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By Pete Madsen
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Play the classic and versatile blues shuffle rhythm as a two-note chord riff, a groove-filled bass line, or a horn-like accent. With audio examples
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| Photo credit: Anne Hamersky
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Practice Plan
Level:
The examples in this lesson aren’t difficult, but they do require your fingers to do things they don’t have to do in first position. Let your hands get used to the stretch in the 12-Bar Shuffle, and in the meantime, you can move on to the other examples.
Play It: “Lay Down Sally” (page 48 of the Spring 2007 issue), “Truckin’” (page 58 of the Spring 2007 issue).
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Tune Up
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Introduction
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Whenever you play with other people—whether in a band, a multiguitar jam, or even recording by yourself—you should think of your rhythm playing as a singular part within the whole sound. Several guitars playing the same part can sound big and powerful, but it can also sound dull and uninspired. If everyone plays a part that complements or accentuates the others, you’ll create a more dynamic sound.
In "Blues Jam Kit" (Fall 2005), I showed you three ways to play a blues shuffle in the key of E. But what works well in E might not work in the key of C, for example. That’s because the blues shuffle we played in E is in an open position, which means that the root note or other notes in the chords you play are open strings. To play a blues shuffle in C, you use a closed position, which means you use all fretted notes.
Using all fretted notes may sound like a drag, but think of it this way: you can move the same fretting-hand shapes all around the neck to play in different keys. Once you realize how easy this is, you’ll wonder why you weren’t doing this before!
So let’s look at three new ways to play a blues shuffle in the key of C: an eighth-note shuffle rhythm that works great as the main rhythm track, a single-note bass riff to create some movement under the chords, and a punchy seventh-chord part to punctuate our other rhythms.
Play a Powerful Shuffle
We’ll start off with a basic closed-position power chord, as in BASIC SHUFFLE, below. With your index finger, fret the sixth (low E) string at the eighth fret, then reach your ring finger over to fret the fifth (A) string at the tenth fret. You’ve got a simple C chord.
To play these examples, you’ll use a shuffle rhythm, which is basically an eighth-note up-and-down strum with the first note of the pair (the note that falls on the one, two, three, and four) held slightly longer than the second note (the note that falls on the and).
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Basic Shuffle
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Basic Shuffle, Played Slowly
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Keep the same fingering for SHUFFLE AND STRETCH, but on beats two and four, stretch your pinky to reach the 12th fret on the fifth string. Keep your ring finger on the tenth fret of the same string so you can easily go back and forth between the stretched and nonstretched shapes.
The Shuffle and Stretch rhythm is probably the most challenging part of this lesson. I hate to spring it on you at the beginning, but it’s the foundation upon which the rest of this lesson is built. And once you learn it, you’ll be able to use it in many, many songs. Give yourself time to get used to the stretch by practicing the rhythm daily.
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Shuffle and Stretch
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Shuffle and Stretch, Played Slowly
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12-BAR SHUFFLE is a full-blown 12-bar blues using our new shuffle rhythm.
Play the C chord for four bars, then move to F for two bars. F is played exactly the same way as C, just move the shape over to the fifth and fourth strings (stay on the same frets). Go back to C for two measures, then in measure 9, play a new chord, G. G is a full step higher than F, so move the F shape up two frets (your index finger is on the tenth fret of the fifth string). Slide back to F for one measure, then back to C, and finish off with G.
Unlike first-position chords, which require you to constantly change fingerings, you can move the same power chord shape around the neck to get different chords. “Behind the Notes: Moving Movable Shapes” (at the end of this article) shows you how to do this.
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12-Bar Shuffle
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12-Bar Shuffle, Played Slowly
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Printable Version
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