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Chapter 5: Positioning the Right Hand for Rhythm and Lead
87
The shuffle groove
The shuffle groove is certainly the most common feel in blues — more
common than the straight-four and slow 12/8 feel. There’s one small hurdle to
get over: A shuffle feel uses a triplet-based rhythmic division, where each
quarter note is divided into eighth-note triplets. The typical melodic division
is two eighth notes, where the first note is held for the duration of the first
two notes of the triplet, and the second eighth note is the third note of the
triplet. This yields a lopsided, lilting feel in the eighth-note flow that’s the
heart of the shuffle sound.
Figure 5-13 is a progression in a shuffle feel. Practice while listening to the CD
on this one to make sure that you get the sound of the shuffle.
The driving straight-four
The straight in straight-four refers to the eighth notes being evenly spaced,
just as they are in most normal music forms you encounter. The four is fourfour
time, which is the most common time signature for blues. This explanation
may sound mundane, except when you consider that most blues is in a
shuffle feel, so the word straight indicates that you’re doing something a little
uncommon for the blues. Figure 5-14 shows a driving straight-four groove.
The slow 12/8, with groups of three
The slow part of the slow 12/8 feel is easy to grasp. The 12/8 is related to the
shuffle, because a shuffle is a four-four feel based on triplet divisions of
eighth notes. But in 12/8, the feel is slower, and the individual eighth notes
(they’re not triplets, because their grouping of three is built into the time signature)
are given more prominence.
Don’t be intimidated by the 12/8 part of this feel. There are twelve eighth
notes to the bar, and each eighth note gets one beat. In practice though, the
eighth notes are grouped in four units of three each. So it’s a lot like 4/4 time
with eighth-note triplets on every beat. If it’s a slow blues, and you can hear
note-groupings of three, it’s probably a 12/8 feel.
Famous blues songs in 12/8 include T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday,” covered
by the Allman Brothers on their Live at Fillmore album. Figure 5-15 is a
passage in the style of “Stormy Monday.”
TEAM LinG