Once the basic 12 Bar Blues rhythm has been mastered it is time to move onto using variations of the basic pattern, allowing you to improvise within the rhythm part. Great fun and pretty easy.

FirstDownload the pdf file here. Or just check out the tabs below...

 

Basic Pattern

Which you should have had down from the last lesson. If not please go back and check it out... This is revision :)

 

Variation 1

This variation only changes the two notes on beats 3 +, you just reach out and play them with your little finger. make sure you leave your first finger down in the right place, don't let it slip up.

Variation 2

This one introduces using the second finger and the third finger on the 5th string, kind of a bass effect. Pretty cool. Make sure you pick the right notes - try to keep it clean and not pick strings that you shouldn't.

Variation 3

This is a mixture of the two above things.

Variation 4

This is also a variation of the above patterns. Try this one, then try to make up your own!!

 

D.I.Y.

It's important that you try to make up your own patterns, the only rule is to make it sound cool!! So experiment, twist and turn these patterns, listen out for variations on recordings and try to copy them, you'll probably make up your own half the time :)

Once you a good play with those it's time to check out BC-014 • Exploring The Pentatonic

 

Video Lesson

 

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