Blues Guitar Lesson - The Roots of Rhythm Guitar
Our blues
guitar rhythm and blues
shuffle lessons showed you how to play a basic "boogie"
pattern. In this blues guitar lesson, I will show you more complex
rhythm patterns and chords that will make you sound more like
an authentic blues guitar player.
Blues Guitar Variations
Please review the E
Blues Shuffle lesson before trying these rhythm below. They
are just extensions of the basic "boogie" pattern. The
rhythms shown in this guitar lesson are Delta or Chicago Style Blues
rhythms. Some blues guitar players who played in the Delta style
are:
- Blind Lemon Jefferson
- Tampa Red
- Mississippi John Hurt
Some blues guitar players who played in the Chicago style are:
- Muddy Waters
- Howlin' Wolf
- Buddy Guy
Blues Shuffle Rhythm 1
This blues rhythm starts with the simple "boogie" rhythm,
then replaces the last 2 eighth notes with an eighth note triplet
rhythm which is hammered.
E5 Rhythm 1 (HEAR
IT!) - substitute this measure for the E5 measures
in the E blues rhythm lesson.
A5 Rhythm 1 (HEAR
IT!) - substitute this measure for the A5 measures
in the E blues rhythm lesson.
Shuffle Rhythm 2
E5 Rhythm 2 (HEAR
IT!) - substitute this measure for the E5 measures
in the E blues rhythm lesson. You can play this as a straight or
shuffle rhythm.
A5 Rhythm 2 (HEAR
IT!) - substitute this measure for the A5 measures
in the E blues rhythm lesson. You can play this as a straight or
shuffle rhythm.
Blues Shuffle Rhythm 3
E5 Rhythm 3 (HEAR
IT!) - substitute this measure for the E5 measures
in the E blues rhythm lesson.
There isn't an easy way to play A5 rhythm 3 so use A5 measure
1 or 2 (if you are trying to play the 12 bar blues with rhythm 3).
As for the B5 measure (the 5 chord), here is a good rhythm below:
B5 Rhythm (HEAR IT!)
Now that you have a few different shuffle rhythms to
add to your bag of tricks, mix and match them to make your blues
guitar playing sound more interesting. I will demonstrate how to
do this:
Mix and Match Blues Shuffle (HEAR
IT!)
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