The Jazz Blues Progression Tutorial
Now that you have a good understanding of basic blues form, it’s time to enhance it to create the more interesting and sophisticated jazz blues progression.
Whilst the basic 12 bar blues just contains 3 chords, the I, the IV and the V, the jazz blues also incorporates the most common progression in jazz music… the 251 progression.
In this lesson, we will cover what is commonly accepted as the jazz blues form. If you are at a jazz jam night and someone calls the "blues in F", this is the chord sequence or chord progression that will be played for the 12 bars.
The jazz blues progression has been used as a template for some of the greatest tunes in jazz history so by understanding and memorizing this progression, you will also have learnt the blueprint for a good number of very common jazz standards.
In the next lessons we are going to delve straight into blues improvisation and so our left hand needs to have its act together. We will start by exploring the importance of chord tones, and how they are an essential element of your improvised lines.
Lesson Downloads
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“Straight No Chaser” – Jazz Blues Form File Type: pdf -
12 Bar Blues Lesson Supplement File Type: pdf
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Jazz Blues Voicings File Type: pdf
Related Lessons
Most often played as a ballad, this is a great tune to incorporate bluesy licks and riffs. It’s written in the key of Eb Major and has an AABA form.
In this tutorial we create a solo arrangement for “Georgia On My Mind” applying the major blues scale with some soulful licks and riffs.
Using the tune “Georgia” – we will also explore the concept of the major blues scale and how to apply this to major 251 progressions.
Practice Tips
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Memorise this progression down so that you can play through the voicings with your eyes closed.
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Spend the necessary time to practice it so that you don’t need to think of the notes your left hand should be playing.
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Pay attention to smooth voice leading between the chords.
- Alternate the alterations and extensions you choose to play to add variety to your left hand.
Where can i find the sheet music for this tutorial?
Hi Ronny 👋
I have uploaded the lesson notation to each lesson page in this course… hope this helps.
If you need anything else let me know 🙂
Cheers, Hayden
Hi Hayden. Towards the end there is a D7 b9 but I saw you playing F natural and saying “sharp 9”. Wouldn’t the flat 9 be E flat? Thanks.
Hi Josh,
Yes when you see and altered dominant chord, you have the creative freedom to choose different alterations.
The b9 & #9 are both present in the altered mode and so both of them will work.
The b9 has a ‘softer’, more subtle sound, and then #9 has a much more tense and dissonant sound. You can choose between these alterations depending on the sound you want to create.
It’s also a nice technique to play both of them. Try playing the #9 and then fall to the b9. This creates internal movement and interest in your dominant chord voicings.
Try experimenting with this Josh and let me know if you have further questions 🙂
Happy New Year! Hayden
Hello Hayden! Good video! However it would be a MUST in my opinion that the sheet music comes with the full notation for this lesson (aswell as others). Not just the chords name above the measure but also the notes aswell as fingerings!
Otherwise, we have to re-launch the video multiple time !
Hi Neil,
Hi Hayden, thanks for the quick reply and the suggestions regarding other lessons and the video manipulation.
1) For the video, here’s how I think most people would use it (especially the ones where the Piano is not near computer). A) Watch the video and understand the concepts B) move over and work on said concepts either section by section or the complete lesson on one go.
Dear Josh,
Hi Shantanu,
How can i make a bluesy walking bass line with thos chord like this guy?
Hey Ivan, we are soon launching a course “Intro To Boogie Woogie Piano”
Here is the course: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/boogie-woogie-piano-course/ 🙂
Going to start it soon,;)
Hi!
Why are you playing two different voicing for D7(b9) in the 8th and 11th bar?
Hey Shantanu!
Should i learn this on all the 12 Keys?
Hey Ivan,
The same goes for boogie woogie? Thks it helps a lot
In Boogie Woogie, the most common keys are C and G.
Exellent Just what i was needing thks.I have another question…Here in brazil i know people who work 11 hours a day on a job that has nothing related to music from monday to saturday and are musicians too…they are not professionals but they earn some nice money playing on pubs and events…This guys barely play music with extensions and all the things you teach us here…Sometimes the sound is crappy but they are able to pull a repertorie of 100 songs faking them like a boss..I Love all the professionalism this website has and all the beautifull arrangament of the songs you teach us here ..but at this moment it would be very critical for me to learn how to fake the music..to look at a lead sheet and make it sound like i know how to play it.How can i do that?This guys are getting paid and they are not even trying that hard ( they play popular songs).I feel a bit stuck slowly learning your beautifull professional arrangements..restaurants owners are demanding that i should be able to play for long hours…I m in need to fake their demands.Please reply this massage that is very important for me to know.thks. And as a side note..it would be great to have a special course about “faking” standards..people get really exited when a pianist is able to fake a song he doesent know.. And this ability can save your a@@ a lot of times…I think is an important thing to learn.
Hi Hayden,
A very interesting lesson, thank you!
Hi Borg,
Hi hayden thank you for those wonderful lessons
I ask a pleasure, if you can post also left hand voicing sheet, Like the jazz blues chord pdf for the other two main blues tonality Bb and Eb. Just to be sure the position of left hand voicing is ok, not too hight or too low.
And related tothis, do you advice to finish those lesson in f, or start as soon as possible to study in different tonality? Thank you ciao Alessandro
Hayden:
I’m wondering why in this lesson you mostly use 3-note voicings, but sometimes use 4-note voicings (like for C7 and G-7).
Thanks,
Laura
Hi Laura 👋
Good question!
When playing rootless left hand voicings, they will typically contain 3 or 4 notes.
The most important thing is that our rootless voicings contain the 3rd and 7th (the essential chord tones) and then we can choose to add in other extensions such as 9ths and 13ths and alterations such as b9s/#9s etc…
You will see that every voicing I play contains the 3rd and 7th, and the other notes I play depends on the chord.
I most often play the F7 with the 3 note voicing Eb-A-D which is b7-3-13 but we could also play Eb-G-A-D which would be b7-9-3-13. If you play the latter you will hear that it sounds a little denser and thicker.
When moving to Bb7 we can again play 4 notes with the voicing D-G-Ab-C which creates a Bb13 instead of Bb9.
Ultimately, this boils down to preference, experiment with both and see which ones you prefer.
There is no exact science to it so we have a lot of creative freedom to choose voicings that we like, and also that are comfortable for us to play.
I hope this helps and any further questions just let me know.
Cheers, Hayden
Thank you.
Laura
Hey guys when I try to download the blue and jazz form pdf i’m getting the straight no chaser score instead
Hi Oliver 👋🏻
Apologies for the confusion here.
If you download the file “12 Bar Blues Lesson Supplement” the first page contains the basic blues form, and the enhanced jazz blues form with numeric analysis.
The form of “Straight No Chaser” is a jazz blues in F, and so the chord changes are identical to the jazz blues in the other download.
I have renamed the download to make it a clearer as to what it contains.
If I can be of further assistance just let me know.
Cheers, Hayden
Hi Hayden. I’m working on the exercises. And it’s changing my approach to 12 bar blues. Thanks!
You play an Am9 in the progression to Gm. But the 9th is a B natural that isn’t in the scale of either F or G minor. Is there a theoretical reason it can be in there? The sound isn’t unpleasant but to me seems slightly jarring. Tuomo avoids playing this note in his tutorial on Wynton Kelly, which is also a 12 bar blues in F.
Previously I’ve assumed that the 9th can be played in jazz when the minor7th chord is derived from the second or sixth of the major scale but should be avoided when it is from the third.
Hi Hayden. I looked at and understood your analysis of Chord Progressions with interest. It certainly helps me to remember the chord progressions better because I understood their structure.
Now my question: Does it also help me here when playing the voicings? In this specific case – in a very technical sense? In the sense that you focus mainly on thirds and seventh? Or in this case, do I just have to practice and play the voicings by themselves?
But then where would be the sense of practicing 2-5-1? Is it not, that when a 2-5-1 occurs, I just have to reel off stored ones…. I hope you can understand what I want to say…
Thanks for your advice. Christina
Hi Hayden, me again.
I just figured out the technical side by myself.
The differerence to the “normal” 2-5-1 (with the 1 in a major chord) to the 2-5-1 with a domiant-7th-chord as the 1 is:
instead of always just lowering the 7 th to get the new 3rd of the next chord, you have to lower the 7th too, to get the domaninant-chord (quite obvious, i guess…).
2 5 1 classic
2nd step = dm = 3=f, 7=c Then -> 7 down a semitone -> becomes the new 3 of G7 Results in 5th step = G7 then -> 7 down a semitone -> becomes the new 3 of C maj Results in 1st step = C maj
2 5 1 – 1 as dominant seventh chord
2 = dm -> 3=f, 7=c 5 = G7 -> 7 down a semitone -> becomes the new 3rd of G7 1 = C7 -> 7th down a semitone -> becomes the new 3rd of C7
AND ALSO the 7th down a semitone -> results in small 7 of C7 (instead of C maj.)
The question is:
Do you think that way, when you play? Or do you just play each chord as figured out before? And the analysis is only for remembering the progression?
I hope, that makes my question clear… finally… 😉
Thanks.
Christina
Hi Christina,
Good question and yes I understand your question.
Your analysis with the voice leading is perfect. If we are voice leading the 3rds and 7ths in a 251 progression, the b7th always falls by half a step to become the 3rd of the next chord.
An important point to understand is that a 251 is just a string of chords which are a 5th apart.
For example a 251 in F Major is G-7 to C7 to Fmaj7, if you play all of the root notes on the keyboard you will notice that they are all a 5th apart.
Now if we change all of those chords to dominant chords, we just move both notes down by a half step.
For example starting with G7, the 3rd and 7th are F and B, then to move to C7 we simply drop both notes by a half step, so we are playing E and Bb, then to move to F7 we drop both notes by a half step again to Eb and A.
We can do this through all 12 keys, or all the way around the circle of 5ths. Try playing the following chords with just 3rds and 7ths and lead from one to the next…
G7 –> C7 –> F7 –> Bb7 –> Eb7 –> Ab7 and the interesting thing is that when we get to Db7, we are playing the same 3rd and 7th as for G7, but in the opposite order. And then F#7 is the same 3rd and 7th as C7, B7 has the same 3rd and 7th as F7 etc…
These are tritone substitutes, and so the only thing that differentiates them is the note that we play as the root.
To answer your question, yes I do think of this when I play.
We have the creative freedom to choose the quality of the chords in a 251. Particularly in the blues, we can change all of the chords into dominant chords. For a very detailed explanation of this, check out Robert’s lesson here on Blues Turnarounds: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/turnarounds-jazz-organ/
He is playing on the organ, but all of his concepts are equally applicable to the piano.
You might also like his lesson on improvisation here: https://www.pianogroove.com/blues-piano-lessons/hammond-improvisation-soloing/ – Robert uses the exact same F Jazz Blues form and so everything he plays can be applied to the material in this course too.
I hope that helps Christina, definitely check out the lessons referenced above as i think you will find them very useful.
Cheers, Hayden
Thank you so much for your detailed answer. I already was aware, that the 2-5-1 is a string of chords always going/falling down a 5th – which is indeed very important and helpful to understand as music is full of falling 5ths. What I didn’t know: How helpful it is to practice the Turnarounds. And also thank you for your very understandable explanations on the tritone subsitution. I really got it now!
And finally what I realize and got out from your answer – maybe most useful to me: That it is very important to play songs – even if I already can play them fluently and therefore tend to play with muscle memory!! – to play them thoughtful and with beeing aware of what is going on (especially concerning 2-5-1s with the 7ths falling into 3rds).
I already notice, that theory gets deeper in my brain and shows up more and more when I am playing. (I used to learn theory, than to play it, than played it with muscle memory and never remembered the theory or get something out of it.) I guess, thats like walking a path. The more you walk it consciously, the more you are deeply familiar with it and it becomes a highway for your brain connections.
I would say, that this is a key element in learning piano. If I had to guess, I’d say that most beginners haven’t realized this and that this is the essential key to really make progress.
I already notice a great progress in my understanding and playing – you did a very good job with Pianogroove! And I tried serveral online piano plattforms! None of them helped me that much as Pianogroove did.
Thank you, Hayden.