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Blues Guitar Lesson How to Spice up the Rhythm Video Lecture - Guitar Become
Text Transcript from Video
nothing really screams blues music like
a white guy with a fade haircut wearing
a Lacoste polo but that doesn't mean I
can't feel the rhythm of the Blues in my
heart so I'm gonna be rockin out this
awesome d'angelico deluxe atlantic
through my mesa amp and it's gonna sound
like this
[Music]
[Music]
so if that seemed way too complicated
for where you're at don't worry we're
gonna kind of break down little pieces
of this it kind of go in increasing
complexity if that sounded really bad to
you please leave your remarks in the
comments below I would love to hear it
anyways this is all about 12 bar blues
okay I've done videos on this before and
just kind of breezed through the
structure we have different numbers of
bars of course three different locations
the 1 the 4 and the 5 okay now the great
thing about the Blues is really we kind
of have the same chord being played over
all three spots so when we hear the
Blues in a which is what we're doing
most of the time that means we're going
to use the a7 chord and then go to the 4
of whatever a is 1 2 3 4 you take a
major scale alright so the four of a is
d so we have d7
and then the 5d d sharp e g7 so a7 d7 g7
okay now the great thing about making
this really easy is we're combining
these seven chords with the minor
pentatonic scale minor scales over major
sounding chords it's kind of like a big
song of the blues
so let's start with this a again okay
all we're gonna do is take notes from
the major scale but with one exception
we're gonna flatten the seven because
that's what gives it that diamond to
seven sounds so one two three four five
six flat seven alright and if we got
four counts for a bar we're just gonna
go one and two and three and four okay
so basically all that is is the fifth
round the e string its octave the fifth
fret on the D string
and then the seventh fret on the a
string so we have the first note of the
scale the octave the flat seven and then
the five okay so those are just notes in
an a7 arpeggio
now we haven't done we haven't added the
very special note that makes it either
major or minor if we wanted to a major
it would be a major third of a which is
a fourth note here if you wanted it to
be minor it would be a minor so you know
we can do a major blues in my blues
whatever all we have to do is kind of
work in the ambiguity the blues
ambiguity all these intervals these
spaces between notes so we can just kind
of fill our bars with and all I'm doing
is I'm keeping an active right hand and
again you don't have to do this I'm just
adding a lot of use of it as a example
but it's really just about seeing the
scale behind what you're doing so even
though we just have these notes right
here we remember we said we're in like a
a major type thing we could add this no
which is also in a major or the minor
scale minor pentatonic of any of these
the fifth from the a string and we kind
of incorporate that and how we're
rhythmically playing this bar so instead
of just one two
freaking for here we go 1 2 & 3 & 1 & 2
& 3 & C so now we just have all these
notes that are available to us and then
with active right hand you can start
just playing a lot of them with me like
and now another thing that you'll notice
when I'm playing this I'm really only
using two frets for a lot of these and
the thinking behind that is again we're
using the major scale or you know the
major scale with a flat seven and a
minor pentatonic scale so one thing that
I find interesting about both of these
it's like let's just look at the same
fret across different strings if you use
the major scale that's seventh fret is
all the way down all those notes are
kind of at our disposal now if we use
the a minor pentatonic scale all the
notes on the fifth fret are at our
disposal so it's kind of cool as you can
do like a lot of cool repetitive kind of
tricks just by using maybe two fingers
on the seventh fret or the fifth fret if
you're an a again this is all movable if
you're in B flat if you do it on the
sixth fret eighth fret so really I'm
just kind of moving around
[Music]
and really there's no way that I can hit
a wrong string as long as I'm really
just kind of focusing on just the fifth
fret and the seventh fret I do think the
one thing that you might kind of want to
avoid is maybe the seventh fret on the
high E string and maybe if you want to
make that the eighth fret to make it
more minor pentatonic e after like
that's very bluesy like I feel like that
sounds a little bit better than that
because again that's that minor third
which again minor third blues totally
totally a thing right so now I'm just
filling a bar with this kind of randomly
going back and forth routing hot and hey
because I need four bars of that the
twelve bar blues I'll link you to
another video and just like the
structure of the twelve bar blues
because I want to get too far into it
yeah it's just as a note okay so it has
four bars I've just really randomly just
coming back to the a note establishing
this is a bar of one and then kind of
filling embellishing with anything on
this fifth and seventh fret okay so
fiddles bars however you want another
cool thing about the blues especially
when you're coming let's take this fifth
note from a string and the seventh fret
on the a string as an example we can
connect those right there's something
you've probably heard a lot of turn on
you can kind of incorporate that in
a little chromatic walk again but it's
really just kind of jumping back between
the fifth and seventh seventh fret
[Music]
and then I go to my next bar I have two
bars of four next which is gonna be now
in a string the D I can do exactly
everything that I just did just by going
from the 5th to the 7th wrap that was
this two bars then back to the 142 bar
now what that was is you can always
throw these little like lead lines and
that's where you can kind of start using
a lot of licks that you've learned you
know from myself some of my incredible
licks videos and other great guitar
instructors you know all over YouTube
but that's just like a real easy minor
pentatonic lick that you can throw in
there so what I just did there is I just
like slid from my little spot on the
fifth for the seventh right here two
frets higher on the g string to my
middle finger the eighth fret on the B
string okay you can kind of incorporate
that into your rhythm
[Music]
okay I'm just really just adding it to
that bar now this is kind of like a
busier style of playing which maybe if
you're in a band it's a little it can be
too much at times but definitely if
you're just kind of like just rocking
out I think it's a fun way to do because
I remember when I was first learning
blues songs it's like okay I'm really
just making my way to the turnaround and
just trying to have my attention kept
until I get to the turn around like I
remember the first couple blues rhythms
I learned or just like and then you know
that's cool and that's great for that
style but it's like you got to do so
many bars of that before you get to like
the cool turnaround part that it's
almost like you know you mentally check
out sometime so this is a good way to
kind of stay busy you're still
practicing things maybe if you don't
even ever use it like a band context
until something that's really kind of
interesting but you can incorporate a
lot of your lead playing stuff into
alright so again we have these two bars
back to the one okay
now that last thing that I want to talk
about on this one chord is remember
dominant seven is that kind of special
bluesy note blues sauce they were
talking about here okay so really you
know if you don't want to get too far
into scale degrees the one thing to take
from this is the dominant seven is gonna
be two frets away from the root note
remember we said those a flat seven
major scale again if I really notice the
fifth fret of the E string its dominant
seven is five seven is gonna be the
fifth fret of the d-string that same
note an octave lower is gonna be you
just two frets behind restart so if you
want to kind of make a little more
action like you're on this one corner
you can always go back down a step down
below it and that's gonna be that down
into seven steps flat seven novian qaida
lead into it I'm just playing this as an
octave
[Music]
and since all these chords of domina
seven chords we can do the same thing on
the floor
[Music]
[Music]
so that's just kind of like a really
easy way to just really think of one
other note in there and you're already
getting a little more action making the
rhythm I think a little bit more
interesting right so the same stuff that
we do with these two frets back and
forth we can do on the five for the five
for today being this e alright g7 we can
do all the same licks that we get here
and then back to the one or the
turnaround okay so I'm gonna do kind of
the same thing for all of the bars
before we get to the turnaround so we
have one
[Music]
and then we'll do that turn around the
turn I was really easy again us two bars
worth of anything you want to do to rock
out five four five six seven sharp nine
the the Jimmy chord if you've seen this
before it's really awesome before it's
really not hard to play seven a 67-year
think he's on the eighth fret of the B
string okay so that's the whole thing
and really experiment with however you
want you could do one bar of that one
thing that we just started so one bar of
this the second bar a minor pentatonic
thing that's just those pentatonic
things again you can use the same
pentatonic over any one of these chords
back to the one
[Music]
[Music]
now that one is just a little bit
cleaner where I'm just picking single
notes where this is a little a little
looser I'm just kind of double stabbing
through I'm not even totally worried
about exactly what strings I'm hitting
I'm aiming for a spot and then just kind
of letting my my strumming hand be real
active and that kind of gives it a
little funkier bluesy sound so you kind
of double stopping through pentatonic
some different ways to look at it I just
kind of wanted to break down some of the
rhythmic rhythmic things that I was
doing in other blues videos and some
people had questions about and basically
saw by just kind of getting creative
seeing these as chords but also as
pentatonic scales that you can add to
those chords and then just kind of
rocking it out so if you have any
questions or comments if you up but hit
me up in the comment section Instagram
Twitter the website I'll talk to you
soon thanks a lot
a white guy with a fade haircut wearing
a Lacoste polo but that doesn't mean I
can't feel the rhythm of the Blues in my
heart so I'm gonna be rockin out this
awesome d'angelico deluxe atlantic
through my mesa amp and it's gonna sound
like this
[Music]
[Music]
so if that seemed way too complicated
for where you're at don't worry we're
gonna kind of break down little pieces
of this it kind of go in increasing
complexity if that sounded really bad to
you please leave your remarks in the
comments below I would love to hear it
anyways this is all about 12 bar blues
okay I've done videos on this before and
just kind of breezed through the
structure we have different numbers of
bars of course three different locations
the 1 the 4 and the 5 okay now the great
thing about the Blues is really we kind
of have the same chord being played over
all three spots so when we hear the
Blues in a which is what we're doing
most of the time that means we're going
to use the a7 chord and then go to the 4
of whatever a is 1 2 3 4 you take a
major scale alright so the four of a is
d so we have d7
and then the 5d d sharp e g7 so a7 d7 g7
okay now the great thing about making
this really easy is we're combining
these seven chords with the minor
pentatonic scale minor scales over major
sounding chords it's kind of like a big
song of the blues
so let's start with this a again okay
all we're gonna do is take notes from
the major scale but with one exception
we're gonna flatten the seven because
that's what gives it that diamond to
seven sounds so one two three four five
six flat seven alright and if we got
four counts for a bar we're just gonna
go one and two and three and four okay
so basically all that is is the fifth
round the e string its octave the fifth
fret on the D string
and then the seventh fret on the a
string so we have the first note of the
scale the octave the flat seven and then
the five okay so those are just notes in
an a7 arpeggio
now we haven't done we haven't added the
very special note that makes it either
major or minor if we wanted to a major
it would be a major third of a which is
a fourth note here if you wanted it to
be minor it would be a minor so you know
we can do a major blues in my blues
whatever all we have to do is kind of
work in the ambiguity the blues
ambiguity all these intervals these
spaces between notes so we can just kind
of fill our bars with and all I'm doing
is I'm keeping an active right hand and
again you don't have to do this I'm just
adding a lot of use of it as a example
but it's really just about seeing the
scale behind what you're doing so even
though we just have these notes right
here we remember we said we're in like a
a major type thing we could add this no
which is also in a major or the minor
scale minor pentatonic of any of these
the fifth from the a string and we kind
of incorporate that and how we're
rhythmically playing this bar so instead
of just one two
freaking for here we go 1 2 & 3 & 1 & 2
& 3 & C so now we just have all these
notes that are available to us and then
with active right hand you can start
just playing a lot of them with me like
and now another thing that you'll notice
when I'm playing this I'm really only
using two frets for a lot of these and
the thinking behind that is again we're
using the major scale or you know the
major scale with a flat seven and a
minor pentatonic scale so one thing that
I find interesting about both of these
it's like let's just look at the same
fret across different strings if you use
the major scale that's seventh fret is
all the way down all those notes are
kind of at our disposal now if we use
the a minor pentatonic scale all the
notes on the fifth fret are at our
disposal so it's kind of cool as you can
do like a lot of cool repetitive kind of
tricks just by using maybe two fingers
on the seventh fret or the fifth fret if
you're an a again this is all movable if
you're in B flat if you do it on the
sixth fret eighth fret so really I'm
just kind of moving around
[Music]
and really there's no way that I can hit
a wrong string as long as I'm really
just kind of focusing on just the fifth
fret and the seventh fret I do think the
one thing that you might kind of want to
avoid is maybe the seventh fret on the
high E string and maybe if you want to
make that the eighth fret to make it
more minor pentatonic e after like
that's very bluesy like I feel like that
sounds a little bit better than that
because again that's that minor third
which again minor third blues totally
totally a thing right so now I'm just
filling a bar with this kind of randomly
going back and forth routing hot and hey
because I need four bars of that the
twelve bar blues I'll link you to
another video and just like the
structure of the twelve bar blues
because I want to get too far into it
yeah it's just as a note okay so it has
four bars I've just really randomly just
coming back to the a note establishing
this is a bar of one and then kind of
filling embellishing with anything on
this fifth and seventh fret okay so
fiddles bars however you want another
cool thing about the blues especially
when you're coming let's take this fifth
note from a string and the seventh fret
on the a string as an example we can
connect those right there's something
you've probably heard a lot of turn on
you can kind of incorporate that in
a little chromatic walk again but it's
really just kind of jumping back between
the fifth and seventh seventh fret
[Music]
and then I go to my next bar I have two
bars of four next which is gonna be now
in a string the D I can do exactly
everything that I just did just by going
from the 5th to the 7th wrap that was
this two bars then back to the 142 bar
now what that was is you can always
throw these little like lead lines and
that's where you can kind of start using
a lot of licks that you've learned you
know from myself some of my incredible
licks videos and other great guitar
instructors you know all over YouTube
but that's just like a real easy minor
pentatonic lick that you can throw in
there so what I just did there is I just
like slid from my little spot on the
fifth for the seventh right here two
frets higher on the g string to my
middle finger the eighth fret on the B
string okay you can kind of incorporate
that into your rhythm
[Music]
okay I'm just really just adding it to
that bar now this is kind of like a
busier style of playing which maybe if
you're in a band it's a little it can be
too much at times but definitely if
you're just kind of like just rocking
out I think it's a fun way to do because
I remember when I was first learning
blues songs it's like okay I'm really
just making my way to the turnaround and
just trying to have my attention kept
until I get to the turn around like I
remember the first couple blues rhythms
I learned or just like and then you know
that's cool and that's great for that
style but it's like you got to do so
many bars of that before you get to like
the cool turnaround part that it's
almost like you know you mentally check
out sometime so this is a good way to
kind of stay busy you're still
practicing things maybe if you don't
even ever use it like a band context
until something that's really kind of
interesting but you can incorporate a
lot of your lead playing stuff into
alright so again we have these two bars
back to the one okay
now that last thing that I want to talk
about on this one chord is remember
dominant seven is that kind of special
bluesy note blues sauce they were
talking about here okay so really you
know if you don't want to get too far
into scale degrees the one thing to take
from this is the dominant seven is gonna
be two frets away from the root note
remember we said those a flat seven
major scale again if I really notice the
fifth fret of the E string its dominant
seven is five seven is gonna be the
fifth fret of the d-string that same
note an octave lower is gonna be you
just two frets behind restart so if you
want to kind of make a little more
action like you're on this one corner
you can always go back down a step down
below it and that's gonna be that down
into seven steps flat seven novian qaida
lead into it I'm just playing this as an
octave
[Music]
and since all these chords of domina
seven chords we can do the same thing on
the floor
[Music]
[Music]
so that's just kind of like a really
easy way to just really think of one
other note in there and you're already
getting a little more action making the
rhythm I think a little bit more
interesting right so the same stuff that
we do with these two frets back and
forth we can do on the five for the five
for today being this e alright g7 we can
do all the same licks that we get here
and then back to the one or the
turnaround okay so I'm gonna do kind of
the same thing for all of the bars
before we get to the turnaround so we
have one
[Music]
and then we'll do that turn around the
turn I was really easy again us two bars
worth of anything you want to do to rock
out five four five six seven sharp nine
the the Jimmy chord if you've seen this
before it's really awesome before it's
really not hard to play seven a 67-year
think he's on the eighth fret of the B
string okay so that's the whole thing
and really experiment with however you
want you could do one bar of that one
thing that we just started so one bar of
this the second bar a minor pentatonic
thing that's just those pentatonic
things again you can use the same
pentatonic over any one of these chords
back to the one
[Music]
[Music]
now that one is just a little bit
cleaner where I'm just picking single
notes where this is a little a little
looser I'm just kind of double stabbing
through I'm not even totally worried
about exactly what strings I'm hitting
I'm aiming for a spot and then just kind
of letting my my strumming hand be real
active and that kind of gives it a
little funkier bluesy sound so you kind
of double stopping through pentatonic
some different ways to look at it I just
kind of wanted to break down some of the
rhythmic rhythmic things that I was
doing in other blues videos and some
people had questions about and basically
saw by just kind of getting creative
seeing these as chords but also as
pentatonic scales that you can add to
those chords and then just kind of
rocking it out so if you have any
questions or comments if you up but hit
me up in the comment section Instagram
Twitter the website I'll talk to you
soon thanks a lot
About this Video
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Apr 21, 2026 Last updated
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