Skip to content

Setup

Instrument

E A D G B E
Capo

Diagrams

Chords shown as
Chord numbers
Shape difficulty
Fret numbers counted
Strings on the neck
Playing hand

Playback

Chords sound as

Accessibility

Larger type and controls, stronger contrast, reduced motion, and thumb-reachable show controls on this device.

Account & sync

Account & sync →
Account
Progression

The 12-bar blues in C major

12-bar blues in C major plays C7, F7 and G7 — I, IV and V — across 12 chords. The foundation of blues, rock and roll, and a huge share of popular music since the 1950s: three dominant seventh chords, one per scale degree, played in a fixed twelve-bar form.

The chords, in order

Bar 1C7I
Bar 2F7IV
Bar 3C7I
Bar 4C7I
Bar 5F7IV
Bar 6F7IV
Bar 7C7I
Bar 8C7I
Bar 9G7V
Bar 10F7IV
Bar 11C7I
Bar 12G7V

The shapes

IC7
C dominant seventh, open position, capo 0. Strings from lowest to highest: open, fret 1, fret 2, open, fret 1, open. Frets are relative to the capo.
012010IVF7
F dominant seventh, open position, capo 0. Strings from lowest to highest: fret 1, fret 3, fret 1, fret 2, fret 1, fret 1. Frets are relative to the capo. Barre at relative fret 1, strings 1 to 6.
131211VG7
G dominant seventh, open position, capo 0. Strings from lowest to highest: fret 3, fret 2, open, open, open, fret 1. Frets are relative to the capo.
320001

The same progression in a nearby key

Open 12-bar blues in C major in the explorer →All seven chords in C major →