Beginner Blues Bass Line: Shuffle Pattern for Willie Dixon's song The Seventh Son

Here’s an easy blues bass line played by a truly great Bass Player To Know, Willie Dixon.

The song: “The Seventh Son” by Willie Dixon from the record Poet Of The Blues

Quick Overview: Willie Dixon is best known for composing countless blues standards, songs such as “I’m Ready,” “Hoochie Coochie Man,” “Little Red Roster,” and “Spoonful.” As a staff writer and bass player at Chess Records, most of his songs were recorded by artists like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Little Walter while featuring Dixon on the upright bass. If you ever go to a blues jam, you’ll definitely want to be familiar with this repertoire.

You can learn more about Willie Dixon’s history and playing style in my book, Bass Players To Know: Learning From The Greats.

And now for the bass line…

A frequent call at blues jams, I like to refer to this pattern as the “uptown box shuffle.” With a bouncy shuffle feel and two short attacks per note, it’s a pattern that you’ll hear all over classic Chicago blues recordings. The notes fall easily on the neck, resulting in a pattern that looks like a box. And, since the notes move in an ascending pattern, you can say we’re going “uptown.”

Here’s the note framework:
Root – 5th – b7th – Octave

This recording of “The Seventh Son” is in the key of F, so the chords in our 12-bar blues progression are:
F = 1
Bb = 4
C = 5

Move this pattern to each chord in the progression and you’ve got yourself a shuffle!

If you play along with this specific recording, make a note that the song comes in on the turnaround, at the 5 chord (C). Try catching the stops during the verses and then execute this bass line during the rest of the song.

Fun fact: you can take private lessons with Ryan! Visit her website to learn more

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