Between the Licks

In this lesson, we'll expand on some basic 6th and 7th chord shuffles.

If you caught my last guitar lesson on blues shuffles, you'll remember that a majority of these shuffles used the 6th and 7th notes of the chord quite a bit. You may have heard me mention that the blues love 6th and 7th chords. Well, in this lesson, we'll expand on some of those 6th and 7th chord shuffle concepts and hit up a few new licks that serve really well as the mid-range color to a blues piece.

Most of these licks are really just gloried chord shapes based in part on some of the standard barre-chord shapes. You'd do wise to learn these shapes and put them to use.

We'll stick to the key of A today.

First round of blues licks in A

If you'll check out the first lick, you'll notice it's not so much a lick as it is a bunch of chord shapes. Well, in this lesson, that is what we are going to learn. See if you can spot the one moving note, that is the note that signifies the chord tonality. 

Hopefully you found the moving note in the example above, that moving note moves from the 5th, to the 6th, to th 7th and back to the 6th again. You should also have noticed that the name of the chord moved with that one note. Now look for the exact same pattern on the next chord, the IV chord. 

Again, the note changes each time the chord value changes. This creates movement within a chord that doesn't change. Instead of just hammering on a single 7th chord for the duration, you can vary it up and add some more color. The final chord is the exact same pattern, just up two frets to meet the V chord, or E.

Second round of blues licks in A

Again, this set of licks aren't so much licks as they are chord shapes. In fact, they are really, really similar to the blues shuffles from the previous lesson. All we are doing is adding the major third and playing them in a different shape leaving room in the lower register for the bass guitar or other guitars.

You should be able to pick up on the basic shape and its movements from what you've learned so far. Moving on to the IV or D. 

You should notice that not a lot has changed from the last pattern to this pattern. You still play the major third with the 5th, 6th and 7th notes to dictate the moving chord values. These are really great ways to add color under singing or soloing, as you won't be playing too much and drowning out whoever is up front.

This final shape is the same as the D shape. Nothing too surprising!

Get rhythm!

These little shapes should help you color your rhythm playing. Believe it or not, there are TONS of blues improvisors out there, but a lot of them are second rate rhythm players. Being able to play a strong rhythm part will help your band sound much more solid than a fancy guitar lick ever will. Trust me.

This site is FREE! If you enjoyed it, consider supporting the site by donating or by logging in to hide the ads.mfBeer Joomla! Plugin