As I explained in my last post, “Blues Key Shapes 1”, the
easiest way to find out what chords are in a key is by
looking at the pattern they follow on the fretboard. To
do this, you must understand type 1 and 2 chords, degree
names, blues harmony, etc. Reading the previous 3 posts
will help and all of this is explained in greater detail
(and pictures!) in my book, “Take Control: for guitar”.
In the last post, “Blues Key Shapes 1”, I explained the
basic idea behind blues harmony and showed its “chord
shape” in the key of E blues. In this post I will compare
the chord shape of E blues with the chord shape of G
blues which would start 3 frets higher on the neck.
KEY OF E BLUES:E,G,A,B,C,D ( all major chords, although
E,A, and B can be minor as well).
fret# degree type1 chord degree type2 chord
0 I E major IV A major
1
2 V B major
3 bIII G major bVI C major
4
5 IV A major bVII D major
As I said in the previous post, the root chord for this
blues shape chord pattern is always a type 1 chord.
Since we’re in E blues the type 1 chord is an open E,
all the rest of the chords follow the plus 3 fret/2 fret
spacing (with the addition of the V chord B, which is
type 2 and 2 frets higher than the root chord). In the
example below, I will move the blues key chord shape
up 3 frets, to G blues. This will give us a different set
of chords.
KEY OF G BLUES:G,Bb,C,D,Eb,F.(all major chords,
although G,C,and D can be minor as well).
fret# degree type1 chord degree type2 chord
0
1
2
3 I G major IV C major
4
5 V D major
6 bIII Bb major bVI Eb major
7
8 IV C major bVII F major
Notice the degree numbers follow the same sequence
and are the same distance apart. The only thing that
changes are the new chords you have to make to match
the degree names 3 frets higher. You can move this
pattern to any fret on the fretboard (starting on the
type 1 chord) and find the chords in any key! As with
the major key pattern, memorizing the blues degree
pattern shape is much easier than learning the chords
in all 12 keys. One thing I didn’t mention in previous
posts (because it seemed obvious to me), is that you
aren’t limited to playing the chords only on the frets
in the pattern! The degree patterns are only used to
find out what chords to play, you can play any version
of a G or D (or whatever) chord you know!
