The shuffle strum is one of those things that separates blues guitar from everything else. It’s that lopsided, bouncy rhythm you hear in pretty much every blues song ever recorded. Sounds simple enough, but getting it to feel right? That trips up a lot of people.
Colin breaks down exactly how the shuffle strum pattern works, including the muting technique that gives it that crisp, percussive snap:
Straight Eighths vs. Shuffle Feel
First, you need to understand what makes a shuffle different from straight eighths. With straight eighths, every beat is evenly spaced: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. Think of it like a clock ticking. Each note gets the same amount of time.
A shuffle is different. It’s a dotted eighth note, which means one note is long and one is short. Colin counts it as “1, a-2, a-3, a-4.” That “a” is the short note, the sixteenth note that comes just before the next beat. It creates an uneven, lopsided feel.
If you’ve ever heard someone describe blues rhythm as having a “swing” or a “bounce,” this is what they’re talking about.
The Muted Strum Technique
Here’s where it gets fun. Colin uses a muted downstroke to create the percussive sound on the beat. The chord only rings out on the upstroke, which is the short note just before the next beat.
Two things happen at the same time to get the mute:
Your left hand lifts slightly off the fretboard. Not all the way off, just enough to stop the strings from ringing clearly. You’re still touching the strings, but you’re not pressing them down to the frets.
Your right hand (the picking hand) uses the edge of the palm to mute the strings while you strum. Both hands work together to create that dead, clicky sound on the downstroke.
Then on the upstroke, your left hand presses back down and your right hand lifts off. The chord rings out cleanly for just a moment before the next muted downstroke.
Getting the Rhythm Right
Colin plays it slow so you can hear the pattern clearly. It sounds like “chick-a, chick-a, chick-a, chick-a.” The “chick” is the muted downstroke. The “a” is the clean upstroke where the chord rings.
At slow speeds, you’ll hear the pick hitting the strings pretty clearly on the muted strokes. That’s normal. Speed it up and it smooths out into that classic shuffle groove.
Start slow. Way slower than you think you need to. Count along with it: 1, a-2, a-3, a-4. Make sure every muted strum is truly muted and every open strum is clear. Once you can do it slowly without thinking about it, bump up the tempo a little.
The shuffle strum pattern is one of the foundational blues rhythm guitar techniques. It works over any chord, E7, A7, whatever you need. Once this rhythm is locked in your hands, it opens up a whole world of blues playing.
Once you’ve got the shuffle strum down, try combining it with the boogie shuffle guitar riff for a more melodic rhythm pattern, or check out these country blues riffs that use a similar blues feel.
Don’t get discouraged if the muting feels awkward at first. Pretty much everyone struggles with the coordination between both hands. Give it some time, and it’ll click.