Are you looking to spice up your guitar practice with a cool and nifty 12-bar blues riff? Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, the 12-bar blues is a fundamental structure that offers endless opportunities for creativity.

In this post, we’ll break down a simple yet impressive blues riff with hammer-ons and plucking the strings that’s easy to learn and guaranteed to add flair to your playing. Plus, don’t miss the included video lesson and the accompanied Tabs to help you master it step by step!

What’s in a Name

A while ago I was on holiday with my family and we went the to Veluwe National Park. It’s the largest forest area in The Netherlands. While I was enjoying my coffee, relaxing on the couch and fiddling on my guitar I came up with a 12 bar blues, hence the name Veluwe Couch Blues.

Tabs for the 12 Bar Blues

How to Play The Blues Riff

1. Bars 1-4: Start with a rhythmic pattern based on the E7 chord. Use alternate picking to keep the groove consistent.
2. Bars 5-6: Shift to the A7 chord. Notice the similar finger shapes, which make transitions smooth.
3. Bars 7-8: Return to the E7 chord and repeat the opening riff.
4. Bar 9: Move to the B7 chord and play the designated riff for one bar.
5. Bar 10: Transition to the A7 chord for one bar.
6. Bars 11-12: Play the closing riff in E7, resolving the progression beautifully and setting up the next loop.

What Is the 12-Bar Blues?

The 12-bar blues is a classic chord progression used in countless blues, rock, and even jazz songs. It typically follows a structure of three four-bar sections:

• The I chord (root chord) for 4 bars.
• The IV chord (subdominant) for 2 bars, followed by the I chord for 2 bars.
• The V chord (dominant) for 1 bar, the IV chord for 1 bar, and a closing riff in the I chord for 2 bars.

E7 | E7 | E7 | E7
A7 | A7 | E7 | E7
B7 | A7 | E7 | E7 (closing riff)

Why Learn the 12-Bar Blues?

The 12-bar blues is more than just a chord progression; it’s a gateway to musical improvisation and expression. Mastering a few riffs and licks can:

• Improve your timing and rhythm.
• Expand your knowledge of scales and chords.
• Prepare you for jamming with other musicians.
• Tips for Practicing
• Start Slow: Use a metronome to keep time and gradually increase your speed.
• Focus on Groove: Blues is all about feel, so emphasize the rhythmic swing.
• Experiment with Variations: Add slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs to make the riff your own.
• Jam with a Backing Track: Playing along with a track can help you internalize the 12-bar structure.

Enjoy!

Ladies & gentleman, today we’re going to expand on the easy 12 Bar Blues Shuffle with a Shuffle variation and an exquisite blues turnaround. You’re gonna have a blast!

12 Bar Blues Variation + Exquisite Turnaround

With this 12 Bar blues variation we’re adding an extra finger to the easy blues shuffle and make it feel even more bluesy and alive finishing the riff with a really fun turnaround that will make you look cool to your peers, no matter how old you are ;)

Below you can find the tablature and the video lesson for this little project.

Hi folks, today we have an easy and basic 12 Bar Blues Shuffle for beginners. This blues shuffle is the ground work for everything that follows. Once you know how to play this shuffle you’ve got the backbone of blues rhythm guitar and you can work your way up to more sophisticated blues shuffles and rhythm techniques.

Basic 12 Bar Blues Shuffle

This 12 Bar Blues shuffle is in the key of A and moves through the following 12 bar chord progression:

/ A / A / A / A / D / D / A / A / E / D / A / E / 

You can play this blues shuffle as a rhythm guitar player or record it as a jam track and play a blues solo over it.

Blues Shuffle Strumming Techniques

You can apply different rhythm techniques to the blues shuffle like basic down strumming and muted strum variations to make the shuffle even more dynamic all of which I will explain in the video lesson.

Below you can find the tablature and video lesson for the Basic 12 Bar Blues Shuffle:

Go get ‘m!

Hi amazing people, today I’ve got 12 Bar Blues Riff / Lick with a blues turnaround for you on the table. It’s it’s raw, groovy and in your face. This is a real nice complete riff blues progression to play on your porch while enjoying the sunset with a cold beer.

12 Bar Blues Riff / Lick + Turnaround

This 12 Bar Blues is in the key of G and moves through 12 bar chord progression. The riff contains hammer-ons and a cool technique to give the blues some extra oomph.

The chord progression is as follows:

/ G7 / G7 / G7 / G7 / C7 / C7 / G7 / G7 / D7 / C7 / G7 / D7 /

A second guitarist could literally play this chord progression while you’re playing the 12 bar blues riff or you could record the progression on your phone and play the riff over the progression.

If you want to know how to play the chords for this progression check out How to Play and Apply Dominant 7th Chords

Below you can find the Tablature and video lesson for this 12 Bar Blues Riff:

Have a great one!

The blues shuffle riff is a popular sound and often used by guitar players like T-Bone Walker (Going to Chicago, T-bone Shuffle) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (Cold shot, Pride and joy, Travis walk).

While blues rhythm guitar suffices with a standard 12 bar blues shuffle, a cool shuffle riff is often more fun to play and interesting listen to.

Also for the blues lead guitar player it’s great to solo over a blues shuffle riff. The combination of a cool lead solo improvisation and a nice blues shuffle riff will lift the music to greater heights.

Today we have 5 Cool blues shuffle riffs to get your hands dirty. Starting out with a nice & easy shuffle riff gradually leading up to more challenging riffs. A video lesson and tablature is provided for each shuffle riff.

Enjoy!

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 1

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 2

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 3

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 4

Cool Blues Shuffle Riff 5

If you want to learn to solo over these cool blues shuffle riffs, learn to play cool blues licks, create your own licks, really dive into the blues scale shape/positions, learn the tricks and tools to master the Pentatonic / Blues Scale inside out, and solo and improvise over the entire neck, check out: 50CoolBluesLicksImprovisation

When you’re learning to play guitar you practice chords, strumming patterns, fingerpicking patterns, guitar songs and scales in order to become an an accomplished guitar player. That stuff can be hard and challenging sometimes so it’s healthy for you to take a pleasant break now and then. That’s where easy guitar riffs and intros come in.

Indulging in the best and easiest guitar riffs is good for the soul. It’s motivating and will keep the fun alive while working on your regular practice workout.

What is a guitar riff?

A guitar riff is a memorable sequence of notes or chords that has a main part in the song. It has a strong melodic or harmonic pattern that is used as a repeated catchy hook and makes the music stand out. Riffs can be found in all styles of music from rock to latin all the way to classical music.

While riffs are usually short in duration, there are examples of longer riffs and they can differ in complexity from really simple to super challenging riffs.

How to practice a guitar riff

Before you start practicing a guitar riff you want to listen to the riff a couple of times. Put on the original track and carefully listen to the notes (the melody or harmony), to the duration of the notes, the beat, the rhythm, the tempo, the timing of the notes, any dynamics or accents of the notes in the riff.

Analyze the riff with your ears in anyway possible. This is a really important process and skill to learn and gives you a great advantage before you really start learning any riff on the guitar.

Once you’ve listened and analyzed the riff you look for the Tabs (see the easy guitar tabs list below) and try to figure out the riff note by note. I recommend you first try to figure out the riff using only the tabs and your ears and when you’re stuck you watch a video guitar lesson. Trying to work out the riff on your own is so good for developing and improving your guitar skills, it’s huge!

Skip to The Easy Guitar Riffs & Intro’s

How to read easy guitar tabs

Tab (Tablature) or Tab notation is an easy way to read and notate guitar music. Tab has six horizontal lines. Each one represents a string on the guitar. 

The top line is the thinnest string called the high e-string or 1st string. Next comes the B-string also called 2nd string, then the G-string, D-string, A-string and finally the low E-string (6th string) on the lowest line which is the thickest string on your guitar. 

The numbers on the lines indicate the fret numbers and so what fret (note) you have to play. You read the notes from left to right. In the tab example below you see a “2” on the A-string, it means you put your finger on the 2nd fret and play the A-string. Next you see a “0” on the D-string it means you play an open D-string.

In measure two you see an “H” above fret number 2 and 4, this means you play a hammer on from the g-string 2nd fret to the 4th fret. On the b-string there is a pull off from the 5th fret back to the 4th fret. Next you can find slides up and down, bend ups, vibrato and tapping.

Here are the most common Tab symbols you can find: “h” = hammer on, “p” = pull off, “/” = slide up, “\” = slow down, “b” or “arrow up / full” = bend, “bu” = bend up, “bd” = bend down”, “t” = tapping, “~” = vibrato. If you see notes stacked vertically on top of each other you play them simultaneously. They are usually chords.

Check out How to Read Guitar Tabs – Tablature for a more extensive explanation on how to read easy guitar tabs.

Let’s play easy guitar riffs and intros

Now it’s time to plug into your overdrive and distortion pedals, turn on the amp and go for it. Behold the best, most easy and timeless guitar riffs and intros for beginners that will make you sound like a badass!

Click on the song title to watch the guitar video lesson. Click on “Chords” to read the chords & lyrics sheets and click “Tabs” to read the easy guitar tabs to learn your favorite guitar riffs and intros.

Have a good time!

Featured: “Seven Nation Army” by WS – Easy Guitar Riff

Featured: “Come as you are” by Nirvana – Easy Guitar Riff

Featured: “Chasing cars” by Snow Patrol – Easy Guitar Riff

Now you’ve got some riffs and intro’s in your pocket you’re ready to learn some easy to play guitar songs. Check out Easy Guitar Songs for Beginners

Do you know some really easy guitar riffs? Please share in the comments.

There’s something about playing guitar riffs. Creating that cool sound with your own bare fingers while sliding down and bending up those strings feels just like pure magic. Ain’t nothing like it.

Also the excitement of learning and eventually mastering a challenging riff is unbelievably fulfilling.

Let alone playing that riff with a real band will give you a true adrenaline rush. Yes that’s why we love to play riffs.

A little while ago I created a list with “50 of The Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time”. After that I got a lot of requests for a “Greatest Riffs of all Time” list. And I thought ‘yeah why not?’ So here you are.

As most of you know the lists on Guitarhabits are in no particular order and they are never complete. The lists are here to inspire and to motivate.

You might discover a riff or song on the list that you haven’t thought of before and would really like to learn. Maybe you’ll get some new ideas for practice or encounter a “mustknowriff” for your repertoire. It’s all here.

I was thinking about my personal favorite and it’s just too hard to choose only one. There are too many brilliant creations and all unique in their own way. I love the simplicity of “highway to hell”, the beautiful, mysterious, wah wah riff of “Voodoo child”, I have a weak spot for almost every guitar riff by John Frusciante or Slash and not to mention the zillion riffs that aren’t even on the list. Thank god it never stops.

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Enjoy the list!

1 – Voodoo Child (Slight Return) – Jimi Hendrix – Tabs

2 – Satisfaction – Rolling Stones – Tabs

3 – Smoke on the water – Deep Purple – Tabs

4 – Sunshine of your love – Cream – Tabs

5 – Sweet child o’ mine – Guns ‘n Roses – Tabs

6 – Johnny B Goode – Chuck Berry – Tabs

7 – Whole lotta love – Led Zeppelin – Tabs

8 – Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix – Tabs

9 – Walk This Way – Aerosmith – Tabs

10 – Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana – Tabs

11 – You Really Got Me – The Kinks – Tabs

12 – Day Tripper – The Beatles – Tabs

13 – Paranoid – Black Sabbath – Tabs

14 – Highway to hell – AC/DC – Tabs

15 – Layla – Derek And The Dominos – Tabs

16 – Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tabs

17 – Iron Man – Black Sabbath – Tabs

18 – Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison – Tabs

19 – Money For Nothing – Dire Straits – Tabs

20 – Enter Sandman – Metallica – Tabs

21 – Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes – Tabs

22 – Back In Black – AC/DC – Tabs

23 – Crazy Train – Ozzy Osbourne – Tabs

24 – Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love – Van Halen – Tabs

25 – Sultans Of Swing – Dire Straits – Tabs

26 – Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor

27 – Rebel Rebel – David Bowie – Tabs

28 – Paperback writer – The Beatles – Tabs

29 – Whole Lotta Rosie – AC/DC – Tabs

30 – Under The Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Tabs

31 – Money – Pink Floyd – Tabs

32 – Are You Gonna Go My Way – Lenny Kravitz – Tabs

33 – Wild Thing – The Troggs

34 – Roadhouse Blues – The Doors – Tabs

35 – Rockin’ in a free world – Neil Young – Tabs

36 – Always on the run – Lenny Kravitz – Tabs

37 – Kashmir – Led zeppelin – Tabs

38 – Killing in the name of – Rage against the machine – Tabs

39 – Pride And Joy – Stevie Ray Vaughan – Tabs

40 – Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf – Tabs

41 – Alive – Pearl Jam – Tabs

42 – Master Of Puppets – Metallica – Tabs

43 – The trooper – Iron Maiden – Tabs

44 – Pinball wizard – The Who – Tabs

45 – All right now – Free

46 – Ace Of Spades – Motorhead

47 – Welcome to the jungle – Guns ‘n Roses – Tabs

48 – Beat it – Michael Jackson – Tabs

49 – La Grange – ZZ Top – Tabs

50 – Can’t stop – Red Hot Chili Peppers – Tabs

If I missed out on your personal favorite guitar riff, please share it in the comments.
I’d appreciate it.