The "twelve bar blues" progression is the main underpinning of the vast majority of
blues tunes out there. In order to start playing blues (and to take most of the other blues lessons here), you will want to know what a twelve bar blues progression is. Consists of a I-IV-V
chord progression.
That is, you pick out the first, fourth and fifth note of the key you want to play in (e.g.
A-b-c-
D-
E-f-g) And then play those notes' major chords.
The most basic form of the blues progression (as shown below in the key of E) is to play twelve bars as follows: I-I-I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-IV-I-I/V.
That would be to play 4
strums of each chord in a bar.
Bars 1-4 play E
Bars 5&6 play A
Bars 7&8 play E
Bar 9 play B
Bar 10 play A
Bar 11 play E
Bar 12 play E for the first two beats, B for the last two
However Blues tend to be played in
7th chords. So simply play A7 where A is noted, E7 where E is noted, and so on.
Source: http://www.wholenote.com/