10 AMAZING Blues Rhythms Every Guitarist Should Know (Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson)

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Blues Rhythm Guitar Lesson – 10 AMAZING Blues Shuffle Patterns Every Guitarist Should Know

If you want to become great at playing blues guitar it’s super important to have a strong foundation in rhythm. For example, take a look at Jimi Hendrix, or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Yes, they played amazing blues leads, but when they played rhythm guitar it was just as incredible.

So today I want to share with you a fun blues rhythm guitar lesson. I am going to share 10 AMAZING blues shuffle patterns every guitarist should know.

So grab your guitar, get tuned up, and let’s get started!

Blues Rhythm #1


This rhythm is a foundational rhythm. It’s often one of the first blues shuffle patterns guitarists learn. It uses a root-fifth to root-sixth movement. Let me explain what that means. These patterns are all going to be in the key of E. So E would be the root, the note B on the 2nd fret of the 5th string would be the fifth of the scale. So that is the root-fifth part.

We’ll strum that twice with 2 downstrums, and then move on the 4th fret on the 5th string. This is the note C# which is the 6th of the scale in the key of E. When you keep the low E in the bass you now have the root-sixth.

So the pattern shifts back and forth from the root-fifth to the root-sixth. Strumming twice on each before shifting.

Also, do you see that little marking “P.M.”? You do. Great.

That stands for palm mute.

Palm muting is a guitar technique used to produce a muted or "chuggy" sound by resting the palm of your picking hand lightly against the strings near the bridge of the guitar. By doing so, you dampen the vibrations of the strings and create a percussive and muted tone.

Blues rhythm patterns sound great using this technique. A great example of this pattern in context is “Sweet Home Chicago” as recorded by the Blues Brothers.



Blues Rhythm #2


Blues Rhythm #2 just does one thing differently than blues rhythm #1.

Do you see it?

The only thing different here is when you alternate the root-fifth to the root-sixth, instead of evenly playing 2 strums on each. This time we’ll play 2 strums on the root-fifth and then 1 strum on the root-sixth, then 1 strum back on the root-fifth.

This means on beats 2 and 4 in the pattern we are moving up to the note C# on the 5th string. Doing this creates a backbeat feel. Think of a drummer and how they play the snare often on beats 2 and 4.


Blues Rhythm #3


Example #3 expands on the 1st blues rhythm pattern. This time we are going to move even higher up the neck. Now we are going to bring in the root-seventh.

Here we are going to start the same way as blues rhythm #1 for the first two beats. But on beat 3, we’ll play the 5th fret on the 5th string and then walk back down.

A great song that uses this style of blues rhythm is Freddie King's version of "Sweet Home Chicago".



Blues Rhythm #4


Blues Rhythm #4 again starts off the same as the first pattern. But on beat 4 we are going to add a triplet rhythm. A triplet is a musical subdivision where three notes are played in the space of one beat.

In simple terms, it means dividing a beat into three equal parts. Check out beat 4, you will see a hammer-on from the 3rd fret to the 4th fret on the 6th string. And then the last note in the bar is the 2nd fret on the 5th string. Those 3 notes are played in one beat. Using the triplet on the end of the bar breaks up the rhythm from being all eighth notes and creates a nice little forward energy to the pattern.