Bluesy Rhythm Fills and Licks - Page 4

by Christopher Sung OK, so now we're using some 2-note chords. What next?

The little fills we've been playing have all been based on eighth notes. What if we changed our time feel to have more of a triplet "shuffle" feel? (note: if you want to learn more about the shuffle feel, check out the Blues Rhythm Guitar I lesson) By incorporating this triplet type of rhythm, our chordal fills start to sound a bit more interesting and realistic.

In the example below, mms. 1 and 3 contain the 8th note feel. Compare that with mms. 2 and 4, which use the triplet feel. Can you hear this subtle but effective difference? Mms. 5-6 show our familiar set of phrases with the triplet feel, while mms 7-8 use triplets themselves when we do the hammers-ons and pull-offs for our middle note in the phrase.