This is that one old school 12 bar blues turnaround that everyone and their brother/sister/uncle/cousin plays…

And you should too šŸ™‚

It works for a shuffle or a slow blues and it’s just one of those moves you have to know, so get to learnin’ it.

PS – there’s no TAB on purpose because I want you to count up frets from the root like in the video šŸ˜‰


    27 replies to "“The” Turnaround Lick…"

    • Mark Robbins

      This turnaround always reminds me of just how bad I am. I practice it constantly, still can’t do it well. And I mean nearly every day for a couple of years.

    • Steve J Metzger

      Another way to think about it is the “D” chord shape for the E chord on the E and G strings

    • Harold Hill

      When I was a child, I was learning to play old country and gospel. I discovered that the open D or D7 could be moved to create different chords (4th fret= E, 7th fret = G, etc. ). I’m glad to see you using that for the turn around.

    • Richard Sigmen

      What a beautiful piece of music. The sound could be used in a country music setting in fact I seem to recall this sound in some of the older country music swing band years such as Bob Wells. Thanks again Rick Sigmen Anacortes, WA.

    • mvs

      what happens if you can’t stretch you pinky that far ????? is there an alternative chord ????

      • Harold Hill

        I go to the 4th fret, cover the 3rd and 4th string. Hit those 2 then hit the 4th string on the 6th fret.

    • Tim Moran

      I would love to learn more turnarounds….hint, hint.

    • Darryl Manire

      Did you know your name is like (guitar riff) guitar is spelled with just the (g)riff Griff.. keep the post coming..

    • Glen Murphy MBE

      Hey this is Glen from the UK, this is what itā€™s called!! Been playing it for years , but didnā€™t know what it was called ,

    • Darryl Manire

      O”oooo ,I forgot Merry Christmas,dog gone it..you so funny..

    • Darryl Manire

      Nice basic head knock, thanks

    • Bob

      Good stuff Griff!

    • Bob K

      My absolute favorite turnaround. Appreciate the theory behind it (4 frets up and ending on root)ā€¦before BGU I would just play around with it to find something that ā€œsoundedā€ good.

    • Raul Moralez

      Great. Got it. Thank you for the knowledge.

    • Art

      That lick is a must when playing the blues.

    • Chris G

      HI Griff. Yep, that’s an oldie but a goodie (RIP Tim Brooke-Taylor, also a goodie šŸ™
      In fact I’ve been binge-listening to Johnny Winter the past couple of weeks while sitting at home, and he uses that turnaround A LOT.
      Cheers from Australia,
      Chris G

    • Cecil Cole

      Oh yes. More, more, Griff.

    • Charles Cockburn

      Great lesson Griff. Another cheeky request – I would love to be able to play the turnaround used by Peter Green in his version of Freddie King’s ‘The Stumble’ . If you don’t know this version you can find it on the 1967 album, ‘A Hard Road’ by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. There is also a blistering live version to be found on YouTube – it goes on for 7+ minutes and he doesn’t repeat himself once. Any chance of doing a lesson on it? Pretty please!

    • Alan

      I learned this one years ago but haven’t used it much (and maybe I should) It’s a classic though. Can’t play for the next day or two. I cut my fretting hand ring finger slicing a tomato.. ..oops. The good news is I missed the callous by a sixteenth of an inch or so. Good lesson Griff.

    • Dave Delisio

      Hey Griff, I have always wondered what the formula was to perform this and now I know! Awesome!
      Love your courses I have purchased and have learned so much from you! Hope all is well with you and your family!
      Dave Delisio
      Boise, Idaho

    • Bill C.

      I hadn’t learned any other turn arounds worth a darn, but in E I picked this one up and never thought about moving it up for other keys like that. So thanks for pointing out how easy it is to do. I guess it never occurred to me (doh!). Somewhere along the line I heard that turn around with a G# hammer on and an upstroke on the top strings at the bottom of the turn around and adopted that.

    • Cornfield

      What do you do when the key is “D”?

      • Griff

        Take it up to the 10th fret where D lives.

    • tony

      Okay so I am going on 61 years young and my Father played a form of this when I like maybe 8 . I started to do the same form he played about a year ago. I played it for one of my guitar friends and he said it was a very cool thing and he asked me to do it again. I admit I did not fully play the whole thing Like I said I do play a form like this. My Dad also added a little vibrato thing towards the end and I would ask him to play it again. I always got a delight hearing it. I guess it is why I am hooked on guitar.

      Thanks for a trip down memory lane .

    • Mike

      Another goodā€™n Griff. You did cover this a few months back as part of of an intro. in E video. It is also a very good video. You hammered-on the G# in that one (very nice touch). These simple ā€˜taken for grantedā€™ things are very helpful. Thanks man.

    • Chris Bell

      Heyho Griff. Hope you and yours are all good.
      Big thanks from southern England for your endless dedication to teaching us how to, when to and when not to. My family and close neighbour’s would also like to thank you as they are now able to enjoy listening to my musical efforts without cringing.
      Better still. They are actually asking me to play for them and most of the local wildlife has reappeared.
      Cheeky request. Please could you teach us some Albert Collins stuff?

      • Walt Otto

        Hey Chris from southern New England where about Iā€™m in Rhode Island been look for someone blues mind around here !

        Walt

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