>> The shuffle in a major blues is not just a feel,
for us on the guitar,
it's also a technique and if you're in A,
you can do it in an open format or closed format.
And I'll show you what I mean by both things.
So the first thing is we're going to do the open one,
which means that some of the strings we
play are open strings, your strumming,
shuffle eighth notes on a power cord,
and then on beats 2and 4,
just on the number which you remember is our backbeat,
we're going to add another note in there.
This gives it what you will hear
as a typical bluesy sound for major blues.
And it's also just a
two-finger technique when you do it open.
So if you take a look at your a power chord,
if we just played in A power cord and you
look very closely at the notes that you're
fretting there're A and
E. A on the sixth string, E on the fifth string.
What if I wanted to play an open A to play a power chord?
[MUSIC].
I could put my first finger on the E on
the second fret of
the fourth string and just draw those strings.
That's an open power cord.
Here's A power cord that you know,
here's A power chord open.
So what I'm going to do is I'm
going to play my shuffled eighths.
And on beat 2 and 4,
just when I say those numbers,
I'm going to put down
my third finger on the fourth fret of the fifth string.
[MUSIC].
So it's going to sound like this.
[MUSIC]. Here's a
trick.
You're going to trust your right hand.
Practice just the right hand.
[MUSIC] One, 2,3,4.
[MUSIC].
Count in your head.
And when you say 2 and 4,
put down your third finger.
Now do it really slow,
so you get the slow shuffle.
[MUSIC].
Remember the hammer on technique?
Once that feels comfortable,
if you hammer on your third finger a little early,
it sounds really cool. Listen to this.
[MUSIC].
I heard John Legend do that on
a record one time and I thought it
was the coolest thing I ever heard in my life.
[MUSIC]. But it's like anything.
It's like candy. You don't wanna do it every time.
If you want to pull my ear to it,
you do it and then you don't do it anymore.
So watch, I'll do it once.
[MUSIC].
You see if I did it every time it'd be too much.
[MUSIC].
Even though it's cool, back it off.
It's even cooler,
when you play through the blues like that, look,
you can do each of our chords,
A, D, and E. You can do them all open.
So D would be your open D. [MUSIC].
And then your first finger
on your second fret of the third string.
[MUSIC].
And my trick as I'm playing in the middle of the strings,
and I only want to hit 2,
is you know how normally,
when I'm playing with my pick I'm playing down this way
towards my right leg.
Now, I'm just going to angle
my hand a little bit the other
way towards my left knee just a little bit to the left,
not so much that I'm hurting my wrist.
Don't hold your wrist tight,
but you just angle it
a little bit to the side so you're flicking it.
It really helps not hit the other strings.
[MUSIC]. As opposed to this.
[MUSIC].
Which is also cool if you'd like
that and you feel good about it, that's fine.
[MUSIC]..
But if you feel like keep
hitting other things, you go this way.
[MUSIC]. For your ease,
same thing, open E, second fret,
fifth string, there's your E.
Now a little hammer on trick
when you put it all together,
don't always do it the first time either.
Maybe do it somewhere unexpected so you could go.
[MUSIC].
You also noticed that sometimes I
didn't play the eighth note,
I didn't play the little shuffle part.
That also is cool if you mix
that in there and sometimes you don't play it,
it gives us like, oh, we're hanging.
If you go back and forth between not always
playing it and then sometimes
hammering on, sounds really great.
Now, you may be laughing at home and say, well,
I do that all the time, but I don't do it on purpose.
Nobody knows. It just sounds great.
It just sounds really cool.
If you miss the whole idea that
you're in time and you're losing, you're having fun.
And the parts that aren't
uniform make it sound really cool.
So take your time.
My advice is to practice on each open chord
with the shuffle and get used to it
and then start to put the blues form together.
Now what we're going to do is take it to the closed part.
That just means that you're going
to play the full-on power
chord-based on your sixth string
and based on your fifth string. So it goes like this.
You're going to use, for the one chord,
you're basing it off the sixth string.
[MUSIC].
Four is right next door,
there are D chord on the fifth fret.
[MUSIC].
You go up two frets for your E cord.
This one is a bit of a stretch.
This is why I showed you the open one first
because it sounds great and it's really practical.
When you go to the close shuffle,
the cool part is you can put it in any key you want.
So if your friends are playing
blues then great, you can use the open one.
But if they say, oh,
our friend is coming and they play saxophone,
can we do B-flat?
There isn't an open B-flat shuffle pattern
because it only works with the open strings,
so you have to know the closed one.
So we're going to do the closed one
and A and then we'll move it around.
What's really essential is the pattern.
[MUSIC] One, 2,3,4.
When you want to put that other note
down on beats 2 and 4,
now you have to reach up with your little finger,
two frets higher than where your third finger is.
So if you play the power cord with fingers 1 and 3,
you can do this right now.
If you can't stress that far,
you're not going to be able to do this next part.
And that's okay. So you have to take it easy.
I'm just saying this over and over
again because I don't want you to hurt yourself,
be kind to your little finger. Come around.
So bring your hand around and when you just barely touch,
just enough to make a sound, and then relax.
[MUSIC].
It's harder to get the hammer on
there because of the little finger.
So you can almost guarantee that
if someone's getting that hammer on sound,
they're doing an open shuffled type thing.
[MUSIC].
Then you go to your four chord,
[MUSIC]
five chord [MUSIC],
back to four, [MUSIC]
the great thing again is you can move it.
So if you want to play with your friends you
are on band and they go to B flat.
[MUSIC].
It's also the same exact pattern of power chord,
so it's 1, [MUSIC], 4 [MUSIC],
The only trick is that you have to be very
careful as you use your fourth finger just nice and easy.
You barely have to touch it really to get a good sound.
And you don't want to pressure yourself and
being absolutely clear all the time because again,
it's just to get that sonic difference
there on beats 2 and 4.
That's the most important thing.
So when you practice your close shuffle,
practice it in the middle or
in the higher frets on the neck because they're smaller,
it's easier to reach, so you could do blues on D,
you could do blues on A,
you could do blues on B-flat,
and just give yourself a chance to get comfortable.
And then in the meantime,
if you're playing and
someone says, what key do you want to play?
And maybe you choose A because it gives you
a little bit more ease on
the neck when you're playing the open shuffle.