The shuffle riff you learned in Part 1 goes up and back twice a bar: the fifth, the sixth, the fifth, the sixth. It works, and after a few choruses you can hear it turning round in the middle. The way out is a fret further with the little finger.
The fuller pattern, on the I
A7, on the A and D strings
The two-note shuffle riff on A7 (the A and D strings), played as swung eighths.
The open A string sounds under every note. Above it the D string plays the fifth, the sixth, the ♭7 and the sixth, a beat each: the second, fourth, fifth and fourth frets, each note a long and a short.
Three beats up and one back down. The note you add is the ♭7 — the same note that makes the chord a seventh rather than a plain major — so the riff now spells out the chord underneath it instead of hinting at it. It is one fret and a stretch, and it is most of what separates a rhythm part that drives from one that marks time.
The same reach on every chord
All three chords, the same shape
A7, on the A and D strings
D7, on the D and G strings
E7, on the low E and A strings
The two-note shuffle riff on A7 (the A and D strings), D7 (the D and G strings) and E7 (the low E and A strings), played as swung eighths.
Each chord takes the same shape on its own pair of strings: A7 on the A and D strings, D7 on the D and G strings and E7 on the low E and A strings. The root is an open string every time, so the fifth, the sixth and the ♭7 are always at the second, fourth and fifth frets.
Nothing about the shape changes as the chords do. The hand moves to another pair of strings or another fret, and the pattern is the pattern. That is the whole trick of blues rhythm playing: one thing learned properly and then moved.
With the band
Twelve bars, drums, bass and the fuller riff
Band · twelve-bar blues in A · shuffle · 84 beats a minute
A band plays the twelve-bar blues in A, shuffled, at 84 beats a minute: A7, A7, A7, A7, D7, D7, A7, A7, E7, D7, A7, E7.
Drums, bass and the shuffle riff with the ♭7 in it, round the twelve-bar blues in A. The bass walks each chord from its root: 1, 3, 5, 6, ♭7, and back down.
Play along with this, and then turn the guitar part off and play it yourself. A bass player is walking the same notes underneath you, which is why the two parts lock together: you are both spelling the same chord, one of you a beat at a time.
This lesson was drafted with the help of AI, so it may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made