The twelve bars from the first lesson are a frame, and players rarely leave it exactly as it is. Three changes are so common that you should expect them in almost any blues: a quick change near the start, a turnaround at the end of every chorus, and an ending on the last one. Each grid below draws one of them against the plain form, and a bar with a heavier outline is a bar that changed.
The quick change
In the quick change, bar two moves to the IV and goes straight back to the I in bar three. It breaks up four bars of one chord, and it lets you hear the IV briefly before it arrives properly in bar five. The plain form, with four bars of the I, is called the slow change to tell the two apart.
The quick change, in A
The quick change in A: A7, D7, A7, A7, D7, D7, A7, A7, E7, D7, A7, E7.
The IV arrives early, in bar two, and hands straight back to the I. The heavier outline is the one bar that differs from the twelve-bar blues.
The turnaround
The last two bars of a chorus are called the turnaround, because their job is to turn the form back to the top. In this version they split in half: A7 then D7 in bar eleven, and A7 then E7 in bar twelve. The E7 at the very end is the V, and the V leans toward the I, so the next chorus begins with a sense of arrival.
With a turnaround, in A
With a turnaround in A: A7, A7, A7, A7, D7, D7, A7, A7, E7, D7, A7 then D7, A7 then E7.
The last two bars split in two, so the form turns back toward the top. The heavier outlines are the two bars that differ from the twelve-bar blues. Two of its bars hold two chords.
Players usually fill a turnaround with a short line as well, often notes stepping down toward the V, and that line is what most people mean when they hum a blues turnaround. The chords in the grid are the frame the line is played over.
The ending
On the last chorus there is no next chorus to turn toward, so bar twelve stops on the I instead of the V. The classic way to arrive there is from a semitone above: B♭7, then A7. B♭7 is the open A7 shape moved up one fret with your first finger laid across the strings, and the next lesson shows how that move works. Until then you can end on A7 alone and let it ring.
With an ending, in A
With an ending in A: A7, A7, A7, A7, D7, D7, A7, A7, E7, D7, A7, B♭7 then A7.
The last bar stops on the I instead of turning to the V, arriving from the chord a semitone above. The heavier outline is the one bar that differs from the twelve-bar blues. Where the twelve-bar blues uses three chords, this uses four. One of its bars holds two chords.
This lesson was drafted with the help of AI, so it may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made