Hi, how're you doing? Justin here.
In this video today
we're gonna be checking out some 12 bar blues variations.
And these things are really, really cool
because what we're doing is
we're taking the regular 12 bar blues shuffle pattern
that we had in the previous stage, this one:
. . .
and we're adding in a whole bunch of little variations
that you can do, like
. . .
and what you end up with,
having all of these different little patterns,
is the ability to improvise rhythm guitar
and that's kinda cool.
So what I'm gonna do,
I'm just gonna demonstrate,
I'm gonna play once through a 12 bar blues
and use a whole bunch of these different variations.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you should actually play like this
'cause I'm gonna play probably more variations
than you really should.
Generally, if you're playing a 12 bar blues
you wouldn't just try and make variations up continuously
'cause it would kind of ramble.
You'd be better off making up one cool variation
and using that all of the way through the 12 bar blues
which is what we're gonna do
I just wanna show you a quick demo
so you can see the different things that are possible.
So, here we go: 2, 3, 4
. . .
There are loads and loads of different variations you can do.
So, what I'm gonna do now
is just take you through some of the most common ones
but it's a really good idea
to try and improvise and muck around with these
and end up creating your own riff.
There are lots of really famous tunes,
one that's springs immediately to mind
is "Rock'n'Roll" by Led Zeppelin
where they very obviously just played around with this idea
and come up with a cool riff.
"Whole lotta Rosie", AC/DC, another good one
that is kinda based around this riff.
There's loads of them.
So keep an ear up,
experiment yourself and see
if you can come up with some cool blues grooves.
So, here the first one is introducing the little finger.
Here, I'm just gonna show it to you in A first.
Here we go this
. . .
little finger down
. . .
first
Excuse me.
First finger, third finger, little finger, third finger
. . .
This is the same count: 1, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and
This would be the fourth bar in A
so now we move to D,
same shape.
. . .
And you see
it's exactly the pattern
that we're taking all of the way
through our 12 bar blues.
. . .
Down to the E.
The same pattern still works.
To D
. . .
back to A
and down to E.
. . .
Now I show you another cool one
where we start to play some of the notes
on the next string as well, on the A string.
So this pattern, I'm not gonna take this one
through the whole 12 bar blues,
I'll just do it in A, might move it over to the D
but the idea would be
that you take each one one these patterns
and move it through a whole 12 bar blues
without changing the pattern.
Be able to do each one of these patterns that I show you
through the whole thing
and then start to muck around
changing between one and the other
during the blues if you like.
So here we go for the second variation.
It's this:
. . .
Third finger, back to first, then -
. . .
what we're doing here is now:
second finger 3rd fret of the 5th string
followed by third finger 4th fret of the 5th string.
. . .
...and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and,
1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and
. . .
2 and, 3 and
. . .
if we move over to D
everything moves down a string.
. . .
And then we might go back to A.
. . .
You could experiment with this one
. . .
by putting these on the wrong strings.
Maybe that might sound cool.
Cool - the cool thing - everything's cool.
God, man, everything's so cool!
This is cool!
And that's cool!
Gotta stop saying 'cool' so much.
Don't you reckon?
Anyway, the cool thing about this is
that you can really experiment
and try putting the fingers on a different string
or moving the fret of it
and the only rule, really, is
that if it sounds good, it is good
and if it sounds bad, don't do it again.
OK, on to the next couple of patterns.
Here we go for variation number 3
. . .
So you can see here two plucks on the first one
. . .
then just third finger down for one pluck,
little finger down for one pluck,
back to just the first finger
and then second finger down
on the 3rd fret of the 5th string
and then third finger down, 4th fret 5th string.
So:
. . .
over to D
. . .
You can really muck around with this stuff loads.
There's lots of different variations you can do.
And lastly variation number 4.
We've got here:
. . .
Two on the first finger,
. . .
then the second finger third finger variation,
. . .
back to two with the first finger
. . .
and now this time little finger, then third finger.
. . .
1 and, 2 and, 3 and, 4 and.
. . .
As you can see the possibilities are kinda endless
but it's a really, really good fun one
especially when this is the kinda rhythm
that you might play
if you are having a jam with someone.
They would sit there
and play these kind of different little variations
while the other guy was doing a solo
and it means that you can play rhythm guitar
for quite a long time without getting yourself bored
or if you're doing a practice thing.
But remember:
You don't wanna make things too complicated
when you're playing for real
because sometimes less is more
and it's nice to just have a nice, simple little groove
with a small variation if you think it's necessary.
What I'm trying to say is
don't overcrowd it and just end up playing too much
'cause you overcook it, add too much spice
and it ends up not tasting so nice/sounding too nice.
So, have fun with those 12 bar blues variations
and I'll see you for another lesson very soon.
Later.