Richard, you just made my day! Justin’s theory class is sinking in! Exactly as I had penciled it in on the staff.
Thank you!!
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Hi Richard
Following on from your explanation of the shuffle riff being in the key of A major -
If a guitarist is playing the shuffle riff in A major and another one is soloing over it in A minor, I’m guessing it’s simply called the blues in A.
But how would the two parts be written in one piece of sheet music in relation to key signatures?
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Richard, I have to thank you, Justin and the team for putting together such a great website. I am in such a good place right now that I hit this blues module. I’m jammin! And having the time of my life. Thanks.
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The lead guitar part would be playing some notes not in the key of A so on a standard notation those would have to be individually notated as accidentals when they arose.
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@Richard_close2u
Ok, so the song is in A major and the minor pentatonic flattens the 3rd and 7th of the A major scale.
I’ve heard about b3rd’s etc but I was unsure about what was being flattened.
I tend to think of the A minor scale in relation to C major because it has the same notes.
Now I can see that it’s derived from the A major scale and the same formula will work with major/minor scales starting on any root note.
The fog is slowly clearing!
Thanks Richard 
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Fog coming again.
The minor pentatonic is derived from the minor scale.
Your question made me answer by considering two parts (blues rhythm & lead in A) where both are written on the same sheets of standard notation.
If the lead (using A minor pentatonic) was written separately it would display no accidentalss.
No, the fog is definitely clearing. I have it sorted in my own mind. Maybe I didn’t phrase my question too well. It was because of this from Justin in the blues solo lesson…
“
A fantastic exercise is practicing playing with someone while they play rhythm guitar 12 bar blues shuffle riff. One person would play this solo set - then improvise a couple of rounds. Then, you could swap over! “
Justin has both tabs (solo and riff) in A minor, with accidentals in the riff tab.
Up thread, you’ve tabbed the riff in A major (so no accidentals) and then explained to me that the solo would need accidentals if it was also tabbed in A major.
All good. Thank you.
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The tabs are using power chord, which have no 3rd so they are neither Major or minor.
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On the tab for this it is showing the last bar as 7 strums of 2/0, but in the video play through (at approx. 7min) Justin plays this bar like bar 9. Which is right or are they both right?
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There’s no right or wrong here.
In the tab, there are 7 strums starting on the ‘and’ after the first downbeat. So you miss the first downbeat.
E------------------------------------A
(1) and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1
In the video, Justin strums the E chord 8 times and finishes with one strum on the A chord.
E----------------------------------A
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1
Missing the first downbeat is common in a 12 bar blues progression. It makes it clear to the listener we’re at the turnaround and ready to start over. But you could play the first beat like Justin, that’s perfectly fine.
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It’s actually more than just the missing downbeat on 1. The last bar of the TAB does not have the chunka-chunka, which adds to the turnaround feel, leading back to bar 1. In the video Justin plays the chunka-chunka even in the last bar.
Either way is perfectly fine, of course, but I kind of like the turnaround in the tabbed version.
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In the last bar, string 5 is not alternating between fret 2 and fret 4.
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I learned this Riff from the old Beginner Course Book (German Edition) and didn’t print out the ressources tab. But here, it’s alternating within the last bar.
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The movement between fret 2 and 4 isn’t the chunka.
Chunka chunka is the swing RHYTHM, as explained by Justin at the start of the module.
The movement between frets 2 and 4 is the SHUFFLE.
In the last bar (in Justin’s tab), there’s chunka but there’s no shuffle.
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Thought that would be the case 
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That’s not something you read everyday
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Ha ha:rofl: Well I was deadly serious when I wrote it but now when you point it out like that, I see the funny side of it. 
Us JG students have our own unique language. We’ll all be wearing caps before long…!
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So this is in the key of A, I’m guessing because of the open A string. What if you played 01, 03 or 03,05 (instead of 02, 04) variations. Is that still in the key of A?
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