Blues Guitar Soloing Lesson | How to Play Blues Solos on Guitar

In the earlier blues guitar lesson, you had learned a basic blues guitar shuffle rhythm in the key of A. This pattern makes use of the open strings on the guitar. This makes it fun and easy to play but restricts you to the key of A.

Much like the barre chord progressions we talked about, the shuffle can be played with the two variations you learned. String with the 1 chord on the 6th string or the 5th string. Just like the barre chords the distances between the frets stay the same.

Here is the shuffle in C with the 1 chord located with the root on the 6th string.

What makes this a bit more difficult is the stretch of the left hand. That’s why this first example is in the key of C. It’s higher up on the fretboard where the frets are closer together. You don’t have to stretch as far.

The fingering for each of these chords is exactly the same. Using the first chord as an example, the note on the 6th string, 8th fret, is played by the first finger. The note on the 5th, string 10th fret, is played by the third finger. The note on the 5th sting, 12th fret is played by the fourth finger. Try not to lift your third finger off of the string when your fourth finger goes down.

There is a back and forth motion between the third and fourth finger. Listen to the audio to hear how it’s supposed to sound. Stretches like this get easier over time. Just hang in there and you will get it.

The next example is a shuffle in A. The stretch gets to be a little bigger because we are moving lower on the fretboard. Notice that just like the barre chord examples, the pattern stays the same. The 1 and the 4 chord are in the same fret and the 5 chord is two frets higher.

One more example, this time in the key of G.

Blues Shuffle In G

blues guitar shuffles in different keys

Download .mp3 file for audio example 11 ( Right-click Save Target as... )

That’s three examples of the shuffle with the 1 chord starting with the root on the sixth string. You should now be able to play a shuffle in any key with the root starting on the sixth string. Now, let’s look at a couple of examples with the 1 chord starting with the root on the fifth string.

Blues Shuffle In E

blues guitar shuffle in e major

Download .mp3 file for audio example 12 ( Right-click Save Target as... )

Again take notice of the pattern here. The 1 and 5 chords are in the same fret and the 4 chord is two frets lower, just like the barre chords. One last example on the next page.

Blues Shuffle In D

blues guitar shuffle in d major

Download .mp3 file for audio example 13 ( Right-click Save Target as... )

That should give enough to go on to play the shuffle in any key now starting with the 1 chord with the root on the 5th string. As always, practice at a slow tempo and gradually speed up as you get more comfortable playing the example. Use the audio as a guide.

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Shuffling through Blues Guitar