4 Basic Blues Turnarounds

The blues turnaround is a great sounding way of adding some interest and variety to your blues guitar rhythm playing.

But what is a blues turnaround, I hear you ask?

Well, a blues turnaround is a variation on the rhythm part that you can play at the end of a blues chord progression. For example you may play one in the last couple of bars of a 12-bar blues progression.

In this video I show you 4 simple blues turnaround patterns that you can easily add into your blues guitar rhythm playing.

Turnarounds sound really great when used with a blues shuffle-type rhythm, but can sound equally as good in other styles of blues playing.

In this video lesson, 3 of the turnarounds are in the key of E, with the last one in the key of A (which uses a catchy little bit of pentatonic and blues scale magic to get its sound). But they can be modified to fit whatever key you are playing. They are very versatile licks and can fit in with any style of blues playing.

Blues turnarounds are a really common feature of blues songs, and all the greats from Robert Johnson, to Albert King, to Eric Clapton, and many, many more, use this technique in their blues songs.

Watch the video, learn the licks, and have fun putting them into your own blues guitar playing