Basic Blues chord progression exercises

**edspyhill01** · May-04-2009, 4:45am

Is there a book or web site that lays out some basic 8-bar, 12-bar, and 16-bar blues progressions for mandolin? Nothing fancy, could even be 4 chords to the bar exercises. I read through this section and found Niles Hokkanen's chord book which I will order today.

I’m a new member who plans to get back into mandolin after over 15 years. Took a detour to electric bass then classical guitar. Practicing basic blues progressions on bass really opened my ears to the blues and hearing all chord progressions in general. After learning the Blues progression I was amazed at how many Jazz soloists played over very basic Blues progressions.

Ed S.

**EdHanrahan** · May-04-2009, 11:39am

Just to find something -anything- quickly, there's no reason to limit yourself to "BLUES progressions FOR MANDOLIN". A progression is a progression, and a set of chords can be applied to any instrument.

I'm no expert, but classic rock, rockabilly, and even folk are rife with 12-bar blues. And it's the 16-bar blues by which Monroe the blue in bluegrass (uhmm, besides the groundcover in Kentucky).

Be aware that the "highly extended" jazz chords can often be substituted with the underlying major or minor chord, maybe with just the 7th added. And yes, a lot of jazz simply follows the IIm-V7-I progression, which in the key of C would be Dm, G7, & C. They're often prettied up w/ extra notes (maybe Dm7, CM7), but just drop the D note from the Dm7, and the extra ones elsewhere, and you have the world's most basic set of F, G, & C.

This is far from a comprehensive or even specific answer, but it should help widen your search.

**groveland** · May-04-2009, 11:58am

I usually practice things like this stuff on this old cafe thread. As you said, jazz soloists extend the basic blues.

**Chris Keth** · May-04-2009, 12:17pm

Here's a pretty good layout of what's going in in blues progressions.

**Mike Bunting** · May-04-2009, 12:20pm

I imagine blues progressions for the mandolin are the same as for the bass. A progression is a progression after all.

**mzuch** · May-04-2009, 12:52pm

Rich Delgrosso's book, Blues Mandolin, has what you are looking for.

**AZStu** · May-04-2009, 1:10pm

This is written from a guitar perspective, but as noted above, it's equally applicable to mandolin. Plus it's in the Key of G.

http://www.bobbrozman.com/tip_evol12bar.html