the Edim7, which creates movement, and the III-VI-II-V or I-VI-II-V turnaround, a jazz staple.
Twelve-bar blues 57
There is however no standard form of jazz blues, and several common variations. For example, the diminished chord in bar 6 is often omitted, and many turnarounds are possible. An example turnaround using chromatic chord movement could be:
Dm7 / G7 / C7 - Eb7 / D7 - Db7
Another variation has the cycle concluding on the dominant chord as in a standard blues. This feature introduces a tension that propels the listener's expectation toward the next chord change cycle. Here is an example:
C7 - A7 / Dm7 - G7
Count Basie's version of the blues progression, which came into wide use, demonstrates several of these variations (shown here in the key of F):
F7 / Bb7 Bdim / F7 / Cm7 F7 / Bb7 / Bdim / F7 / D7 / Gm7 / C7 / F7 / Gm7 C7 /
Alto sax great Charlie Parker introduced a fluid chord sequence for jazz blues, using tritone substitution and chromatic chord changes typical of the be-bop era. It has come to be known as Bird Blues, after his nickname,
"Yardbird," or more simply, "Bird."