How to Play a Blues Shuffle Pattern on Guitar

A shuffle pattern in music is a pair of swing eighth notes in which the first one is longer (augmented) and the second one is shorter (diminished). It is so named because this rhythm lends itself well to music for "shuffle" dancing. The following steps will show how to play a blues shuffle pattern on guitar.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Look at the general pattern for the 12-bar (measure) blues: 1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 4, 1, 1, 5, 4, 1 and 1. Each number represents the key of the chords that will be played in that measure where the number is the order of that key in the diatonic scale.

2. Observe a specific example for the pattern described in Step 1. If in the key of E, the diatonic scale is E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D# and E. Therefore, the 12-bar blues progression would be E, E, E, E, A, A, E, E, B, A, E and E.

3. Study the chords that will be played in each measure. These will be two alternating chords consisting of the root note and fifth note in the diatonic scale and root note and sixth note in the diatonic scale.

4. Examine an example for E chords in the 12-bar blues. The chord will alternate between E5 (consisting of E and B) and E6 (consisting of E and C#).

5. Play the chords as a pair of swing eighth notes before changing to the next chord. In our example of E chords, the chords in that measure would be played as E5, E5, E6, E6, E5, E5, E6 and E6.

Resources

• Find out more about the blues shuffle at Guitar Bootcamp.