12 Bar Blues Revisited, pt. III - Basic Harmonization

Back in October I revisited the 12 bar blues by adding open major and dominant 7th chords as a way to expand our student’s chord vocabulary. This month we'll continue to expand chord vocabulary by dipping into basic harmonization of the major scale.

At this point in a student’s development it is important for them to learn and understand how chords work in a key; in particularly the I, IV and V. Moreover, by playing in these different keys students will learn to “hear” the I, IV and V chord progression, expand their chord vocabulary and develop a working knowledge of various keys.

Generally, I do not outline all diatonic harmony (major, minor, diminished) but only the I, IV and V chords as they specifically pertain to our topic of the 12 bar blues; no need to muddy the waters (pun intended) with more information than students need at this time. I have attached an outline of chords from scales, however it would be best to have the students outline these themselves.

Next month we’ll get into incorporating the newly learned I, IV, V’s into a 12 bar blues.