One very common struggle for acoustic blues players is learning how to switch effortlessly from the groove to a lick and back.
The way to overcome this obstacle is to improve your overall timing. Great timing can be the difference between a good guitar player and a great guitar player.
This quick change blues in A is set to a laid back pace and presents a great opportunity for you to take your time and really focus on locking in with a slow blues groove. To say it another way, it’s easier to work on your timing with a slower tempo tune. I constantly recommend learning blues at slow tempos before tackling the fast stuff. One of the great things about blues is that a slow blues tune is completely within reach of a beginner and it sounds awesome…slow!
Quick Change Blues
I’ve covered quick change blues in a BGI lesson that predates the Tuesday Blues show, which you can read about here:
Quick Change Blues: A Simple Tweak that Adds Variety
As the name of that lesson implies, I really love the variety and subtle lift that Quick Change Blues has over its parent 12 bar blues progression.
There are so many ways that you can dress up a basic 12 bar progression and I’ve taken a few liberties in this lesson to explore some dynamics that make this little 12 bar piece breathe a little.
This piece has:
- melody embedded in the rhythm itself;
- an early break from the shuffle rhythm in bar 3 and 4 and even
- a lick in bar 9 when we hit the V chord
This week, work to really nail the timing. Take advantage of this slow blues tune and really lay into the beat. Fire up a metronome and get into it. The more time you dedicate to a piece like this one will pay big dividends when you later tackle a faster tempo.
Best of luck and Play On!