In music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, an eight-bar blues is a typical blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 progression

Chord progression

A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...

, "the second most common blues form," "common to folk, rock, and jazz forms of the blues," taking eight 4/4

Time signature

The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....

 or 12/8 bars to the verse.

Examples include "Sitting on Top of the World

Sitting on Top of the World

"Sitting on Top of the World" is a folk-blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks, a popular country blues band of the 1930s...

" and "Key to the Highway

Key to the Highway

"Key to the Highway" is a blues standard first recorded by blues pianist Charlie Segar in 1940. The song was also recorded by Jazz Gillum and Big Bill Broonzy in 1940–41, and it was later a R&B record chart success for Little Walter in 1958...

", "Trouble in Mind

Trouble in Mind (song)

"Trouble in Mind" is a slow eight-bar blues song written by jazz pianist Richard M. Jones. The song was recorded in 1924 by singer Thelma La Vizzo with Jones providing the piano accompaniment...

" and "Stagolee

Stagger Lee (song)

"Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee", "Stackerlee", "Stack O'Lee", "Stack-a-Lee" and several other variants, is a popular folk song based on the murder of William "Billy" Lyons by Stagger Lee Shelton...

". "Heartbreak Hotel

Heartbreak Hotel

"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...

", "How Long Blues

How Long, How Long Blues

"How Long, How Long Blues" is a traditional eight bar blues song, made famous by Leroy Carr on his 1928 Vocalion Records recording with the guitarist Scrapper Blackwell...

", "Ain't Nobody's Business

Ain't Nobody's Business

"Ain't Nobody's Business" or "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do" is an eight-bar vaudeville blues song that became an early blues standard. It was written in the 1920s by pianist Porter Grainger, who had been Bessie Smith's accompanist, and Everett Robbins. The song was first recorded October 19,...

", "Cherry Red", and "Get a Haircut" are all eight-bar blues standard

Blues standard

A blues standard is a blues song that is widely known, performed, and recorded by blues artists. The following list identifies blues standards and some of the blues artists that have recorded them...

s.

One variant using this progression is to couple one eight-bar blues melody with a different eight-bar blues bridge

Bridge (music)

In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...

 to create a blues variant of the standard 32-bar song

Thirty-two-bar form

The thirty-two-bar form, often called AABA from the musical form or order in which its melodies occur, is common in Tin Pan Alley songs and later popular music including rock, pop and jazz...

. "Walking By Myself", "I Want a Little Girl" and "(Romancing) In The Dark" are examples of this form. See also blues ballad

Blues ballad

The term blues ballad is used to refer to a specific form of popular music which fused Anglo-American and Afro-American styles from the late 19th century onwards...

.

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."

Eight-bar blues

I	V7	IV7	IV7
I	V7 IV7	I	V7

"Worried Life Blues

Worried Life Blues

"Worried Life Blues" is a song that has become one of the most recorded blues songs of all time. Originally recorded by Major "Big Maceo" Merriweather in 1941, "Worried Life Blues" was an early blues hit and Maceo's most recognized song...

" (probably the most common eight bar blues progression):

I	I	IV	IV
I	V	I IV	I V

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

I	I	I	I
IV	IV	V	I

J. B. Lenoir

J. B. Lenoir

J. B. Lenoir /ləˈnɔːr/ was an African American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter, active in the 1950s and 1960s Chicago blues scene....

's "Slow Down

Slow Down

"Slow Down" is a 24-bar blues written and performed by Larry Williams. Released as a single in 1958, it was a rhythm and blues hit that influenced the growing Rock & Roll movement of the time. It was released as a 7" single...

" and "Key to the Highway" (variation with the V at bar 2):

I7	V7	IV7	IV7
I7	V7	I7	V7

"Get a Haircut" by George Thorogood

George Thorogood

George Thorogood is an American blues rock vocalist/guitarist from Wilmington, Delaware, United States, known for his hit song "Bad to the Bone" as well as for covers of blues standards such as Hank Williams' "Move It On Over" and John Lee Hooker's "House Rent Boogie/One Bourbon, One Scotch, One...

 (simple progression):

I	I	I	I
IV	IV	V	V

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers

Jimmy Rogers was an American Chicago blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player, best known for his work as a member of Muddy Waters' band of the 1950s.-Career:...

' "Walkin' By Myself" (somewhat unorthodox example of the form):

I7	I7	I7	I7
IV7	V7	I7	V7

The progression may be created by dropping the first four bars from the twelve-bar blues, as in the solo

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 section of Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Raitt

Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...

's "Love Me Like a Man" and Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

's "Mary Had a Little Lamb":

IV7	IV7	I7	I7
V7	IV7	I7	V7

(The same chord progression can also be called a sixteen-bar blues, if each symbol above is taken to be a half note in 2/2 or 4/4 time—blues has not traditionally been associated with notation, so its form becomes a bit slippery when written down.) For example "Nine Pound Hammer

Nine Pound Hammer

Nine Pound Hammer is an American cowpunk band formed in 1985 by vocalist Scott Luallen and guitarist Blaine Cartwright in their hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky...

". Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

's original instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

"Sweet Sixteen Bars" is another example.