Welcome back! Today I’m gonna share with you 3 very useful acoustic blues guitar tabs. Turnarounds are the the most fun part of a Blues; that’s the part where you get to show off. The guitar player usually lays down some really tasty licks, the bass player puts the best of his walking bass out there and drummer just throws the grooviest chops he/she knows.
Now, the next tab I’m about to show you is extremely useful in solo performances or in situations where you have to comp for a soloist and there’s no bass. What we are going to do is basically combine a really nice bass line with a few guitar chords, so let’s take a look at the chords first:
This would basically be the last 4 measures of a 12 bar blues in A; Pretty simple stuff and very straight forward. And this is the bass line I came up with for this example:
Now if we combine the chords and the bass line we end up with this:
It’s actually way simpler than it looks. One way to play this tab would be to always use your right hand thumb for the bass line and your right hand index and middle finger for the chords. If this was helpful, view our more comprehensive guide for learning how to play blues on guitar.
Now as for the left hand (the fingering) you could honestly do anything you want. Some people like the use the same finger they are using with the root of the chord, for example in the first measure the root is the very first note, the 7. In the 2nd measure the root of D7 is also the very first note, the 5. So whatever finger you choose for those first notes, you can just continue using it through the measure.
One tip I’d give you is to think of the first beat of each measure as a “chord”. Even though the first note of each measure is part of the bass line, it’s also part of the chord.
I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Remember to visit our website for more lessons.
