Day 5 - Essential blues riffs for late beginners

Today, we learn to play common riffs over the 12 bar blues chord progression we learned yesterday, transforming a basic chord progression into a proper jam!

The aim of this session is to learn the famous blues shuffle riff, which is the most common riff in blues songs. We also also look at how the E minor pentatonic scale can be used to create riffs over a blues the key of E major.

Theory recap

E minor pentatonic actually uses the same notes as G major pentatonic we learned on days 2 and 3 - it simply starts on a different note but then progresses through the same notes. This makes it quicker to learn and enables you to join the dots to play many more songs much easier, demystifying the neck a building your confidence in the process!

Day 5 visual jam track - Blues riffs in E

Day 5 key points - Essential blues riffs for late stage beginners

• Blues progressions often use the standard blues shuffle riff, or variations of it

• Blues songs alternatively replace chords altogether for a minor pentatonic based riff, such as in the songs Shakin' All Over or Sunshine Of Your Love