FIFTEEN

GROOVES

FOR FINGERSTYLE BLUES GUITAR

STEADY BASS & TRAVIS PICKING

GROOVE
WWW.FRETBOARDCONFIDENTIAL.COM
How To Use This Handbook
This short handbook contains the notation and tab to examples from fifteen of my most popular Youtube

videos on fingerstyle blues improvisation. For each online lesson, I've selected one or two of the most

essential or representative licks to present here. They're organized more by technique than by difficulty, so

feel free to dive in anywhere with whatever looks like the most fun to you. For each example (or pair of

examples) I've provided the URL to the lesson's location on my web site, and indicated the minute/second

in the video where the example(s) occur.

Why Grooves?
Playing solo, playing fingerstyle, and providing a foundation for your own improvisation all require a solid

groove. The first several examples here involve a steady bass, the remainder use an alternating bass on the

blues, or more of Travis-picking feel. Working from the bottom up (literally and figuratively) allows you to

add more interesting ideas to your playing, and to deliver them with more confidence as you build your

vocabulary. Within these 15 short lessons you'll find new chord voicings to try, new licks to experiment

with and, hopefully, new ideas about how flexible and creative fingerstyle blues guitar can be.
1. Western Swing Chords
First up: lap-steel type Western swing chords over a steady bass in the key of A. The Amaj6 on beat 2 of

measure measure becomes an A9 chord on beat 3; the Amaj6 voicing on the "and" of 3 becomes an A9

when you pull off to the open strings on beat 4:

Now we can fold a few licks into the groove like this:

From Western Swing Chords On The Blues @ 5:35

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/western-swing-chords-on-the-blues
2. Freddie Green Voicings
Freddie Green's three-note voicings can lend a cool and sophisticated contrast to a downhome steady-bass

blues in E. First, let's check out a common way to walk up from the I to the IV over the first four bars of the

blues:

Once you can grab those voicings, try loosening things up a little:

From Freddie Green Guitar Voicings For Blues In E @ 8:41, 8:59

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/freddie-green-voicings
3. Old School Blues Chord Substitutions
You can build more motion into the blues by rocking back and forth between the I and the V chord. Here's

one way to do it in the key of E with an alternating thumb bass:

On the V chord, you can "borrow" the V of that chord. In the key of E, the V is B7. And the V of B is

F#7. The symphony cats would call that F# a secondary dominant. Both this sound and the one above

will give your playing more of an early jazz sound; to hear a mix of old-school and bebop sensibilities,

check out pianist Ray Bryant's solo records Alone With The Blues and Alone at Montreux.

From Old School Blues Chord Substitutions @ 4:52, 1:32

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/old-school-blues-chord-substitutions
4. Connecting Blues Chords Up The Neck
Learning 7th chord voicings on the top three strings is one of the fastest ways to start getting out of open

position and playing further up the neck. This example puts a couple of E7 inversions together with some

classic chromatic moves over a steady bass:

From Connecting Blues Chords Up The Neck @ 3:17

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/connecting-blues-chords-up-the-neck
5. Walking Bass Lines For Fingerstyle Blues
This is one of my favorite sounds, and in terms of right-hand technique, it's no more complicated than

playing a steady bass. The left hand takes a bit of doing, but for these examples I tried to make it so you're

only ever fretting notes in the melody or in the bass, but not both at the same time. Try the idea on just the

first couple bars of a blues in E:

Then try it over the whole first line:

From Walking Bass Lines For Fingerstyle Blues @ 1:59, 5:00

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/walking-bass-lines-on-the-blues
6. Lightnin' Hopkins Meets Bobby Timmons
Ok, so I just liked the idea of combining a classic hard bop blues lick with this rocking half-time alternating

bass:

From Lightnin' Hopkins Meets Bobby Timmons @ 0:51

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/lightnin'-hopkins-meets-bobby-timmons
7. Mississippi Blues, in E
This move is loosely adapted from the signature A9 lick in William Brown's Mississippi Blues. As played

here in E, it's an example of how to keep an alternating bass going while still thinking primarily about a

single low bass note (open E on the 6th string) and a series of three-note voicings on strings 4, 3 and 2.

From Mississippi Blues In E @ 1:21

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/mississippi-blues-in-e
8. Jazz Chords For Fingerstyle Blues in A
Man, do I love half-stepping in and out of dominant chords, especially when there are some snappy 13ths

and #9s involved. A lot of bang for your buck, and your right-hand thumb just keeps doing its thing, as in

this particular example.

From Jazz Chords For Fingerstyle Blues in A @ 1:17

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/jazz-chords-for-fingerstyle-blues-in-a
9. Gypsy Jazz Chords For Fingerstyle Blues
This was something I was just fooling around with for fun and was really surprised by how much people

seemed to like the lesson. This example shows how to do something riff-y with the chords and then respond

with a blues lick in open position. Though I'm not sure "riff-y" is in the Oxford English Dictionary. Yet.

From Gypsy Jazz Chords For Fingerstyle Blues @ 8:14

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/gypsy-jazz-chords
10. Blues Guitar Licks in A Minor
You could apply this exercise to any number of scales over any number of basic chords. Here, we've got a

specific example of how to practice spelling out chord tones and scale tones of the I and the V in the key of

A minor, all over an alternating-thumb bass:

Once you've got the basic idea, try putting it to work over the first four bars of "Hesitation Blues":

From Blues Guitar Licks in A Minor @ 8:42, 9:47

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/blues-guitar-licks-in-a-minor
11. Bluesier Travis Picking
For this one, I particularly recommend checking out the accompanying video – one of the main points of

this lesson is how to use palm muting, left-hand damping and a snappier attack to make a relatively

standard-issue Travis picking approach sound like a whole new animal. Here's the basic move:

And here's that same idea, expanded to four bars. In the fourth bar, the cool blues lick in the melody is

harmonized with an alternating thumb in the bass that keeps the groove going and implies a C diminished

sound on beats 2 and 4. How about that?

From Bluesier Travis Picking @ 3:14, 4:25

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/bluesier-travis-picking
12. Chord Substitutions on Mississippi John Hurt

I love chord substitutions. When done right, it feels like the bottom's dropped out and you've fallen into a

parallel dimension – but before you know it, you've come out the other side with the sun shining and the

chords right where you left them. It's a glorious sensation. Try this cool move from C to F, and spread a

little sunshine yourself.

From Chord Substitutions on Mississippi John Hurt @ 4:30

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/chord-subsitutions-on-mississippi-john-hurt
13. Bluesier Travis Picking Up The Neck

I'm not super into bar chords, but when judiciously used in passing between other kinds of closed-position

voicings, 6th intervals, and open chords, they have their moments. Like from the middle of bar 1 to the

middle of bar 2, and again for the first couple of beats of bar 4:

From Bluesier Travis Picking Up The Neck @ 1:59

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/bluesier-travis-picking-up-the-neck
14. Fingerstyle Blues Licks In Dropped D

I once heard Ed Gerhard refer to dropped-D as "the king of open tunings." Even though you're only

changing one string, I kind of know what he means. Certainly for playing blues in D, dropped D is where

it's at. Here's a syncopated groove with a quick nod to the IV chord on the "and" of beat 3 in measure one:

And here's that groove with answering licks in measures 2 and 4:

From Fingerstyle Blues Licks In Dropped D @ 1:40, 6:17

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/fingerstyle-blues-licks-in-droppped-d
15. Ry Cooder Rhythm Guitar

This move is nearly identical to the groove in dropped-D, except we get a full G chord on beat 3 of measure

one now, because the 5th string is now an open G:

Here's a full four bars in this vein – a little less syncopated in measure one, an up-the-neck variation in

measure two, a V-IV move in measure three anticipating a return to I in measure four:

From Ry Cooder Rhythm Guitar @ 2:36, 7:48

https://www.fretboardconfidential.com/blog/ry-cooder-rhythm-guitar