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You hear a song and instantly know it's a blues tune. How do you know?

It might be in the tempo or the rhythm pattern. Maybe it's a fast shuffle, or the deliberate staccato of a slow 12/8 beat.

It may be the familiar changes of a I, IV, V chord progression that tips you off - or the lyrical ramblings lamenting lost loves and "you-done-me-wrong's".

But there is a good chance the recognition was triggered by structure of the song's underlying chords.

Most beginning guitarists become familiar early on with major chords and minor chords. And millions of songs from many genres of music can be played using them.

But in blues music, it's rare to find the use of a standard major or minor chord. Not unheard of, but rare.

More typically, you will encounter 7th chords, minor 7th chords, 9th chords, and augmented chords - just to name a few.

Many of these chords are very similar to their major or minor parent, with only a small change in one of the notes of the chord.

But it's this subtle change that gives these chords the "bluesy" sound that tells your ears that you're listening to the blues.

Here we will talk about 7th chords and how to use them to create blues progressions.

Technically, a 7th chord is formed using the major triad, and adding a flat 7th to it.

From a practical standpoint, let's take a look at how to form a simple 7th chord from a standard "G" barre chord at the 3rd fret.

E----------3----------3-----

B----------3----------3-----

G----------4----------4-----

D----------5----------3-----

A----------5----------5-----

E----------3----------3-----

The first chord in the TAB above represents a G barre chord played on the 3rd fret.

The second chord is a G7 played at the same position. The only difference is the note on the D (4th) string. That note was lowered from the 5th fret, to the 3rd fret to make the G chord a G7.

A much easier way to visualize this is to think of the fingering pattern used when playing a G barre chord in this position. All you have to do to make it a G7 chord is to lift the 4th finger. No other change is necessary.

The neat thing about guitar is that you can transpose this to any key by simply sliding this chord position up or down the neck. In this way you can now play 7th chords anywhere.

Another commonly used 7th chord can be formed using barre chords in the "A" shape.

For example, a "C" major barre chord in the "A" shape, played at the 3rd fret would look like the first example below:

E----------3----------3-----

B----------5----------5-----

G----------5----------3-----

D----------5----------5-----

A----------3----------3-----

E----------------------------

The second example above represents the C7 chord which is formed by lowering the note on the 5th fret of the 3rd string two frets to the 3rd fret. This requires a minor change in fingering, but is easily accomplished.

These 7th chords can also be transposed to any key by simply sliding them up or down the neck to the desired position.

By using the two formations of 7th chords shown above, you can now apply these to a multitude of blues songs.

To illustrate, a song using a I, IV, V chord progression in the key of "G" would consist of the chords G, C and D.

You can make this into a blues sounding progression by substituting the major chords with 7th chords.

The result would be a chord progression comprised of G7, C7 and D7.

The G7 would be played using the formation in the first example above - the C7 would be played using the second example above, and the D7 would be played by sliding the C7 chord formation up two frets.

Experiment with these chords in different keys and get used to playing them. You'll find that you will use them over and over.

The subtle difference of changing a major chord to a 7th chord can take a standard rock or country song and turn it into blues song just by inserting these simple blues guitar chords.