Blues shuffle in A

Jam track · 12-bar blues · Shuffle · A minor pentatonic

Now

A7

Next

A7
  1. A7
  2. A7
  3. A7
  4. A7
  5. D7
  6. D7
  7. A7
  8. A7
  9. E7
  10. D7
  11. A7
  12. E7

A minor pentatonic · box 1

Orange dots are A, the home note.

579ACDEGACDEGAC

Start every phrase on an A. When the band goes to D7, land on D; on E7, land on E.

96BPMJam tempo

Blues shuffle in A backing track

A 12-bar blues in A at 96 BPM, with a shuffle groove on drums, bass and rhythm guitar. The loop is 12 bars long and uses 3 chords: A7, D7, E7. Solo over it with the A minor pentatonic box shown on the fretboard.

The chords

  1. A7
  2. A7
  3. A7
  4. A7
  5. D7
  6. D7
  7. A7
  8. A7
  9. E7
  10. D7
  11. A7
  12. E7

What to play

Start every phrase on an A. When the band goes to D7, land on D; on E7, land on E.

The orange dots are A, the home note. While the band plays, the notes of the chord playing now light up. Ending a phrase on one of them sounds settled.

Learn the box firstScale drill

How to practise with it

  1. Play the box up and down once with the band, one note per beat, to hear how it fits.
  2. Make up a two-bar phrase and repeat it. Change one note each time round.
  3. Leave gaps. A phrase, then a bar of rest, sounds more like music than notes all the way through.
  4. Turn the guitar off and play the chords yourself, or slow the tempo down to learn the changes.

Drums: Sonic Pi sample library from freesound.org, CC0. Bass and guitar: MusyngKite soundfont by Benjamin Gleitzman, CC BY-SA 3.0.