Hi, folks. It's Mike Herberts again with another Freebie video for you.

I know I separated out some of you that have had lots of the Freebie videos but still consider yourselves beginners. And we probably raced ahead a little bit; I'm guilty of racing ahead just a little bit. So this is straight back to basics again.

I have the guitar tuned up in standard tuning. And we're just going to look at one of the most basic blues riffs that we could look at. That's with the little well known -

- that sort of thing. O.K.?

And we'll show you just how to play a basic blues riff -

- which most of you will know, but this is perhaps just a slight variation. Especially, one of the turnarounds is the E - E7, A, A minor, and then the E and the B7.

So that's the strongest turnaround.

So let's have a look at this twelve bar, then. And the way to lead in to this - there's a couple of ways we can do it.

One is to use the first and third string. We're using the middle finger and the ring finger, here - and we hold them just like that. And we're going to start off on the fourth fret; and, if you look at my pick hand, my right hand, here, we're going to pick the third string, and then the first, and then the third.

<>And we could just finish with one more bit.
We could do it once or twice.
And we slide down one fret.
<>And then one more fret.
And one more fret.

And just finish on that third string. So it would sound like this.And, then, to bring us back up to the last note - the last chord of the sequence, which is this B7, we have this little round that starts off on the sixth string - open. And then on the fourth fret. And then the fifth string open. And then the first fret. And then the second string. And, at that point, we hold the chord down, here.

<>So, that would sound like this.
So, that's how we can start. So let's have a look at that. One, two, three, four.

That went immediately into the twelve-bar blues.

<>Now, we're in the key of 'E'. So the chord that we would play is an 'E' chord. We hope that, no matter how basic you consider your playing, you know what an 'E' chord looks like. 

But we don't need all of the strings: we need only these top two or three, which means that we really need to hold only here. This is where it can stay open. And the A string, there, we can fret two frets up - one, two - giving us a 'B.'

And then we get a rocking base bit by doing this with either our pinkie or our ring finger. It depends on how long your fingers are.

And notice damping the strings. And the way to damp the strings is to use the flat - the palm of my hand, there, just to rest gently onto the rung of the bridge there.

And, to move between the chords, we can have a little bass run. And I'll show you exactly what that looks like. So, back to the beginning again.

If that one's too complex for you, by the way, there's a simplified version, which is just the ring finger, there, on the second string, third fret - use the third - and then the first string open.

O.K.? So there's a simple version of that.

So, into the twelve bar, itself, then. We start with the 'E' chord, which is just this finger. If you're not strong enough to hold both of those strings, just hold that one - just the fifth string, second fret. And we're just going to play the sixth and the fifth strings. O.K.?

And there's a little bass run we can use to move between the chords, which is the open sixth string and then the third fret and then the fourth fret and then to where our finger is.

So, from the top. <>And then move the finger down one string; and ignore the sixth string, now, and do the fifth string.  <>Exactly the same, and then back to where we were.
Again, down.Hang onto it, this time.Then, to the fourth - the A - again.

And then there's about a million different ways to turn this around; but we need to move to a B7 chord, which is this chord. There's your 'E'. Move this first finger across, one string, to the fourth string. And take this ring finger off, and replace it down on the third string. So we have what looks like a D7 shape that's moved across two strings. And that's a B7.

And the notes we play here - really, we concentrate on the third, fourth, and fifth. We can use the second string. If we want to get clever, we can put our pinkie down on the first string and use that as well.

But we won't. We'll just use this.

<>So, from the top, let's show you what we've covered so far. Our intro.
Again.And then the bass notes.B7. <>And then into the riff.
Back to the 'A' chord.  <>Then the B7 chord.
And then an A.Notice what I've down, now, is played the full 'A'; but I don't need to. I can just keep that finger there if I want to.

And then a turnaround to bring us all the way back, which is an 'E' chord; then an E7, by putting the pinkie down - so it's -

Then an A.

<>If you can't play the full 'A' in the way I'm playing it, or if you try to play it with three fingers here, or three fingers there sometimes, an easy way around is to make it an A7 and just play the two outside strings of that three and ignore the inside one - which is an A7 instead of an 'A'. So the chords: 'E'; an 'A', or A7; A minor; back to the 'E'; and then finally the B7.And then back into the riff. <>And of course we can then speed up a little if we want to. The alternative start, again, is this one
B7, 'A', then the 'E', E7, A7, 'A' minor, 'E', B7.

So it's E, E7, 'A' minor - sorry: A or A7, 'A' minor, 'E', and then the B7.

<>That's it; there we go: a basic twelve-bar blues for you. 

I don't know how long you've been playing or how basic you consider yourself. But you really should practise until you can play that perfectly.