A little while back I did a lesson on a BB King lick that I particularly enjoy… and I played a little rhythm into my looper to demonstrate the lick…

I was asked how I came up with that strum and if I could make a lesson out of it, so here it is šŸ™‚

And that rhythm figure, written out, looks like this:


    29 replies to "Solo Shuffle Strum Pattern From Comping Pattern"

    • Ronnie

      Hi Griff
      Any chance of transcribing the lead fills in the last section

    • Ron Lilley

      Hi Griff
      Any chance of transcribing the lead fills in the last section

    • Alan H

      Good one Griff

    • Ed Shanik

      Great video! Iā€™m rhythmically challenged and found this difficult to learn, had to sound it out and rewind a lot before finally internalizing it….but it was worth it. Now with this base, the other stuff (half step) makes sense. Thanks.

      • Dave And Kate Lackey

        Iā€™m with you,I need sight,sound to learn it!

    • Garrett H

      Great lesson. New member. How do you strike the strings and not have them sound out?

      • John

        You dampen them with either your fretting or picking hand

      • Clobber Snoggin

        Palm mute

    • The Reluctant Uncle

      Nice.– Plus it leads to a marriage of thoughts that spawned a question:
      First, If I remember; Jon Mayer said (in the video you linked) that the tone is all in the gear.
      And second, I really would like to start understanding what to look for in a Looper.

      Q: Where would a novice search to start getting an idea of what they should be looking for when trying to decide which Looper is the right Looper to lose their wedding night blues with (in other words; to be their first)?
      Thanks.

      • bill

        Hi, There are a ton of loopers a lot depends on if you want a pure looper or something with drums etc like the digitec trio. I have a TC “Ditto” and it works great. Small simple and seems to be very well made.

        • The Reluctant Uncle

          Thank you.
          I looked into the TC Ditto and am using it as the standard to compare against all other available Loopers.
          Appreciate the starting point.

      • Vince Borrello

        I have a Digitech Trio Plus and love it, but it is quite a bit more expensive than the TC Ditto. I picked mine up used on Facebook Marketplace. You wouldn’t be disappointed with the Trio if you were to pick one up. What say you Griff?

        • The Reluctant Uncle

          Thank you.
          I looked into the TC Ditto and am using it as the standard to compare against all other available Loopers.
          Appreciate the starting point.

          • Donovan

            I have used quite a few loppers but ended up going with the Boss RC-30.

      • Larry Molter

        I have a Ditto as well, but it’s the ‘+’ (Ditto+) model that allows the import of .wav files into it. What I do is take backup tracks from Griff and others, convert them to .wav from .mp3 (and maybe slow the tracks down using Transcribe! — it’s free) and load these into the looper. To make the track more useful for looping, I also chop off the lead-in and the fade out.

        • Carl

          Interested in getting a looper.
          The TC Ditto+ with usb might be what I need if it can transfer files to and from my iMac
          Anyone have any experience doing this:
          Had no luck whatsoever with a Digitech Jam man

      • Thomas Guitarman

        I like the Boss rc 500 by far the best have used many even for live work

    • bill k

      great stuff Griff, just one thing no clue about the chord fingerings. Its Bill the blind guy and this ss one of the rare times you didn’t describe the chords. if anyone can respond with the chord fin

      • John

        Hi Bill, Griff mentions the chord names, so you can 1. look at the video and stop it when he shows the chord 2. lookup the fingering in Google

      • Marty

        I feel you as I am also blind and depend on Griff giving us the fingerings vocally.

      • Marty Hutchings

        Hay, I’m in that boat also and one of the reasons that I like Griff is that he usually does a great job of describing the fingerings.

    • Pete

      Thank you for this lesson. Great tips. I really liked how you broke it down by adding each part of the strum patter to the progression (not sure if I said that right). I’m trying to become a better rhythm player and lessons like this help a lot.

    • Graham

      Progressive build up. Really good lesson thanks Griff.

    • DaveyJoe

      Thanks Griff!

      10/3/18

    • Roger J

      I was taught this strum pattern a long time ago and have used it extensively over the years in uptown / jump / jazz blues. I think of it as playing the horn lines…

      But I’ve never seen a lesson this before! It’s a very useful comping pattern for playing in a band.

    • mike z.

      Griff , I really like this lesson . It is a fun way to do a shuffle , and sounds great . Thanks for sending this lesson . Mike Z.

    • Jim King

      Nice, Griff! I’m playing around with this as a way to add interest to my solo act. I sing but, strumming chords alone to accompany, gets stale. This is a much better way to go. Thanks!

    • Keith

      Great video, Griff! Makes it all make so much more sense. Thanks!

    • Jack

      Oh yeah, I’m swipin’ that for this month’s challenge šŸ™‚

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