Blues shuffle with open chords

[progrmr]

I bought the Hal Leonard Blues Method book - first song is an open chord blues shuffle with E, A and B. There are a couple different fingerings for each of the chords but they're all open.

I can't get it down very well but that's probably just a matter of practicing. My question is about how to pick it. Should I kind of strum the chords in an up/down pattern on the open chords?

Tough to get the shuffle sound because on the open chords, strumming UP from the first string makes the chord sound too high/twangy, but if that's how it's done it's how I need to practice it.

[Commodore 64***]

My guitar teacher is a big fan of simply down picking everything for beginners. I do a lot of that AEB blues shuffling, myself.

[Eric***]

I bought the Hal Leonard Blues Method book - first song is an open chord blues shuffle with E, A and B. There are a couple different fingerings for each of the chords but they're all open.

I can't get it down very well but that's probably just a matter of practicing. My question is about how to pick it. Should I kind of strum the chords in an up/down pattern on the open chords?

Tough to get the shuffle sound because on the open chords, strumming UP from the first string makes the chord sound too high/twangy, but if that's how it's done it's how I need to practice it.

I'm no blues guy, but when I do this sort of thing, I usually just strum both up and down, hitting the downbeat and preceding pick-up note a little bit harder. I palm mute a lot of the other stuff. Downbeat for me is always a downstroke.