Breakfast Blues analysis begins with basic theory

If we look at the notes in the major scale based on the key of E major they look like this:

Key of E

The roman numeral designations above correspond to the notes in the E major scale. So II-7 or II minor 7 would be F#-7 or F#minor7. Chord progressions written with roman numeral equivalents are used so you can think of the progression in different keys. If we wanted to play Breakfast Blues in the key of C, the II-7 would be D-7 or Dminor7.

Breakfast Blues chord progression:

2 Measure/Bar Intro

|     I7     |  I7  V7 |

12 Measure Progression (12 Bar Blues)

|      I7    |     IV7   |     I7     |V-7 bV7 I7 bI7|   (Bars 1-4)

|     IV7   |IV7(Sus)|  I7  II-7 | III-7 VI7 |     (Bars 5-8)

|     II-7   |     V7    |  I7  VI7  | II-7  V7 |     (Bars 9-12)

7=Dominant 7th, -7=Minor 7th, Sus=Add4

We’ll be covering a lot more about chord progressions in our lessons and the Breakfast Blues is a great place to start. You can see and hear how I play the progression in my 30 Chord Blues on my home page.

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