In this course, we will learn some of the most used and “must know” turnaround licks.

So if you love music and want to learn this rich musical vocabulary, having a good variety of turnaround licks is one of the key elements in blues playing.

So what a turnaround is?

The riff or lick on the last 2 bars of a 12 bar blues progression is usually known as the turnaround, although it could also be the last 4 bars.  Very often, in blues guitar, the turnaround is a specific single note lick rather than just a chordal riff.

Actually, there are hundreds of different ways to play turnarounds.They can involve full chords, single note lines, chromatic notes, diminished chords, and many other music tools.  It depends on the specific style of blues, the song, and the player.

For example, more modern musicians like Robben Ford or Scott Henderson, will add more jazzy elements rather than a classic blues player like BB King.

So let’s cut to the chase and go directly to the licks:

Turnaround 1

Here’s an example of a 2 bar turnaround with open strings in the key of E, something typical for this key. Another common thing in blues are triplet feel notes.

Turnround 1

Turnaround 2

This one is a variation of the first example.

Turnround 2

Turnaround 3

Here’s one in the key of A, which is one of the most used tonalities in blues, together with E.  Also you’ll see that many of these blues turnarounds feature chromaticism, which means the notes ascend or descend one fret at a time, rather than following an ordinary scale.

Turnround 3

Turnaround 4

This a classic turnaround lick in the key of A and it uses dominant 7th 3 string chord shapes which descend chromatically.

Turnround 4

Turnaround 5

This is a cool turnaround lick in the key of A and it also uses 3 note dominant 7th chords descending chromatically.

Turnround 5

Turnaround 6

This is a variation from the previous example. Same idea with a slightly different chord voicings.

Turnround 6

Turnaround 7

This is a 2 strings classic turnaround lick in the key of A with triplet notes.

Turnround 7

Turnaround 8

This is a very easy turnaround lick which uses 2 string dominant 7th chords descending chromatically.

Turnround 8

Turnaround 9

This is another 2 strings classic turnaround lick in the key of A with triplet notes.

Turnround 9

Turnaround 10

Here is another 2 string turnaround lick in the key of A with triplet notes. It’s cool since it has 2 different voices, 1 ascending and 1 descending.

Turnround 10

Turnaround 11

This is one of the most used and classic turnarounds ever. It has triplet and string skipping notes. Check it out!

Turnround 11

Turnaround 12

This is another 2 strings turnaround lick in the key of A with triplet and descending chromatic notes.

Turnround 12

Turnaround 13

Here’s one more, similar to the previous example, and using a pattern with 6th intervals as we bounce between the G and high E strings.  This is another common idea you’ll see in blues guitar.

Turnround 13

Turnaround 14

This turnaround lick is a variation from example 11. Same idea with different notes.

Turnround 14

Turnaround 15

This one is an easy 2 string chromatic descending idea in A.

Turnround 15

Turnaround 16

This is another chromatic descending idea with triplet notes in A.

Turnround 16

Turnaround 17

This is an interesting idea with 2 leading voicings, one going up and the other down.

Turnround 17

Turnaround 18

More 2 string chromatic descending ideas.

Turnround 18

Turnaround 19

More 2 string chromatic descending ideas.

Turnround 19

Turnaround 20

This one is a variation from example 17.

Turnround 20

Turnaround 21

This is a different turnaround since it uses 4 note chords. It’s in the key of A and on the penultimate bar it has the chords of A7, D, F and A.

Turnround 21

Turnaround 22

This is a similar idea to the previous example but it uses different chords, like an Aº or diminished 7th and a Dm6.

Turnround 22

Turnaround 23

This is another chord turnaround variation and it’s really cool and jazzy. It’s again in A and it has A7, D9, Cº or diminished 7th and E9.

Turnround 23

Turnaround 24

This is an easy 2 note descending idea in A.

Turnround 24

Turnaround 25

The last lick is an interesting idea with triplets notes combining the 3rd and 6th strings.

Turnround 25

Alright, that pretty much covers this course, but you have more work to do. Once you learn these turnarounds, try to incorporate them in your blues solos and make sure you can play them in all keys, especially the ones in A. Those in E will be more difficult to play in other keys since they use lots of open strings.

Good practice!

Silvio Gazquez

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