LESSON #632
​5 Riffs – Played with Straight vs. Shuffle Rhythm

▶️ Click to watch free lesson (6:32)

In today’s new lesson I’ll teach you to hear the difference between a straight vs. shuffle rhythm, using 5 different riffs played using both styles.

While you’ll often find the shuffle (or “swing”) feel used in blues-flavored music, it also occurs in various other genres. This is an incredibly valuable skill to have as a guitarist, for both playing and listening to music.

👉 Watch the new lesson here – it's short! Just over 6:30, which is breezy by my rambling standards.

I also have a members-only print-friendly PDF guide available with this lesson as well.. it summarizes the straight vs. shuffle rhythm with a bit more detail, including tabs for the five riffs I demonstrate.

📝 Download the 4-page PDF​

Go Deeper with my Blues Starter Kit

For more on this and various other blues-related topics, be sure to check out my Blues Starter Kit course over on my Song Notes website. 12 Bar Blues, Dominant 7th chords, two-string shuffle riffs, and more. I also include a deeper dive into the shuffle (swing) rhythm, expanding on my new lesson linked at the top of this email.

Print-friendly guides are available for each video lesson.

More Blues-Inspired Fun

Here's a handful of my most popular free lessons teaching blues or blues-inspired grooves! Videos are linked below, and I likewise link to each lesson page for any bonus material I've made (e.g. printable tab PDFs).

​Minor Blues Fun with St. James Infirmary​

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​Acoustic Groove with Bluesy Fills​

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​Country Blues Riff in G (ft. Country Honk by Rolling Stones)​

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​Fingerpicking 12 Bar Blues (Key of E)​

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​Beginner Blues Groove (Key of A minor)​

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A Receommendation

An upcoming lesson is on the way for Love Me Two Times by The Doors, which recently came in my request. As it goes with with requests, I can never predict when any given song with bite... but this one came at the perfect time. Got stuck in my head immediately, and I've been practicing since.

The Doors were my "first" favorite band... back in 10th grade I got quite obsessed and poured myself into each album. This is actually the first of their songs I've ever learned on the guitar.

In that spirit, I have to share this amazing cover of Love Me Two Times, by Corey Heuvel. He does such a great job, especially with singing while playing this various riffs. I'll teach most of the things he plays here... the big exception is the solo, which is far beyond my pay grade at the moment.

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Until next time! Have a good weekend,

David
​Browse all my lessons at songnotes.net​