Why Guitarshelf's blues catalog always starts in E (or A, G, D)

A careful look at Guitarshelf's blues catalog quickly reveals a pattern: the keys on offer are consistently E, A, G and D — never, say, C or F at beginner level. That choice isn't arbitrary: it comes directly from the guitar's standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E).

A blues progression needs a dominant 7th chord on every degree

A classic 12-bar blues progression relies on three dominant seventh chords (for example E7, A7, B7 in the key of E). On a standard-tuned guitar, all three of those chords exist in open position — playable from level 1, no barre chord needed — only for a limited set of keys, E, A, G and D among them.

What that actually means for a beginner

A blues progression in C, by comparison, would need at least one seventh chord requiring a barre or a noticeably harder fingering right from the first sheet — the opposite of a genuinely accessible level 1. Limiting beginner blues to these four keys isn't an arbitrary content simplification, then: it's a constraint inherited directly from the instrument's own mechanics.

The sheet Blues in E — getting started and its rhythm counterpart Blues in E — strumming pattern illustrate this directly: all three chords (E7, A7, B7) stay open from start to finish.