Bopping blues and greasy grooves: Ally Venable's rhythm guitar tips and secrets

Ally Venable is an award-winning blues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter who is adding new sounds and colors to contemporary blues. Her latest offering, Money & Power, continues that trajectory. Integral to her success is her guitar style, which combines hot Texas blues licks reminiscent of Buddy Guy and Albert King along with modern funk, pop, and soul influences.

For her Guitar World lesson, Ally uses the blues form as a canvas in the key of G. This means she's playing the classic I-IV-V blues chords of G7, C7, and D7. She also incorporates an approach chord of B7 into the C7.

The first skill you are going to look at is a funky 16th note-strumming pattern, and we recommend some easy drills to tighten up your strumming hand.

Most music is in 4/4 time, which means four beats to a bar, and the note value of each beat is a quarter note (often also called a crochet). Subdividing each of the four beats, you can play another group of 4 known as 16ths (ie 4 lots of 4 = 16). The 16th note pattern consists of alternating down and up strums from your picking hand, keeping the pick steady and even in tempo and volume. So, let’s first establish the strumming pattern of alternating down and up strums.

As Ally demonstrates, lay the fingers of the fretting hand lightly on the strings to dampen them. The 16th note pattern is counted 1–e-&-a, 2–e-&-a, 3–e-&-a, 4–e-&-a with the number referencing the main 4 beats in a 4/4 time signature groove. Start on a down strum then consistently keep the picking hand moving.

Once you have established this framework, you can mix up the rhythms and create more funky parts with some chords on and off the beats. This is known as syncopation, weaving in and out of the beats, and it's a vital aspect of being a groove based guitarist.

Ally suggests establishing a steady tempo – think of the main pulse in your head before you play – and a groove with just the muted strokes. In the video, she uses the top portion of a G7sus4#9 chord using the notes C-F-Bb.

Start the strumming hand going, and press the fretting hand fingers down when you want to hear the sound. Having all muted strums sounding all the time can sound a little boring, so the final stage is having some of the strums silent.

It is good practice to keep the strumming hand going up and down though, moving above the strings like the hand of a metronome. Remember, the strumming approach remains the same, it’s just the omission of various muted strokes and the fretting hand pushing down on the chord that creates the overall part.

Ally Venable: How to play a GREAT Blues Groove - YouTube

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Ally adds in basslines and further percussive elements to compensate for no bass player or drummer playing with her. Certainly, this works great for a grooving solo guitar part and can always be reduced and simplified when bass and drums are included.

To spice up the move from the V chord (D7) and the IV chord (C7), Ally uses a SRV style lick that uses sliding sixths to outline D6 and D9 chords. Alongside all the important chords used in the video, we have included the full chord shapes of these sixth intervals (D6-D9-C6-C9) to provide context as to how the lick works. Experiment with these shapes yourself.

Ally's playing ends with a classic Delta Blues style walk down on the fourth and fifth strings in the style of Robert Johnson. You will notice she hides the pick in her hand in order to pluck the strings with her thumb and first finger.

What follows are the chord shapes featured in her performance for you to learn and then the tab/notation for the playing detail.

When you work on this, we recommend you start slowly so your fingers know what they're doing. Once everything is well learnt, then build up to Ally's final tempo. After this, you maybe inspired enough to explore your own blues grooves. Enjoy!

• Ally Venable tours the UK with special guest Garret T. Willie from September 8-17.

Jon Bishop

Jon Bishop wears numerous hats as a guitarist, from articles for guitar magazines to transcribing artist video tutorials for GuitarWorld.com. He also tours with UK rock and roll legend Shakin' Stevens and various film+orchestra performances including Love Actually, Toy Story, Twilight, and Labyrinth. As a fan of blues and funk styles, Jon is an ideal transcriber for Ally's video feature.

Chords galore from Ally's performance (ordered in groups of G, C, and D plus the slinky B7!)

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Example 1 – Ally's Blues Groove in G

For bars 1-4, a G7 based chord riff is played using fragments of C7sus4 and C before resolving to a G7, complete with a quick bluesy hammer-on from Bb to B. The 16th note strumming is played with constant down and up strums while muted strings and chords are created by the fretting hand. You will notice that no bar has the same playing in it, with small variations each time that create excitement and variety.

For bars 5-8, you will move to the IV chord (C7). Extra interest is introduced into the C7 groove with a brief dip down to B7 one fret lower. The walking bass line from E back up to G is classic blues fare. You then repeat the part that was established in the first four bars.

For bars 9-13, you move to the V chord (D7). To spice this up, Ally employs a SRV-style lick that uses sliding sixths on the third and first strings. This provides tasty upper D6 and D9 colors and contrast to the lower D7 chord shape. This sixth based lick is repeated two frets lower to outline the IV chord (C7). As the saying goes, if it's nice, play it twice!

Her performance ends with a Robert Johnson style lick, and Ally quickly moves over to fingerstyle to pluck the two notes. Use the thumb and first finger to pinch the two notes, putting the pick between your fingers to keep it out of the way (unless you want to hybrid pick this with pick and the second finger).

Ally Venable songs you need to hear

Money & Power

Money & Power is the title track from Ally’s latest album and features a classic blues-rock groove. The sliding power chord stabs give way to insistent 1/8th note chugging and blues scale riff action. Ally’s heartfelt vocal delivery is to the fore, and there is a ripping wah wah guitar solo to enjoy. Various classic tricks are used, such as a post solo breakdown to one guitar playing the main riff, and then the rest of the band kicking in.

Ally Venable - Money & Power (Studio Video) - YouTube

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Broken & Blue

Ally’s track Broken & Blue is taken from her 2023 album, Real Gone. This track is a take on a classic minor blues with some great chord changes added in. The 6/8 groove presents a perfect opportunity to play a tasteful arpeggio accompaniment and this is embellished with nice fills. Ally’s vocals are heartfelt, and the track is finished with an extended guitar solo that uses classic blues vocabulary, à la SRV and Joe Bonamassa.

Broken & Blue - YouTube

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