How To Play The Blues Shuffle Groove: A Bass Players Guide

What Is A Shuffle Groove?

The shuffle Blues has a particular ‘time feel to it’, and you can hear a distinct group of three notes in each beat. If you listen to shuffle drum beats, you will notice that the first and third notes in the groups of three are emphasised. As bass players, we can use ‘shuffle 8th notes’ to lock in with this shuffle drum beat.

This is what the basic 8th note shuffle groove looks like notated with counts.

Basic 8th Note Groove in 12/8 Time

But we can simplify the way that we write this shuffle rhythm out. Instead of thinking in 12/8 time, we can put the pattern into 4/4 time and just write two 8th notes like below. There will then usually be an instruction to play the 8th notes with a shuffle feel.

Basic 8th Note Groove in 4/4 Time

Both the rhythms above sound exactly the same. We can still think of the second example as having groups of 3 but it is just not written like that to make it easier to read.

Check out this drum shuffle beat and try to play along using the shuffle pattern above on an ‘open E’.

Five Shuffle Bass Riffs

In this article I am going to show you five shuffle bass riffs that are all based on either the Minor Pentatonic Scale or the Blues Scale. 

First of all make sure that you can play both scales below and are familiar with the fretboard shape that they make.

Transposing The Riffs

I have written all the five riffs above in the key of E, but you can transpose them into any key. 

You can also transpose them and use them to play a whole 12-Bar Blues.   

For example in E, the most basic 12-bar pattern is:   

• E7 for 4 bars   

• A7 for 2 bars   

• E7  for 2 bars   

• B7 for 1 bar   

• A7 for 1 bar   

• E7 for 2 bars   

This is the first riff in E7, which I have also transposed into A7 & B7: 

Listen to how Riff 1 sounds starting on all three different root notes.

Combining Riffs

You can also mixed and match these riffs, and whenever you have 2 bars of the same chord, you can stick two of the riffs together.

Listen to be demonstrating a couple of 2-bar sections where I have combined two of the riffs to make a longer riff.

Getting Creative

Now that you have these five riffs, you can be creative with them. Try and combine some of these riffs yourself.

Also see if you can improvise some of your own riffs, based on the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale.  

If you have a straight Blues feel, then you can simply play the 8th notes straight, without the shuffle feel.