Hey, how are you doing?
Justin Here. Today we're going to be talking
about the shuffle rhythm. It's something you definitely would
have heard before you just might not have pegged the name on to it.
All the rhythmic things we've been talking about so far have been
kind of even 8th notes. So that is, when we've divided a beat
it's been cut exactly in half. So if we had like 1, 2, 3, 4 we've
had 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. So we're kind of keeping the distance between
the beats exactly halfway. Now in a shuffle, that note that's on
the end is moved a little bit later and it has a very different feel.
So here's again the straight one. 1 & 2 & 3 ... Now I'm going to change it into
a shuffle ... It's kind of have a bit more of a
like a skip to it. Now I can explain kind of a mathematically
correct way but then we're going to talk a little bit more about how you
vary it and try to make it feel good. So the first thing we need to do is
to divide a beat into 3 instead of 2. So at the moment we've only been
talking about 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. If we divide each beat into 3, the
count usually that I find easiest is 1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet
1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet 1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet
OK? So that's dividing a beat into 3. Now if we look at each beat as a
group of 3 and we take out the middle one, so we've just got
1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1 ,3. OK? So the 1 and the 3 from each
beat. That's kind of a triplet. 1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet
1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet Put it in practice.
1...1...1... You can hear when I, I'm trying
to play that exactly as 1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet. Feels
a little bit kind of jerky. Now the truth is a real shuffle
like a bluesy shuffle, isn't strickly that kind of triplet thing. It
moves around a little bit, it's a little bit flexible. And if I go
kind of extremely the other way and move like that & later as late
as it could possibly get, it would be more like a 16th note. So if
we divide a beat into 4, 1 e & a, 2 e & a, 3 e & a, 4 e & a would
be the count in 16th notes. If we put that upstroke right on
the last one, the a. 1 e & a. So 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a
1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a... That feels again a little bit lumpy.
So things can go kind in any way in between. Probably the greatest
living musician arguably would be this young guy called Jacob Collier
and there's a video where he talks about shuffle. And he thinks of
it in terms of percentages where if we talk about 50% that's exactly
halfway 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & So the & is exactly halfway between
the beats. If we think about it 66% shuffle, that would be like
dividing it into 3. So like the 1rst note is twice as long as the
2nd note 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1 triplet, 2 triplet, 3 triplet, 4 triplet.
If we thought of like a 75% shuffle that would be like a 16th note
where we have 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a 1 e & a and the truth is
that not any one of those is exactly right all the time. All of the
different blueses have got slightly different feels and the best way to
learn to get that shuffle rhythm is to listen to blues that you really
like. We all kind of connect with different type of blues, so you
want to listen to a broad spectrum of blues music and fin the ones
that you really connect with and then a great thing to do which
is something I got introduced to when I was a kid, which was just
listen to blues records and playing along with the strings muted to try
and pick up the feel of it. So rather than try being mathematical about
it, I'd just literally play along with whoever, like Anna Moffo, Chuck
Berry or whatever, whatever blues you like, Stevie Vaughan, and
try to play along with the rhythm. Now "Pride and Joy" for example,
Stevie Vaughan. The actual song is difficult to
play and it's actually maybe on the slighly too fast vibe for a
beginner, but if you get that feeling and just do that just think about the
strumming. Trying to get it to feel nice
and kind of dancing. Now it is different all the time.
Some people have got it really sussed out. I don't. Like the
interview with Jacob Collier where he's talking about, he calls it
swing rather than shuffle, these terms are kind of interchangeable,
but he talks about 57% is the sweet spot for him, where it's not really
so strong as that triplyty kind of shuffle but it's still got a little
bit of a lilt to it, you know. So this is where I think you can
think about the maths, and I think it's helpfull to undertsand it, but
by for sure the best way to learn it is by listenig and trying to
play along with the shuffle groove that you really like. So try go
and explore some blues music particularly these days it's so easy to access a
vast quantity of music. I'm gonna have some suggestions in a Spotify
play list that you might want to check out. But basically listening
to a whole heap, trying to find something that you connect with
and then just try to play along rhythmically with it. Now we're
going to be using the shuffle rhythm to play our 12 bar blues and the
12 bar blues shuffle riff. It doesn't just happen in strumming now. It
also happens with notes. So if you're playing like... You can hear it straight away. If
I play that straight... it's different then... you see what I mean, straight... shuffle... So it happens with notes it happens
with solos. It's very much, it's a big picture thing here. This is a feel
and it really wants to feel good. And again I keep on saying it but
it is so important it's this listening to music, you know. A lot of people
feel like they want to learn from my videos and just from books,
whatever websites and watching videos on YouTube but listening
to the original recordings of great shuffles and great swings and try
and absorb it that way by listening loads is going to be the best way
to learn it. That's how all of the greats that we love so much, that's
how they learned it. OK? I'm fairly sure they weren't, you know, Stevie
Vaughan wasn't thinking about a swing percentage. He was just listening
to people he really loved and try to copy that feeling and try to
absorb that feeling and then try to make it come out in the music.
I know I'm getting a little bit heavy on this stuff but it really is,
it's a big deal. It's worth thinking about that sort of stuff because
it will make you better and I think that listening to music is
the thing that will make the biggest difference here. When it comes to
doing this in practice, the 2nd note, the & can be a down or an up. OK?
So for now I would recommend when you're doing the strumming for the
12 bar blues that we learn in this lesson that you go down on the
beat and up afterwards. So 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. I notice I'm
counting as an & as well. Like even though officially I guess
I can call it 1 let tut, let tut, let tut, let 1, let 2, let 3, let 4. It's not
really, it's just an &. 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &... Now I'm starting to do all fancy stuff
that I'm going to teach you about later but I can't help but do it
which is put a little mute in there. If I'm using all down picks but
when we do our shuffle riff... we'll be using all down picks for
that. So it's not really about the down and the up pick. It is about
the rhythm. You want to explore using down and ups for the strumming
I would suggest have a go at doing all down strums as well if you like.
There's definitely no harm in it. When we get into riffs and stuff, you
probably find yourself using all down picks and that is fine too.
Let's have a little go at playing a shuffle along together. So I'm
going to use an A7 chord. As count as last time we're going to use a
down strum on the beat and up strum for the &, but remember it
will be a little late, just to help you get that feeling. OK? So
2, 3, 4, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1... 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4... I'm feeling the skip. I should point out as well that the
down strums tend to be heavier on the bass strings and the up strums
are going to be targeting the thinnest strings a little bit more.
Just like regular strumming. One last thing that I want to mention
is about accenting the 2 and 4, something that we've talk about
a few times already. With the shuffle strum again really makes a big
difference. Great way to practice that is just to mute all of the
strings and just.... 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4... Really just doing that over and over
again. It's great practice. If you find yourself struggling when
you practicing your 12 bar blues to make it feel good. Stop playing
the chords for a bit and just work on the strumming. You can add that
as a separate thing to your practice routine if you want. Really just focusing on trying to keep
it relaxed and feeling nice. It really is a special practice doing
this sort of thing. It's something I still do by the way.
It's just playing this kind of stuff with the muted strings. It's a
really great way of focusing in on exactly that rhythm and how
much you put on the accent as well. On acoustic guitar, it tends to
be easy to be a bit heavy with this sort of strumming, you know.
That was another thing that I discovered with the left-handed stuff, the real
control of putting the accent and not being too brutal with the rest
of the strums. So it's quite difficult. You'll probably gonna find some
of that difficult as well and that's OK. I'm familiar with the
making music feel good. I've been playing shuffles my whole life
but when I tried to do this left-handed I found it really
challenging. I could kind of strum it OK but getting that making it
feel good thing is about practice. There's a physical element to the
repetition of doing that. And left-handed I'm just starting to
get the hang of it now and I've done 6 practice sessions or something
on it. And it's still it felt clunky. And the reason I'm telling you
about that is that it's not the sort of thing that's just an intellectual
exercice in understanding. You have to actually so it and do it
over and over again and get that feeling of the shuffle. You have to
try and get that shuffle feeling into your body by playing it.
I really hope you enjoyed this lesson and inspires you to go
and listen to some great blues music and absorb that shuffle feel.
It's going to be a really important part of playing the blues if you
decide to take it much further than this beginner level. I'll
see you for plenty more lessons very soon. You take car of
yourselves. Bye bye.
