Look It's Just a 12-bar in A

"Now son if you're going to be in a rock and roll covers band, you need to be able to understand the mechanics of a 12-bar blues."

If you learnt to play guitar in the dim and distant past as I did,  your usual first port of call was playing an open A string and, on the D string an E at the second fret alternating with an F# at the 4th fret.  The hours of dum-de-dum achieved made you feel like Robert Johnson.  Progress was achieved when you discovered that moving your fretted notes down to the G and playing an open D gave you what is referred to as the IV chord.  Bliss was then ensured by moving your fretted notes to the A string and playing the open E to achieve the V Chord.  In other words, the A, D and E of the 12-bar blues in A.

This of course opens all kinds of doors.  You can be a Delta Blues Man, or start tackling most of the 1950's rock and roll of Elvis, Buddy Holly and Bill Hailey et al.

Of course as your playing improves you begin to tackle more complicated songs and maybe even write your own.

So after playing in a few bands over the years, I am now firmly back in the clutches of the 12-bar rock and roll song, usually in the key of A.

My band Revival of the Fittest is often described as a boyband.  However at 48 years old I am the youngest by almost 20 years.  This means that even a gentle Shadows walk causes much consternation and the need to apply Voltarol.  

The main issue is our repertoire is generally governed by what the other lads have heard of, and whilst I'm not necessarily on the cutting edge of musical taste, anything in this century is a foreign land for me, getting the lads to tackle say Oasis or Sleeper is a tricky business.  Thus we are often falling back on the rock and roll songs of the 50's and early 60's.

So when my youngest son began to take an interest in playing guitar I suggested he come to rehearsals and join in.  Now my lad is already far better than me, he has the advantage of better quality affordable guitars and the accessibility of YouTube instructional videos.  He is playing the solo from Sultans of Swing and studying Hendrix intently.  By contrast when I started out I was listening to my parents vinyl and trying to work out the chords to Buddy Holly.  Having to keep moving the needle back and forwards was an absolute pain in the proverbial, but as we would read in the NME its how Eric Clapton and The Beatles did it, so it had to be good enough for us.

Imagine then his frustration that almost every song we play is a 12-bar.  Where's Oasis?  Where's Hendrix?  What about CCR?

Cue Dad with a sigh: "Look it's just in 12-bar in A."