The 12-bar blues and the shuffle

The 12-bar blues is the most played chord progression in the world, from the Mississippi Delta to rock'n'roll. It uses only three chords, degrees I, IV and V, usually as sevenths.

In A: A7, D7, E7. In E: E7, A7, B7. These are guitarists' two favourite keys, thanks to the open bass strings.

The shuffle

The shuffle is a triplet-based rhythm: each beat is split into three and you play the 1st and 3rd parts (long-short, “daa-da daa-da”). The classic rhythm part alternates the fifth and sixth above the open bass string.

M:12/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=76
K:A clef=treble-8
"A7"[A,E]2 [A,E] [A,^F]2 [A,^F] [A,E]2 [A,E] [A,^F]2 [A,^F] | "D7"[DA]2 [DA] [DB]2 [DB] [DA]2 [DA] [DB]2 [DB] | "E7"[E,B,]2 [E,B,] [E,^C]2 [E,^C] [E,B,]2 [E,B,] [E,^C]2 [E,^C] |]

In the last bar, the turnaround on the V chord restarts the progression: the signal that everything begins again.