Blues chord progressions for ukulele

Dominant sevenths, 12-bar turnarounds. These progressions sound shuffling and gritty, usually sit in A major, E major, D major, G major and C major and suit a tempo of around 84 BPM. Every chord has a ukulele diagram for standard GCEA tuning.

Generate a new Blues progression

4 Blues chord progressions to play now

Blues progression 1 in A major

A7 · D7 · A7 · E7 · D7 · A7

I7 · IV7 · I7 · V7 · IV7 · I7

4/4 · 4 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 1 bar, 1 bar, 2 bars · around 84 BPM

1GCEA
A7
1112GCEA
D7
123GCEA
E7

the classic 12 bar turnaround

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Blues progression 2 in E major

E7 · A7 · E7 · B7 · A7 · E7

I7 · IV7 · I7 · V7 · IV7 · I7

4/4 · 4 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 1 bar, 1 bar, 2 bars · around 84 BPM

123GCEA
E7
1GCEA
A7
1211GCEA
B7

the classic 12 bar turnaround

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Blues progression 3 in D major

D7 · G7 · D7 · A7 · D7

I7 · IV7 · I7 · V7 · I7

4/4 · 4 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars · around 84 BPM

1112GCEA
D7
213GCEA
G7
1GCEA
A7

a stripped back shuffle

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Blues progression 4 in G major

G7 · C7 · G7 · C7 · G7 · D7

I7 · IV7 · I7 · IV7 · I7 · V7

4/4 · 4 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 2 bars, 1 bar, 1 bar · around 84 BPM

213GCEA
G7
1GCEA
C7
1112GCEA
D7

12 bars ending on the V, ready to loop

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A strum pattern for Blues songs

One bar of eighth notes. Down arrows are downstrokes, up arrows upstrokes, dots are misses: keep your hand moving through them.

↓ · · ↑ ↓ · ↓ ·
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

How to use these progressions

Play each chord for the length shown, repeat the loop, and hum or sing over it until a melody turns up. The Roman numerals under each progression name the chords by their place in the key, so the same pattern works in any key: open it in the generator and change the key to suit your voice. Chord progressions are not covered by copyright, so anything you write over them is yours.

Same mood on guitar

Blues chord progressions for guitar

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