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BLUES KEY SHAPES 2

September 20, 2018 By Jim Beckwith

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!

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