The best place to start sharpening our musical ‘ears’ on guitar
is to learn to recognize the blues chord progressions,
particularly the 12, 16, 24 and 8 bar progressions; with a bit of
practice you will ‘hear’ these progressions in many styles of
music.

Blues chord progressions form the basis for many rock, jazz and
country songs so let’s take a look at the most important
progressions for you to learn.

All blues progressions are presented in the key of C for you to
study.

Progression #1

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

G7/// | G7 ///| C /// | G7/// || C (last time)

The G7 chord in bar 12 acts as a turn-a-round chord which signals
the return of the progression to bar one, the last time through
the progression will finish on the ‘C’ chord.

Progression #2 is another common variation of the basic 12 bar
blues template, notice how it is exactly the same as progression
#1 except for the ‘F” chord in bar ten.

Progression #2

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

G7/// | F /// | C /// | G7/// || C (last time)

Now for a progression with a slight twist, it’s the same
progression as #1 only with a surprise chord change in bar two.

Progression #3

C /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

G7/// | G7 ///| C /// | G7/// || C (last time)

Progression #4 is the same as # 2 again with the surprise chord
change in bar two.

Progression #4

C /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

G7/// | F ///| C /// | G7/// || C (last time)

Another favorite variation on the 12 bar blues is the sixteen bar
template here is a sample of a 16 bar blues for you to study;
notice how it is the same as progression #2 only with an
additional four bars added at the beginning.

Progression #5

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | C /// | C /// |

G7/// | F /// | C /// | G7/// || C (last time)

It’s interesting to note that blues #2 is the only progression
that is used for the 16 bar version of the blues.

The twenty four bar blues is simply a double length version of
progression two.

Progression #6

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

F /// | F /// | F /// | F /// |

C /// | C /// | C /// | C /// |

G7 ///| G7/// | F /// | F /// |

C /// | C /// | G7 ///| G7 ///|| C (last time)

Now it’s time to take a look at the eight bar format.

Progression #7

C /// | G /// | F/A /// | F/A ///|

C /// | G /// | C /// | G /// || C (last time)

A simplified version of the eight bar blues would look like this:

C /// | G /// | F /// | F ///|

C /// | G /// | C /// | G ///|| C (last time)

Play these blues templates over and over until you own them,
listen carefully to how each chord flows to the next and most
importantly try to get a ‘feel’ for each progression so you can
identify it next time you hear it.