Play a Basic Blues Riff in the Key of E on Acoustic Guitar

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Video: Play a Basic Blues Riff in the Key of E on Acoustic Guitar

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Hello, welcome to VisiHow. In this series of videos, we are showing you how to play the acoustic guitar for the complete beginner. In this video, I'm going to show you a blues riff in the key of E. It's just something using the first section of the fretboard, just to show you what you can do with the E blues scale.

1. 1
   We're going to start off with the 6th string

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   Play it open first, then put your ring finger on the 3rd fret of the 6th (E) string. So, open, then 3rd fret.

   

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2. 2
   Then play the 5th (A) string open, then the 1st fret, then the 2nd fret

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3. 3
   Play the 4th (D) string open, then the 2nd fret

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4. 4
   Play the 3rd (G) string open, then 2nd fret, then slide over to the 3rd fret on that 3rd string

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   So you play open, then 2nd fret, then 3rd fret. You don't need to pick the string again when you move to the 3rd fret, just slide and pull off.

   

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5. 5
   Then we're going to go to the 2nd (B) string

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   First play it open, then the 3rd fret.

   

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6. 6
   Do the same thing on the first (E) string

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   Play it open, then play the 3rd fret.

   

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7. 7
   We're going to do that going down, then follow ourselves back up

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   You can do a little pull off at the end to give it some spark. You can add some variations as well, add a slide in there, and as you experiment and learn, you can develop your own style, but this is a good foundation to remember.

   

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8. 8
   You can write this down and make your own tab to play it easier

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   This is in the key of E, using just a few of the blues notes. Practice that, try to get faster and if you have any questions or suggestions about this video, leave them in the comment section below. You've been watching a video on how to create a blues riff using the E key blues scale. You can also watch our other videos in this guitar series. Thanks for watching VisiHow.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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