08 The 12-Bar Blues
I7 – IV7 – V7 · Key of A
Swing it: make each down longer than the up that follows, “HUMP-ty DUMP-ty” rather than an even ticking.
Your hand swings down on every number and up on every “&”. Blank = the swing misses the strings. Swung: each note on a number is longer than the one after it.
Four beats per box. Read left to right, top to bottom. It loops until you stop it.
Level up: Boogie shuffle. Instead of chords, rock between two notes on a pair of low strings, swung. It follows the same 12 bars.
Index on fret 2, stretch your ring finger to fret 4, keep the index down. Pick both strings together, swung.
Numbers = the fret on the higher of the two strings; the lower string rings open. Swung: each note on a number is longer than the one after it.
Four beats per box. Read left to right, top to bottom. It loops until you stop it.
D |--2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--| A |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|
G |--2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--| D |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|
A |--2--2--4--4--2--2--4--4--| E |--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--|
How to practise with it
- Listen first. Press Play and let it go round twice without touching the guitar. Watch the cursor and hear where the strums land.
- Strum without chords. Rest your fretting hand lightly across the strings and strum along to the muted “chk”. That gets the rhythm into your hand before the chord changes join in.
- Play along. Now add the chords. If a change is late, keep strumming anyway and catch the next one.
- Switch to Click only. Once you can keep up, turn the guitar off and play it yourself against the click. Then nudge the tempo up 5 BPM at a time.
- Level up. When the basic version feels easy, switch to Level up at the top of the player for the variation from the book, and start again from step 1.
Tip: press the space bar to start and stop.