Blues  guitar in E pt 2

Good job on playing the first 8 bars!  Now, we’re going to bring it on home.
Here are the last 4 bars…

Last 4 Bars

In bar 9, you simply play a B power chord with your 1st and 3rd finger.  You strum the 5th and 4th strings 8 times, all with down strokes from your right hand.

However, instead of counting “1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..”, you’ll use musical counting, as in “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”, which still comes out to 8 strums.  This helps you keep track of the measures as they go by.  You’ll see/hear me do this in the video.

Bar 10 should be very familiar to you.  If not, go back to the first video, and work on the A riff.  The difference though, is that you only play the A riff one time, as opposed to 2 times in bars 5/6.  Again, all downstrokes.  

***Make sure you review these 2 measures before moving on***

Bar 11 and 12 are a bit more complicated, so make sure you’re on top of your game!  Don’t worry though, you can definitely do this.  

Start by playing the 5th and 6th strings, with an open 6th and 1st finger/2nd fret on the 5th string.  One quick down stroke – put some feeling into it!

Now for the 2nd beat of the measure… Here you’ll pick 3 groups of three notes.  

1st: Put your 3rd finger (ring finger) on the 2nd string/3rd fret. Pick the 2nd string, the open 1st (E) string, and then the 2nd string again – that’s the first 3 note pattern.  

2nd:  The only thing that changes from the 1st 3 note pattern is that you play the 2nd fret instead of the 3rd fret on the 2nd string.  The rest is the same – pick 2nd string, 1st, and then second again.

3rd: Same idea here – play the 1st fret 2nd string.  Pick 2nd, 1st, and 2nd again.  One little addition here – add the open 2nd (B) string at the end.

Almost done!  Review back to the E power chord, starting in measure 11.  

Now, we go to the 5th string (A).  You’re going to play 3 notes – open A, 1st fret/1st finger, 2nd fret/2nd finger.  It’s really important that you play the 2nd fret with your second finger because this sets up the final B7 chord.  

Once you land there, complete the chord by playing 4th string/1st fret/1st finger, 3rd string/2nd fret/3rd finger, open 2nd (B) string, and 1st string/2nd fret/4th finger.
Make sure all the notes ring out clearly.  I would test the chord by playing one note at a time, and fixing any buzzing notes or muted notes.

Don’t forget to print out the tab, and follow along with the video.  That should clear up any confusion you might have. Above all, have fun with this!

 

 

Blues in E pt 1 – video
Blues in E – 1st 8 measures – PDF

Blues in E – last 4 measures – PDF

Blues in E – full – PDF