Piano students delight in figuring out how they can make their own music based on the 12-bar blues progression. Take the improvisations of beginners Lara, age 10, and Clara, age 8. Lara improvised the following blues after she learned The Low Down Boogie and Flint Street Boogie by Marilyn Lowe:

Clara, when she was experimenting, really preferred the major tonality sound over minor or blues scales. So I told her that the 12-bar blues progression actually shows up in many musical styles besides the blues and boogie woogie, such as pop songs, rock ballads, hard rock and lullabies, to name a few. It was exciting to witness Clara’s discovery of the major triads (arpeggiated) that make up the 12-bar blues:

–by Carla J. Seibert