6 Cool Guitar Blues Turn Arounds in the key of E

Photo by Steve Garry
A good blues turnaround is the icing on the cake of every blues progression.

I always beg, borrow, steal and create my own nice sweet sounding turnarounds to add that extra magic when I’m playing a blues song. It’s one of the things that makes the blues sound so cool.

Blues turnarounds are played at the end of a section of a blues progression which then leads to the next section or the end of the song.

To get a good impression of how turnarounds are played listen to blues guitar players like B.B King, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton and study theirs.

Tip: Every time you play the blues try to play a different turnaround, so you don’t end up playing the same turnaround ten years from now. It’s easy to fall into that trap. Expand your vocabulary!

Enjoy these 6 turnarounds to spice up your blues:

Have a great one!


BLUES TURNAROUND #1


 
e:-------0--------0--------0-----------------------------|

B:-----------------------------0-----3--2----------------|

G:----4--------3--------2------1-----3--2----------------|

D:--6--------5--------4--------2-----2--1----------------|

A:---------------------------------x-3--2----------------|

E:-------------------------------------------------------|

 


BLUES TURNAROUND #2


 
e:---------4------4------4---4-------9--10--11-----------|

B:-------5------5------5-----5-------8---9--10-----------|

G:----/7------6------5-------4-------9--10--11-----------|

D:-------------------------------------------------------|

A:-------------------------------------------------------|

E:-0-----------------------------------------------------|


 
BLUES TURNAROUND #3


 
e:------0-----0-----0------------------------------------|

B:----3-----2-----1-------------------3------------------|

G:--4-----3-----2-----0h1-------------2------------------|

D:-------------------------2----------1------------------|

A:----------------------------0-1-2---2------------------|

E:-------------------------------------------------------|

 
BLUES TURNAROUND #4


 
e:-------------------------------------------------------|

B:----9-------8-------7------5-------6---7---------------|

G:------7-------6-------5----7-------7---8---------------|

D:-9-------8-------7---------6---x---6---7---------------|

A:---------------------------7---x---x---x---------------|

E:-----------------------------------6---7---------------|

 
BLUES TURNAROUND #5


 
e:--3b-0---0---------------------------------------------|

B:-------3----3p0-----------------------------------2----|

G:-----------------3p2p0--2p0-----0h1---------------2----|

D:-----------------------------2--------2p0---------1----|

A:-------------------------------------------0h1h2--2----|

E:-------------------------------------------------------|

 
BLUES TURNAROUND #6


 
e:-------------------------------------------------------|

B:------0----0----0----0----0----5--6--7-----------------|

G:-------------------------------6--7--8-----------------|

D:-------------------------------5--6--7-----------------|

A:-------------------------------------------------------|

E:---0----4----5----6----7-------------------------------|