Blues Guitar Lesson - Understanding the Turnaround

Hey , everyone .

This is Brian from Elda dot com .

I'm back , back to making videos and in this video , I'm gonna show you how to play three different types of turnarounds .

Now , I'll explain what a turnaround is in just a second .

But before I do that , why don't I go ahead and play them ?

So you'll know what it is that we're gonna be learning .

So this first one uh sounds like this .

The second one sounds like this and the third one sounds like this .

All right .

So let's break those down .

All right .

So the reason it's called the Turnaround is because you're really turning around to go back to the first bar .

So , in a traditional 12 bar blues , you've probably heard of 12 Bar blues as a quick refresher .

If you don't know what that is , let me show you why it's called the 12 Bar blues .

So , if I were to count this real quick , this is in the key of E uh which by the way , this turnaround was in the key of V and I'll show you how to do it in a different key in just a second .

But uh 12 bar blues in the key V counts like this 123 , 45678 , nine and 11 12 .

Now you see , you start all the way back to one again .

So you , you , your ear probably tells you that , you know what's going on there .

That's what a 12 bar blues is .

So , the turnaround is what happens to get you from the 12 back to the one and it's just a series of licks .

Now , I'm showing you three different types .

There's a million different ways you can do a turn around .

Um , there's , you know , the , that the , the three that I'm showing you are kind of common ones .

At least the first two are , the other one is one I kind of made up from Eric Clapton and a couple of other folks .

But , uh , the first one looks like this .

Now , what I'm doing there is and you'll use this all the time once you learn it .

But I'm taking my middle finger and my ring finger and I'm starting on the second fret .

And by the way , I'm so I'm on the , the first string and the third string like that can see there and I'm starting there and I'm sliding up .

So it actually starts right there even though II I position it there , I'm , that's so I can slide into place .

And so what I'm doing is I'm sliding up and now I'm hitting the third string there and I'm going back and forth between the third string in the first string .

So you're skipping that second string .

Now , the way I do it is I use my pick on this note on the third string and then I use my ring finger on the right hand here to hit the first string .

So I'm going , and you're just walking that down .

Now , there's different ways you can do it .

You don't have to do that .

If that's uh too challenging in the beginning , it might be easier just to use your pig .

So it's a downs stroke and an upstroke on the 11 string .

So what's going on in the left hand there ?

Like I said , you're starting on the fourth , you're sliding up to the fourth , right ?

You're starting on the second , sliding to the fourth and just keeping that shape going down , one , going down two and then here you go .

What I did there is I just hammered on the first fret , third string and hit that open uh E string there .

And really what that is , it's just the top part of the cord .

Then I do the , the B seventh chord , which is , uh you know , the , the , the turnaround chord there .

And the , the way I'm playing the B seventh chord is I'm , I'm uh using my ring or I'm sorry , my middle finger on the fifth string .

Second fret , then I'm on the fourth string .

Uh first fret with my pointer finger and then I take my ring finger come in behind here on the , the , uh , fourth , I'm sorry , the third string .

Second fret .

So it makes a little shape like that .

It's very similar to the D seventh .

If you've learned that , uh , in first position up here , it's the same shape .

It's just sort of shifted down a couple of strings .

So that's , and what I'm doing , I'm just playing the middle , the middle four strings , not really hitting the top , you know , the high E or the low E , you could , you could put your pinky , in fact , if you wanted to complete a chord , but usually in a turnaround , you don't have time to make a , you know , a full chord .

And so what I'm doing , I'm just hitting those three , you know , really , those three notes , not even the four , I'm sorry , those three strings .

So that's the first turnaround .

Use it all the time .

Now , the second one I did is very similar to that .

It's a different variation though .

So again , I'm starting at the second fret , I'm sliding up , but this time you'll notice I'm using a different pattern and what the pattern looks like is .

I'm taking my pointer finger and I'm sliding from the second fret up to the fourth threat on the third string and then I'm taking my middle finger and I'm on actually going up to the fifth fret with that uh finger and hitting the fifth string .

So you get that , that sound same principle with the right hand , you could do , you could pick them apart or do what I'm doing and just use your , your ring finger .

It's a little faster to do it that way .

But , but basically you take that shape , walk it down , walk it down again and then you walk it all the way to the um to the first .

So you , you just literally walk that shape all the way down , which is kind of nice .

You're not having to switch anything like you did in the first one where you had to switch in the last note .

And then I went , now what I did there is I walked up right into that b seventh court again .

I'm just walking into the cord .

So that's the A string , the open fifth string that I'm on the first fret , fifth string , then I'm on the second fret , fifth string .

And then that if you do that , if you land there with your middle finger , you're right in position to just put those two fingers down and hit that cord .

So the whole thing sounds like this and you could do all kinds of variations , you could slow it down , speed it up .

You don't have to do the that piece if you don't want to .

Um So there's those two .

Now , the , the third one is one that , like I said , I kind of made it up , but some of , it's made up some of it's uh some stuff I've borrowed from , I guess , Eric Clapton .

But the , this one sounds like this .

And what I'm doing there is I'm hammering on the first three notes .

Sound like this .

So I'm starting on the second string .

It's an open second string , the B string that I'm hammering on uh with my middle finger to the uh second fret , second string and then I'm hitting the open E string , the , the uh first string .

So start with that .

That's your first three notes .

Now , what I do is I slide into this fourth thread on the first string and I go , so it's a pretty big slide .

If you're not used to sliding , you know , in the beginning , if you're doing this , it may not be very accurate .

You may find yourself going past it or not far enough .

But those are your first four notes and it's actually pretty easy after that because after you do that slide , you just do , you just play the open E and the open B 1st and 2nd string .

So , all right .

So there's your first set of notes and then you come down with the middle finger to the second fret , third string and just play that note .

But then you're playing the other two notes you follow up are the , the B string and the E string , but they're just open .

So that's the only one you're fretting .

Is that second fret , third string , the other two are open .

So , and then you close it with , that's an open uh G string or the third string , then you're fretting on the first fret there , third string and then hitting kind of closing it off with that high E string just open .

So let me do the whole thing slowly for you .

And then I kind of ended with , you know , the , the follow up to that is the B seventh chord played a little bit of a vibrato by shaking my hand a little bit .

So here it is again , slowly , let me , I'll let you watch the right hand and then here's the left hand and there you have it .

So that's those are your three turnarounds that I'm showing in this lesson .

Now , the question you may have is OK .

So that works great if we're playing blues in the key of e , what if we're playing it in the key of G , you know , you're different key .

Well , um all you're gonna do depending on which key you're in .

Now .

I actually have a advanced lesson that's coming out that goes into a lot more detail um on , you know how you play , uh how you change uh different keys .

And you can , and I'm trying to show how you can do that by ear .

But what I'm gonna do here is show if you're in the key of e think of your root chord .

So your root chord is that E um , I like to think of it this way if I'm making a bar cord , uh , this is what your e would look like .

Now , you don't have to make the bar because the nuts doing that for you .

Right .

But if you were to slide up , uh to the G position , that's a G bar cord , then this , then everything that you just learned shifts up three frets .

So those turnarounds you can see , you can still play them , you're just playing them up three frets .

So if you were in the key of G , that's how you do it .

I noticed I was kind of having to bar that because , you know , I'm , my finger is replacing what the nut is .

But anyway , that's how you would transpose it .

You could do it in the key of a .

So there you go .

Hopefully , that makes sense .

And hopefully that's something that will be used .