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The Blues Shuffle
These lessons are dedicated to helping you gain familiarity with the basic Blues shuffle rhythm, it’s execution, and the 12 bar Blues framework. I know it sounds like a lot, but this is a step by step path to awesome Bluesyness. The amazing thing here… you only have to know one pattern… yep only one!!!
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playing better in three weeks than I could have in a year teaching myself
Thoughts on flat picking vs finger picking for this section? My flat picking sounds terrible, as I can’t cleanly hit just two strings. It sounds much better when I use my thumb & index finger to dual pluck.
I just completed my first lesson and my hands hurt lol. How long do I have to stay in this lesson before I move to the next one. Great lesson though 🙂
This is my first day and I feel lost, There’s no way I can do all this in 10 min. a day. I’ve put in a hour already. It’s not just the guitar, it’s naving the computer and all that I purchased.
As usual, I’ve had to slow way down in order to grasp this basic shuffle. I’ve known this pattern for quite awhile but always told myself that it wasn’t all that important. Lately I’ve felt less complacent with my playing and hopefully this course will help me finally get up the neck and start actually start playing my guitar instead of hanging around noodling on the first 5 frets. Here’s to hard work and hope.
I’ve been “playing at” acoustic guitar for 50 years, but 99.99% of the time, it has been a combination of fingerpicking and strumming with my fingers. I’ve already progressed through most of the blues module, but am coming back here to the first lesson to seek advice on learning to use a pick. For me, that has been the hardest part. Any advice on a remedial course of some sort?
Gary,
Make sure to check out the flatpicking 101 course the very first lesson will go over how to hold the pick, which should give you a good solid foundation for using a pick going forward 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Learned a lot. Tried working out the complete chord sequences. Presume this pattern is for A major? What about other keys?
You keep referring to “the tab” but I don’t see it on my screen?
Rory,
It is available for download in the text of the lesson 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Thanks , That was a fun first lesson. Im going to stop now on this high note. Cheers
OK, part on of three completed and two to go!
Wow, I just completed my first lesson here. I’m so pumped up to continue and practice. TAC has really got me out of a practice rut. I love it!
Hi Tony and fellow TAC buddies,
I just did the complete lesson without the benefit of seeing any tabs for this lesson. Am I navigating wrong, or do I need to look in a certain place to see the tabs? Thanks in advance, and I really enjoyed this lesson; I just need to be able to refer to the tabs to move it out of short term and into long term memory. 🙂
Melody
Cancel that question guys, I found it 🙂
lucky you im sill searching
Melody,
No worries, for the courses generally the tabs are on the very first page called the course page. You will see a box labeled course materials and underneath there will be links to associated tabs and such. 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
So 12BB is always 1-4-5?
Douglas,
Nailed it 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Ive never played blues and it was fun and educational. Looking forward to the next lesson!!
I liiiike
Tony’s Amazing
Just picking up the guitar again after 15 year break. Have already learned more about the Why? things are done in the progression of layout, than have ever understood before.
Awesome Man, thanks
Light Bulb!! I kept running into references of 12 BB but just didn’t sink in until now. What a great way to go into the new year. My J45 gift from my awesome wife (many thanks to Tony’s 10 reasons!!) and a foundation for a lot of great music in 2018! Happy New Year to all the TAC folks and all of your team in the lovely Gallatin Valley!!
Thanks Guy, congrats on your new guitar and also your light bulb moment!!! Keep up the awesome work!!!
Cheers,
Tony
Hi Tony. So this is in the key of A, right?
David,
You are correct 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
Easy to play. Enjoyed learning something new.
Hi Tony – Great course so far! I’m learning a lot and I am total noobie.
The last lesson here for the 12 Barre Blues kind of lost me though. I did not understand the sheet music tabs for this and could not follow what you were saying to match what I was seeing / interpretting on the sheet. The part that really lost me is the half way down the page where there no notes on the lines, just a black bar. It would really help to see you pointing to the part in the sheet music you are referring to. Is there anywhere you delve more into this on the site? I don’t want to get lost so soon.
Thanks!
Ana,
Thank you for the question 🙂 I am glad you are digging the blues course 🙂 The 12 bar blues tab ends up being more of an outline. If you look at the tab you will see that there are letters above the measures. These stand for the chords that make up the twelve bar blues. You can then take this framework and combine it with what you have learned to create your own blues progression. Essentially you can take the blues riffs that you know (one in A, one in D, and one in E) and whichever letter is above the measure play that riff. A condensed version would look like this:
A – A – A – A
D – D – A – A
E – D – A – A
Each letter representing the corresponding riff.
I hope this helps out, and if the waters are still murky no worries just holler 🙂
Cheers,
Tony
This was a great review for me. It has been awhile since playing any Blues patterns and it was fun going through it again. Tony, you make it so easy to stay focused and engaged. It wasn’t too much and it wasn’t too little.
I look forward to moving on and seeing what you have for me.
Thanks,
Terry.
Terry,
I’m really glad to hear you dug this!!! Thank you for your kind words!!!
Cheers,
Tony