Now it is time to look at a shuffle rhythm because it sounds cool when you are playing blues.

Video Lesson

 

Swinging the rhythm

First of all lets look at a bar of 4:4 with each beat divided into 3 (triplets). We count this with the number of the beat and then trip then let.

We then get rid of the middle note from each triplet and we end up with what is called a shuffle!

You can see that we still strum down on the beat, and we use an up strum for the let. So it is similar to the usual down up pattern but the up strum is kinda delayed slightly.

You can see there are 4 triplets in the bar and counting the numbers along should help you know where you are in the bar.

This "shuffle" type of strumming has many variations and it not quite as "tight" as I am showing you here. If you think of the first strum being right on the beat (which it should be) then the second strum (the up) can be anywhere in between where the and would have been and the next beat - depending on the groove you are playing.

For now you should work on getting the shuffle just as I have shown it in the video and the above examples, but be aware that in the future you might play with this idea a bit.

Try to put this into practice, maybe playing a simple 12 Bar Blues using 7th chords and this shuffle strumming. You have 6 dominant 7th chords, which means that you can play a 12 Bar progression in 3 different keys! (A, G and E) so you might like to try playing some of the blues songs in the next lesson - or look up some of your own - there are literally hundreds of songs that use the 12 Bar Blues progression!

Common Chord Sequences

I know in the vid I talk about the "common chord sequences lesson" but I have changed that for the "Easy Songs" but I hadn't thought of doing that until after we filmed the vid!

The chord sequences that I talk about here are the 12 Bar Blues chord progressions (shown below) - the chords for Blueses (is that a word?) in the keys of A, G and E, which you can play with the 7th chords that you know already! Play each chord for one bar for each time it is shown and try using that shuffle rhythm!

Yes the first chord is held for 4 bars, which does seem an awful long time if you are playing a low blues. In the Blues in E, I have made it a "quick change" blues which has a chord change in the second bar. Can you work out how to make the Blues and A and G into "quick changes"? I'm sure you can...

Blues in A: A7 A7 A7 A7 D7 D7 A7 A7 E7 D7 A7 E7

Blues in G: G7 G7 G7 G7 C7 C7 G7 G7 D7 C7 G7 D7

Blues in E: E7 A7 E7 E7 A7 A7 E7 E7 B7 A7 E7 B7

Remember that you have a choice of ways of playing A7 and E7 - use whichever is most comfortable for you - doesn't have to be the ones I use in the video in the examples.

Most important is to play one all the way through without getting out of time or stopping, preferably with a metronome. Once you can do it at a slow tempo, gradually build the tempo up.

Any of you theory geek that want to get into how a blues works might like to check out BL-110 which explain the I, IV and V chords, in a more complex surrounding. But there is no need to go there unless you are really keen on learning the theory and already understand keys and chords in keys. If you don't get those things you need Practical Music Theory.

Many people find the counting uncomfortable and would rather do it "by feel". This is fine as long as you are 100% sure you are getting it 100% right. Otherwise really work on the counting. Counting becomes more important later when the rhythms become complex (on a scale between 1 to 100 of rhythmic complexity, we're looking at about 3 right now, so there is a long way to go!). Good news is it gets easier as you go too. Once you get the basics real solid then it becomes easier to add in new things!

There are many hundreds of blues songs that you can play if you can play these sequences, Before You Accuse Me, Johnnny B Goode, Carol... actually it's probably thousands. Many will have slight variations on the basic pattern shown above, but they usually work with the straight sequence shown above!

Have some fun with them and then have a go at some of these tunes...

Lets look at some in BC-157 • Easy Songs For Stage 5

 

HELP!!!!

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