eight-bar blues

Early examples of eight-bar blues standards include:

• "Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" (Sara Martin, 1922){{cite book| author = Hal Leonard| title = The Blues| publisher = Hal Leonard| year = 1995| isbn = 0-7935-5259-1 | pages = 210–212, 224–225, 160–161}}
• "Trouble in Mind" (Bertha Hill, 1926)
• "How Long Blues" (Leroy Carr, 1928){{cite web|url=https://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/8-bar-blues/ |title=8 bar blues Leroy Carr |date=10 January 2013 |access-date=14 July 2020}}
• "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" (Bessie Smith, 1929)
• "It Hurts Me Too" (Tampa Red, 1940){{cite encyclopedia| last = Herzhaft| first = Gerard| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of the Blues| section = It Hurts Me Too| year = 1992| location = Fayetteville, Arkansas| publisher = University of Arkansas Press| isbn = 1-55728-252-8| page = 445}}
• "Key to the Highway" (Big Bill Broonzy, 1941)James, Steve (2001). Inside Blues Guitar, p.18. {{ISBN|978-1-890490-36-2}}.
• "Worried Life Blues" (Big Maceo, 1941){{cite web|url=https://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/8-bar-blues/ |title=Eight-bar blues Big Maceo |date=10 January 2013 |access-date=14 July 2020}}

One variant using this progression is to couple one eight-bar blues melody with a different eight-bar blues bridge to create a blues variant of the standard 32-bar song:Michael Pilhofer and Holly Day, Music Theory For Dummies (London: John Wiley & Sons, 2011), 244. {{ISBN|111805444X}} "I Want a Little Girl" (T-Bone Walker) and "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis)(Form in Rock Music: A Primer, p. 70.

Eight-bar blues progressions have more variations than the more rigidly defined twelve bar format. The move to the IV chord usually happens at bar 3 (as opposed to 5 in twelve bar); however, "the I chord moving to the V chord right away, in the second measure, is a characteristic of the eight-bar blues."

In the following examples each box represents a 'bar' of music (the specific time signature is not relevant). The chord in the box is played for the full bar. If two chords are in the box they are each played for half a bar, etc. The chords are represented as scale degrees in Roman numeral analysis. Roman numerals are used so the musician may understand the progression of the chords regardless of the key it is played in.

"Eight-bar blues chord progression":Alfred Publishing (2002). Beginning Delta Blues Guitar, p.41. {{ISBN|978-0-7390-3006-6}}.

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"Worried Life Blues" (probably the most common eight-bar blues progression):

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{{Listen|filename=Eight_bar_blues_progression_in_C.mid|title=Eight-bar blues progression in C|plain=yes|style=margin-left:1em}}

"Heartbreak Hotel" (variation with the I on the first half):

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J. B. Lenoir's "Slow Down"David Barrett, John Garcia (2008). Improvising Blues Harmonica, p.50. {{ISBN|978-0-7866-7321-6}}. and "Key to the Highway" (variation with the V at bar 2):

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• Twelve-bar blues
• Sixteen-bar blues
• Thirty-two-bar form

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Category:Chord progressions