Three Chord Thursdays at Three: 12-bar Blues

The basic twelve-bar blues follows a formula of twelve bars (measures), involving only three chords. We are dedicating our one-hour jam session on Thursday 14th May (as part of the Three Chord Thursdays at Three series) to songs that follow this chord progression.

Put simply, choose a key, say C. Roman numeral one in the above diagram refers to the C major chord. IV is F major chord (if you count upwards alphabetically in the major scale of C: C, D, E, F). V is the G major chord. Twelve bar blues can be as basic as C x 4, F x 2, Cx2, G, F, Cx2. Or you can substitute with 7th chords. Plenty of tutorials abound, on websites and on Youtube. Here are a few:

• The Ukulele Sisters
• Ukulele Tricks
• Ukulele Go – spicing it up
• Marklele: 12 bar blues in the key of A
• Blues picking patterns

The songs we have selected for Thursday 14th May are as follows, with bolded titles referring to those song sheets that can be easily transposed into a key that’s more comfortable and suitable for your voice range.

1. Blue Suede Shoes
2. Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles
3. Folsom Prison Blues (starts in F, modulates to G)
4. Heartbreak Hotel in G (chord diagrams on top, in C)
5. Hound Dog (in C)
6. In The Summertime – Mungo Jerry
7. Johnny Be Goode (easier version to read)
8. Love Me Do – The Beatles
9. Mama Don’t Low – Cow-Cow Davenport
10. Rock and Roll Music
11. Rock Around the Clock (with riff)
12. Rockin’ Robin
13. San Francisco Bay Blues (easier, also in C)
14. Shake, Rattle and Roll
15. Twist and Shout – The Beatles

To allow more people to sing, we won’t necessarily do the entire song, particularly if it’s very long. Two or more people can share a song in sequential order, such that the only overlap is the common chord before the next person takes over. You do need to mute yourself if it’s not yet your turn in the “relay”.

Everyone is welcome anywhere in the world to participate in one of several ways:

• sing and play a song (solo) unmuted, with video on
• sing and play a song with another or more (relay – sequential duo), video on but taking turns on muting and unmuting
• sing and play with video on but muted
• watch with video on but muted
• or simply lurk (video off) and muted, even as background music

Register in advance for this free one-hour online, interactive song session. You will then receive an e-mail with the link to the song session itself.

We encourage you to arrive early to get used to the online environment, introduce yourselves, chit chat, tune-up, etc. Most of all, if you arrive early, you can get into the line-up for song leading as a soloist or shared “relay” singing.

For the best quality experience, we mute everyone else when someone is performing on a single microphone. Use the biggest and most powerful device to get into ZOOM and another window or tab or device to view the song sheet.

We record these sessions in an unlisted private video link so we can hear and see ourselves afterwards to improve for the next time. These videos are available to participants by request.

We always start promptly with warm-up exercises on the ukulele or the guitar. Then we wear our sunglasses to welcome everyone with a short poll. Thursday 14th May 2020 at 3 PM EDT = 12 NOON PDT = 20:00 BST = 21:00 UTC

DON’T FORGET YOUR SUNGLASSES!