- Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Swift Lessons for another Blues Guitar tutorial. Today, a special lesson for the beginner-intermediate
level students out there, I'm gonna be sharing with
you five must-know techniques for getting started with the blues genre, each of which is going
to build upon the next. I got a full PDF study guide for you, at patreon.com/swiftlessons,
that help you follow along. You can support the on there, and gain access to a
ton of extra resources for all my popular YouTube guitar lessons. Now, let's get started. Okay, a close look at the fretboard, getting started with technique number one. How to play a 1.4.5
progression in every key. So, the primary chord progression of the blues genre is
that 1.4.5 progression, but how do we determine
what those notes are, and what those chords
would be in a given key? Well, it's very, very simple. All you need to do is establish what the first, fourth and fifth notes are of a given major scale. Those notes can then be
converted to chordal form. Major chords for a major blues, and minor chords for a minor blues. For example, if I played
the A major scale. I've got the notes. ♪ A, B, C sharp ♪ ♪ D, E, F sharp ♪ ♪ G Sharp, A ♪ I extract out the first,
fourth, and fifth notes, that gives me. ♪ A, D, E ♪ Okay, so now we've established what the one, four and
five are in the key of A. A, D, and E.
(guitar strums) The next step, if we wanna
play a blues progression is to convert those notes
to their chordal form. So, the easiest way to do
that is with power chords, also known as five chords. So, to play an A5 chord. (guitar strums) All right, very beefy. We can play the low E string fifth fret, and the seventh fret of
the A string together. (guitar strumming) An A power chord, or an A5. Take that down to the floor,
one string. (guitar strums) And we have a D5. Bring that up two frets, or
a whole step. (guitar strums) And we have an E5. A very easy way of playing, (guitar strumming)
a 1.4.5 progression in the key of A. And of course, that is movable. The note that you start from is your key. So, if I take that up to the eighth fret of the low E string. (guitar strumming) And play that same (guitar
strums) kind of L shape, I'm playing a blues in the key of C. All right, now, if you
want a more robust feel, you might wanna play these as full chords, or open position chords, particularly with a
dominant seven in them. So, (guitar strums) in the key of A, that
would be A dominant seven, (guitar strums) D dominant seven, and (guitar strums) E7. Let's learn those chords.
It's absolutely essential. So an A7 chord, second
fret of the D string, and second fret of the B string, strumming from the A string down. (guitar strums) All right, next we have D dominant seven. Second fret of the G
string, (guitar strums) second fret high E, (guitar strums) and the first fret of the B string. (guitar strums) D dominant seven. And next we have E dominant
seven, the five chord. (guitar strums) All right, that's the
second fret of the A string, (guitar strums) and the
first fret of the G string, strumming from the low E string down. (guitar strums) E dominant seven. So, just practice through those changes. (guitar strumming) Preferably, with some eighth note strums. One, and two, and three, and four, one, two, see if you can switch. (guitar strumming) Go back to the A chord. (guitar strumming) Try jumping to the five chord. (guitar strums) The four chord. (guitar strums) And back to the A chord, which is definitely going
to take some practice. (guitar strums) All right, the 1.4.5
progression in the key of A, but you can use this
technique (guitar strums) to discover the 1.4.5 in every single key. And if you don't know the open
chords for a particular key, just stick with those power chords. Okay. Very good, everybody. This far you've learned how to play a 1.4.5 blues progression in every single key using power chords, and also in the key of
A using open position (guitar strums) dominant seven chords. Now, let's put that information to work, and learn the structure that's used in thousands of different
blues songs, the 12-bar blues. Okay, so I'm gonna walk you
through this progression, and it's gonna be very important that you take the time to memorize it, because it's the kind of
thing that gets pulled out in jam sessions all the time. Okay, so let's get started in the key of A using our open position,
dominant seven chords. In its most basic form, we're
gonna start with the A7 chord for four measures in 4/4 time. Let's just use whole note strums. So, one, two, three, four.
(guitar strumming) One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) Now, onto the four chord
D7 for two measures. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) Back to the one chord
for two measures, A7. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) A measure of E7, the five chord. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) To the D7. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) Then a measure of A7. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) And then finishing up, a
split measure, A7 to E7. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strums) And that E7, that five chord right there, signals to the listener that it's time to start the progression over again. Okay, let's review and throw in an eighth note strumming pattern. Just down and up. One, and two,
and three, and four, and... Like this. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ Five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six ♪ To the D7 chord.
(guitar strumming) ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ Five, six, seven ♪ Back to the one.
(guitar strumming) ♪ One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven ♪ Here comes that five chord.
(guitar strums) ♪ One, two, three ♪ To the four chord.
(guitar strums) ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ A7.
(guitar strums) ♪ Two, three, four ♪ Split measure.
(guitar strums) ♪ One, two ♪ E7.
(guitar strums) All right, and just like that, you're playing a full 12-bar
blues in the key of A. Very authentic. Now, let's take that exact
same chord progression, but play it with power chords. We're going to grab the A5 power chord, fifth fret of the low E string, and seventh fret of the A string. We're gonna change up
our rhythm a little bit. We're gonna give it this very earthy, triplet feel with all downstrokes. Looks and sounds like this. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And one, and two, and
three, and four, and ♪ So, very simple. The main detail is that
palm mute technique. Taking my palm and resting it
right here over the saddle, right on top of the bridge, and kind of giving it a
little bit of pressure. (guitar strumming) All right, applying that
rhythm to (guitar strums) our 1.4.5 chords, and that
12-bar blues structure. It should sound like this.
Getting started with the A5. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And one, and two, and three, and four ♪ ♪ And one, and two, and three ♪ To the D5.
(guitar strums) Just bring it down one
string to the floor. (guitar strums) And back to the one. (guitar strums) All right, that sounded like
a real blues right there. To the five chord, E5.
(guitar strums) Down to the four.
(guitar strums) And back to the one.
(guitar strums) Split measure, one, two, and E5. (guitar strums) All right, and just like
that, your playing a 12-bar blues using just power chords, which means it's transposable. So, if you're in a jam
session and someone calls out, let's do a blues in the key of G. No problem, you can quickly transpose. Just take that progression
and move it to the third fret, where you have (guitar
strums) that G note, okay. Now, taking that entire
progression and transposing it, let's see if you can
play along, blues in G. ♪ One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ To the four. (guitar strumming) All right, and take it back
to the one. Right there. (guitar strumming) Here comes the five. ♪ One, two, three ♪ To the four. (guitar strumming) And back to the one. ♪ Two, three, four ♪ ♪ Split measure, one, two, three, four ♪ (guitar strums) All right, and just like that
you can play a blues rhythm in every single key, congrats. Okay. Very well done everybody. Now, moving on to section
three of this lesson. The next technique I wanna share with you is the basic shuffle rhythm. First, I'm gonna teach
you how to represent our open position (guitar strums) dominant seven chords, then we'll move on to
representing the (guitar strums) power chord positions. Okay, so in the open position,
it's very, very simple. To represent the chord A or
A7, we're gonna play this. (guitar strumming) All right, that's the
quintessential blues rhythm. It's almost synonymous
with the genre, right? Okay, so I'm just going back and forth between the second fret of the
D string and the fourth fret. Meanwhile, I'm letting the open A string, the root of the chord,
drone against those notes. I'm gonna use my palm mute technique to make it nice and thick and dampen, so that way I'm controlling
the volume of the technique. (guitar strumming) Okay, now, if you wanna play
that over the four chord, D or D7, just bring the whole operation down to the floor one string. (guitar strumming) And if you wanna play it over
the top of the five chord, E7, you're gonna go to the
A string second fret, this time letting the low E string drone. (guitar strumming) All right, now we can play
over the 1.4.5 progression. Let's go from A, to D,
to E, as an exercise. So, a one, two, three, four, and A, (guitar strums) to D,
(guitar strums) to E.
(guitar strums) One more time. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ D, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And E ♪ (guitar strums) All right, and of course
you can apply that to the full 12-bar blues. Okay, now, applying it to
our power chord positions. It's going to be pretty simple, but it will be somewhat
taxing on the hand, and you may have to practice
stretching out your pinky. Okay, so over the one chord, A5, it's gonna look and sound like this. (guitar strums) All right, over the four
chord, bring it down. (guitar strums) And over the five chord, bring it up. (guitar strums) All right, so over this A5 power chord, I'm gonna play the power chord twice. A one, and...
(guitar strums) Then bring my pinky up a full
step above the ring finger. Now I'm grabbing the ninth
fret of the A string. (guitar strums) ♪ So, one, and two, and
three, and four, and ♪ We're literally playing the same notes (guitar strums) that we had right here in
the open position, all right. (guitar strums) All right, now, if you
wanna go to the four chord, bring the whole operation
down to the floor one string just like before. (guitar strums) And if you wanna play
it over the five chord, bring it up a full step. (guitar strums) Two frets distance. (guitar strums) All right, for a basic shuffle that you can transpose
all over the fretboard. Okay, now, I'm moving on
to technique number four. How to perform a percussive
strumming pattern. So there are many different rhythms being used within the blues genre, but one that has a lot of mileage to it, would be one that I call the
base up chuck up pattern. In this example, let's learn to apply it over a 1.4.5 progression in the key of E. So, can you tell me what
a 1.4.5 in E would be? To figure it out, remember, all we need to do is
find the E major scale. Here's an E note, right
here on the 12th fret of the low E string. (guitar strumming) All right, I'm going to pick
out the one, four, and five. That's E, A, and B.
(guitar strumming) All right, so that means I can
convert this to chordal form. Now I've got E7. (guitar strums) You know how to play that chord. A dominant seven as our
four chord. (guitar strums) You're familiar with that as well. And here's a new one for you. For the five chord in the key of E, we need B dominant seven.
(guitar strums) Second fret of the A
string, (guitar strums) first fret of the D, second
fret G, (guitar strums) and the second fret of the high E string. (guitar strums) B dominant seven. Okay, now, taking a look at this percussive strumming pattern, the base up chuck up
pattern, over the E7 chord, it'll look and sound like this. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strumming) ♪ And base up, chuck
up, base up, chuck up ♪ (guitar strumming) ♪ One, and two, and three, and four, and ♪ (guitar strumming) Okay, so pretty simple. We're starting off with a
downstroke on just the base notes. (guitar strums) It can also just be the
root note of the chord that you're working with, if you like. Then follow up with an
upstroke, (guitar strums) that gives you one and.
(guitar strums) All right, next, we
have the percussive hit. (guitar strums) All right, this is a very,
very important rhythmic device. I'm covering the strings
with my fretting hand, that way everything is muted. Once I have that, I can drive my palm into the guitar strings, as I follow through with my pick on those now deadened strings. (guitar strums) It kind of emulates the
sound of a snare drum. All right, once you
have the percussive hit, we're going to end the
pattern with (guitar strums) an upstroke on that chord, as my fretting hand goes live again. All right, you put that full
pattern together and we have, base up, chuck up.
(guitar strums) ♪ Base up, chuck up, base up, chuck up ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And one, and two, and
three, and four, and ♪ If you're playing through a 12-bar blues, you can try it over the A7 chord. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ (guitar strumming) And go back to the one. (guitar strumming) All right, then over the five chord, B7. ♪ One, and two, and three, and four ♪ And the A7. ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ And back to the one. ♪ One, two, three, four, five, six ♪ ♪ And seven, eight, and ♪ (guitar strums) All right, for full a 12 bar-blues with a little percussive attitude. Okay, phenomenal work today, everybody. Now we're jumping into our fifth and final stop for today's video. How to perform a basic
lead and turnaround, using the minor blues scale. Now, the minor blues scale
is a very powerful tool, in that you can use it to play over top of both major and minor keys. And it's also something
that's easily transposable. You can just move it fret to
fret to play in all 12 keys. Okay, so we're gonna play in the key of A, so that places us on
the fifth fret position. Looks and sounds like this. (guitar strumming) Okay, so that was the fifth
fret of the low E string. (guitar strums)
Going up to eight. Now, the A string, five, six, seven. (guitar strums) Then the D string, five, seven, to complete an octave. (guitar strums) Next we're onto the G
string, five, seven, eight. (guitar strums) The B string, five, eight, (guitar strums) and the high E string,
five, eight. (guitar strums) You put that together and we have the minor blues scale key of A. (guitar strumming) Okay, now, we're going
to practice that scale, get it into our muscle memory, and once you feel like you have it, then move on to the next part here, where I'm gonna be
teaching you how to play a full 12-bar blues solo. Now, I'm gonna be doing some overdubbing using this Rode NT1-A
microphone, which I'm given away. You can be a part of a very small group of people eligible to win this mic, by texting, Rode, R-O-D-E, to the number that I have right here. Okay, so, I'm gonna play
this rhythm for you. A blues in the key of A,
with a shuffle. Here we go. One, two, three, four.
(guitar strumming) Okay, breaking that up into
two lines of tablature. We're in the key of A,
so we need to visualize the A minor blues scale. (guitar strumming) And it's also going to
be very, very helpful, to also visualize the root notes of each chord that we
have in the progression, because we're gonna be targeting them melodically as the progression moves. So, we have an A note here
(guitar strums) on the D string. We have a D note here. (guitar strums) And we have an E note
right here. (guitar strums) There's our 1.4.5. (guitar strums) All right, and as we
go through these licks, you're gonna notice that
when we're over the A chord, we're gonna be targeting (guitar strums) building our licks around that A note. And when we're on the D
chord, the D7, (guitar strums) we're gonna be targeting this D note here, building our licks around it. And when the E chord comes,
(guitar strums) same thing. We're gonna build our licks around that E note on the B string. Okay, so getting started jamming
over top of the A7 chord, looks and sounds like this. ♪ One, two, and three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and a four, and one ♪ All right, and right there, we
just made it to the D7 chord. And I copied the root note of that chord and put it into my melody, effectively following the progression, which is such an important
detail in blues soloing. Okay, so we started
off with a pickup line. (guitar strumming) Counting it in. One, two. ♪ And three, and four, one ♪ And from there, the progression begins. All right, so that's the
seventh fret of the A string, (guitar strums) fifth fret of the D, (guitar strums)
seventh fret, back to five,
(guitar strums) and then getting yourself into measure one of the progression, go into the root note of the chord A, seventh fret of the D string. It's gonna sound great if you
can slide up into that lick. (guitar strumming) And maybe even throw in a
hammer-on, (guitar strums) with a little bit of vibrato. (guitar strumming) All right, from there, we're
going to play a double stop. (guitar strumming) Getting a little gritty with it. That's the fifth fret of the G string and fifth fret of the B string
together. (guitar strums) Turn your hand sideways
to bend a little bit, add a little tension (guitar strums) to get yourself back to the root note. So far you have. (guitar strums) ♪ One, two, three, four, one ♪ All right, next, a similar concept, but we're gonna use this
thing that we call stacking. (guitar strums) All right, just playing five
on the B, five on the G, and then going back to the root note A. (guitar strums) All right, you add that
into the mix and we have. (guitar strumming) ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four, one ♪ Okay, now, one more walk
up back to the A note. (guitar strums) Seven, five, seven. And now, the transition lick
taking us to the D7 chord. (guitar strums) Turning up the heat a little bit, we're going to the eighth
fret of the G string down to seven, five,
(guitar strumming) seven on the D, five on the G.
(guitar strumming) All right, this a walk
up to (guitar strums) the D note, seventh fret of
the G string as (guitar strums) the D7 chord comes in. Okay, so that sums up
our entire first line of tablature right there. Let's see if you can put it all together, getting started with that pickup line. ♪ One, two, and three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and a four, and one ♪ All right, and it's so important that you practice counting as you play, that way you can see how the melody and the measures line up. Okay, now, jumping into the second line of tablature of the solo. We're gonna turn up the heat, transition from the D7
chord to the one chord A7. (guitar strumming) ♪ And A, two, three ♪ (guitar strums) All right, here comes the five chord, E7. (guitar strumming) The D7.
(guitar strumming) And A.
(guitar strumming) An ending right there with a turnaround. Okay, so that began with
a classic repetition lick. (guitar strumming) Utilizing triplets, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. I'm on the eighth fret
of the high E string, going down to five,
and then five on the B. (guitar strums) But it sounds a lot better
if I can just put in a slight bend here on the high E string. (guitar strumming) All right, my pick should
be going, down, up, down. (guitar strumming) After we've played that three times, we're going to bend the B string eighth fret up a little bit. (guitar strums) And then resolve back to the A note, as the A shuffle comes back in. You put that lick together
and we have, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two,
three, (guitar strums) one.
(guitar strums) Okay, now, we're gonna bend the high E string eighth fret
once more, (guitar strums) and then resolve back
to A, (guitar strums) just to fill up another measure. So, so far you have. ♪ One, and a two, and
a three, and a four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three, four ♪ Okay, now, we have an E7 to D7 change. Over those chords we're gonna apply, (guitar strumming) and then resolve back to the one chord, A7, to start a turnaround. Okay, so we're following
the root notes of the chord. So, we're on the fifth
fret of the B string in an E note, we're gonna play it twice. (guitar strums) Then to the G string, seven
down to five. (guitar strums) Seventh fret D, (guitar strums) and then to the fifth
fret G. (guitar strums) That's your look over E7. ♪ Pa, pa, pa, pa, po, pa ♪ All right, then to the D7
chord, we're gonna play. (guitar strumming) All right, so that was
seven, seven on the G. (guitar strums) Then stacking five on
the B, (guitar strums) five on the G, (guitar strums) and then seven on the D
string, (guitar strums) and then down to five. (guitar strums) That lick again. (guitar strumming) You put the E7 and D7 together, we have. (guitar strumming) And it sounds great if you can slide up into that E7 chord from a half step down. (guitar strumming) And throw in hammers and
pools whenever possible. (guitar strumming) All right, now we're
back to the seventh fret of the D string to start our turnaround. (guitar strumming) All right, a classic turnaround there, fifth fret of the D
string, (guitar strums) then the fifth fret of the
high E, (guitar strums) down to four, down to three.
(guitar strumming) Keeping that high E
string fifth fret, right. (guitar strumming) And then finally, (guitar strums) second fret of the D string in E note, just as (guitar strums) that E7 chord comes in on the progression
right there in the last measure. Okay, put all of line two together, and it should sound like this. ♪ A one, and a two, and
a three, and a four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three, four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ And one, two, and three, four ♪ ♪ And one, two, and
three, and four, and one ♪ Okay, and put in lines
one and two together, the whole solo should sound like this. See if you can play along. ♪ One, two, and three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and four ♪ ♪ One, two, three, and a four ♪ ♪ And one, two, three ♪ Triplets. (guitar strumming) ♪ One, two, three, and ♪ ♪ One, two, three ♪ E7.
(guitar strumming) D.
(guitar strumming) Turn around.
(guitar strumming) And if you like, you can throw in a little E7 chord there at the end. Congratulations, everybody. You've learned a ton of new techniques, including how to solo over
a basic blues progression. Now, the next step for
you is to see if you can take that whole solo and
transpose it to a different key. So, if someone's playing
for you a C7 chord, how would you respond? Well, you think about the C blues scale. Just take that blues scale
up to the eighth fret, where you have that C note. (guitar strums) And see if you can play the
full solo in the key of C. (guitar strums) ♪ Two, three, and ta, ta ♪ ♪ Ta, ta, ta ♪ ♪ Ta, ta, ta ♪ ♪ Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta ♪ Triples. (guitar strumming) ♪ Two, three, and ♪ (guitar strums) ♪ Two, three, to five ♪ (guitar strumming) All right, just like
that, that entire solo is completely transposable. All right, friends, thanks
so much for checking out this beginner friendly blues lesson. I hope you found it useful,
let me know what you think in the comment section down below. As always, big thanks to my supporters, at patreon.com/swiftlessons. I hope you're enjoying
all those extra resources. And thanks to you guys, I got
many more lessons coming up, so keep checking in. Please subscribe, please share. This is Rob at Swift Guitar
Lessons in Philadelphia, saying, happy picking. (upbeat music)
