How to Write a Blues Turnaround Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar Course

making a blues song is very similar to
making a sandwich but instead of your
ingredients being peanut butter and
jelly its hardship sadness and adult
area but making a blues turnaround
you're gonna need to know what tools and
techniques to use so we're gonna talk
about how you can kind of incorporate
your own writing and a scale into making
your own blues turnaround so first of
all we're just gonna do eight bar blues
in E type thing right so real quick the
chords are gonna start with an E major
one two three four to a a on two three
four to two bars of e then we're gonna
go to the fifth the five chord in the
E's case is gonna be a beat we're gonna
play the power chord version down here
on the seventh fret one two three four
one two three four then and that'll
bring us back to the the blues shuffle'
part of it right so the turnaround that
really is start by learning is gonna be
this one right here we're gonna start on
the ninth fret of the D string with your
middle finger and we're gonna alternate
between the D string and the B string so
DB D right now with my picking hand I'm
actually going down up down then I'm
gonna go back a fret down up down back
another fret down up down back one more
fret on the D string and that's gonna
bring me job which is just a low E
string five six seven so again real slow
ninth fret d BD eight seven six five six
seven and now the theory behind this is
this little part at the end ah well that
does it ends the turnaround and it
forces the whole thing to go back to the
beginning in E right and the reason that
is is because we're ending it on the v
via e f G a B right so we're ending on
the B and that five draws us back to the
beginning so usually what you want to
turn around to do is to kind of lead you
back to turn the whole thing around to
where you started right so again in
context and we'll start with the bar of
the five chord B you
all right so this is one turn around and
I think is good to kind of learn a
couple different turnarounds and uses
them as licks you can kind of go in and
out of but we want to write something
that incorporates a little bit of this
turnaround feel and we're gonna use the
minor pentatonic scale
right so if you've watched any of the
other videos on relative minor and stuff
like that you'll know that whatever key
you're in we're in the key of E if you
go back three frets that's where the
minor pentatonic or the minor scale is
going to exist right so real quick let's
review the minor pentatonic scale in E
which starts on a c-sharp right
now we're gonna go nine twelve 911 911
911 9 12 9 12 in fact if you remember
the first turn on we did though
that's part of this pentatonic scale
right and then we're just kind of
walking it back but what you're gonna
want to do is really get really familiar
with this scale and then just add
anything any change of direction to it
and use it as a turnaround so we're
gonna do is we're gonna slide into the
middle of that scale so we're gonna
slide into the second note on the D
string which is the 11th fret and then
we're gonna use the ninth fret of the g
string and then the 11th fret of the g
string so we're gonna use three notes so
instead of tapping this out I really
just want you to use your ears to try to
figure out a turnaround or something
that you like the sound of so right now
this one's just gonna be a I start on
the D string and then I end up here and
then we're gonna jump back to the that
kind of thing that led us to the e in
the first turnaround right so so in
context we'd go from like a B to an A
and then to the e so I'm just kind of
mixing and matching anything from this
pentatonic scale and anything that fits
we're just kind of jam a bunch of notes
in there and then get to this little
thing that ends the turn around and then
starts the whole thing again on e so it
can literally be any of these notes now
a different notes from where you land is
gonna have a different effect on how it
sounds but I think the best way to do it
instead of just memorizing a bunch of
little pieces of it is this kind of
experiment within this shape you can
start on the top of the shape I was just
going right there I was going backwards
through this scale like 12 9 be back a
note back a note write anything you
could climb up that was like a
descending thing you could ascend
and then as long as you kind of use the
base of learning this one lick that
you've used anything before that can fit
so I think one of the keys to writing a
nishan turnaround is getting super super
familiar with one shape either of a
pentatonic scale of the minor scale
major scale whatever and then just
knowing it forwards and backwards we
don't have to think about it and you can
just play around in that shape and then
lead it back into the e now you don't
always have to use that as kind of like
a crutch to get back to the e there are
different ways you can do it right like
if you wanted to go I mean that's fine
it's so it still fits and everything
like that I just think that landing on a
BIA the fifth of the the scale of video
is gonna lead the ear back to the e so
that's a good way to kind of start
thinking about writing your own blues
turnarounds and then that kind of
thinking can also spill over into any
other type of genre music as far as like
leading cores and taking a song in a
certain direction