Blues rhythm

First of all it is necessary to evaluate one of the main rhythmic forms used in the blues, which is called rhythmic shuffle. It is very important to remember that even if the octaves are written normal in the score, in the rhythmic shuffle division these must be understood as tercet octaves.
Usually in these cases you will see the following symbol added to the score:
   which indicates the obligation to play the octaves with the classical tercet rhythm, which some call "jazz feel octaves" (when inherent to jazz), and others call it "shuffle" (when inherent to blues). Lets try this rhythmic system using the previous harmonic base of the blues, but played in octave shuffle. The term "shuffle" is more suitable when bichords are used, while "octave tercets" is generally used for chords.
Listen to the basic midi of the chorus that we are about to get a better idea of how to play this rhythm. I recommend that you take a quick look at the section devoted to rhythm, and more precisely the section regarding tercets.

As you can see, the rhythm is divided into octaves played with alternate picking. These octaves however must be understood as shuffle, thanks to the presence at the beginning of the score of the symbol that we spoke of above. Also in this case, as in the previous page, we used chords developed with only three strings to give a more compact tone.
The following passage has many rhythmic models, each of which is developed in a single beat. Your assignment is to rhythmically insert it into the chorus. To better understand, lets look at the next example.

The rhythm of the single beat that you see above must be identically inserted into each beat of the blues chorus, that for now will be played with the same fingerings. For those who aren't experts, for a better understanding, I suggest that you listen to the attached midi of each example. If you want, you can play over the midi sample because the bass and guitar tracks are on the right and left channels respectively. Once you are comfortable with the part, you can lower the volume of the left channel of your speakers (volume for the guitar) and play the piece yourself. This is a very useful system for the complete understanding of these (and other) techniques.
Below are some examples of rhythm for you to work on, combined with the corresponding midi files that you can download. Remember that in these exercises the rhythmic division of the octaves is always shuffle.

It's best to play this blues chorus many times for each rhythmic example, in order to have good control of the rythym. The next passage is designed to coexist within a rhythmic chorus, to create a varied sequence of chords.
Using the previous score, substituting the rhythm and inserting, for example, the rhythm from example 2 in beat A7, the rhythm from example 3 in beat with D7 and the rhythm from example 4 in E7. We would obtain the following result:

As you can see (and hear from the base midi), the rhythm becomes more varied and complicated. This is due to the fact that uniting different rhythms, each chord is interpreted differently, making them nice to hear. This is just one example. Your assignment will be to change the rhythms, playing for example, the beat in A7 with the rhythm from example 1, or the beat in E7 with the rhythm from example 2, etc. In the next page we will analyze the bichords and the use of the shuffle accompaniment.