Jazz Blues
The jazz blues chord progression is similar to the
12 bar blues
but has a few more jazz chords. The functions are still the same but there are more
secondary dominants
and II V's which bring it out of the country/rock blues category and into a jazz category. Note that there are countless variations to this progression but here is what I consider to be a typical jazz blues chord progression: I7 / IV7 / I7 / V-7 V7ofIV IV7 / #IVdim7 / I7 / III-7 V7ofII II-7 / V7 / I7 V7ofII / II-7 V7
Here it is again in the key of C:
C7 / F7 / C7 / G-7 C7 F7 / F#dim7 / C7 / E-7 A7 D-7 / G7 / C7 A7 / D-7 G7
The beauty of the this progression is that you can solo playing the chord changes or just play a
blues scale
(or both!). As far as
chord tensions
are concerned, I usually play regular dominant scales on the I7 and IV7 chords and play b9, #9, and sometimes b13 on the V7ofIV, V7ofII and V7 chords. Occasionally I like to drop a #11 on the first I7 chord after a couple choruses.
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