How to do a blues turnaround! The turnaround is a cool riff that shows up time and again in blues and rock songs. Sometimes it shows up as an introductory phrase, sometimes it shows up as the riff in the last measure of a 12-bar blues, leading right back to the start (hence “turnaround”).
There are endless ways to do turnarounds. They’re all fun to play and fun for the listener too. There are many, many more variations than I’ve shared here; these are just to get you started. Honestly, I often rely on just a couple of these variations because my fingers remember them without me having to think.
The turnaround in E is really forgiving, especially when you’re working with the variations that start on the 4th fret, 3rd string. If you have your fingers down on the right frets you can pretty much hit any strings in the right rhythm and it’ll sound good.
You’ll see all of these start with an E chord and end with a B7 chord. I’ve written the chord out in the tablature just for the sake of completeness.
Turnaround 1
Turnaround 2
Turnaround 3
This one is a personal favorite. I like its simplicity and the sound of the drone of the high E string against the descending line on the G string.
Turnaround 4
Turnaround 4 is exactly the same notes as Turnaround 1, just played in a different location on the neck. If I’m playing Matt Guitar Murphy‘s opening riff to Sweet Home Chicago I’ll use this version because my hand is already right there. .
Play Along
So those are a few basic turnarounds in the key of E to get you started. Just for fun, below is a 12-bar shuffle in E with a turnaround at the end.
