So, I've been here for a week or so and I thought I'd throw together a synopsis of recent events in my guitar life.

Last Saturday, I went to a neighbor's house. He introduced me to Blues. Went home on a mission to learn the E7, A7, B7 progression...e.g., Scratch My Back by the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Hitherto, I had never played A7 or B7, so it was like going back to basics, getting comfortable with chord changes.

Also, I was told I needed to learn Rhythm and strumming, so I've been working on that too. I am working on strumming based on 3 lessons on justinguitar.com. The triplet pattern seems to work well for Blues.

Been working on the following shuffle pattern, from the UG forum. The pinky stretches at the end here are KILLING me. I can barely stretch from 7 to 9, and the 10 just blows my hand up!

Code:
   Q.=80(8=s8)
    E7
   4/4
                |-3-|               |-3-|
    E E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E E E E
||--------------------|-------------------|
||o-------------------|-------------------|
||--------------------|-------------------|
||--------------------|-------------------|
||o-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|
||--0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4---|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4---|


              |-3-|               |-3-|
  E E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E E E E
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2--|
|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4---|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4----|


  A7
              |-3-|               |-3-|
  E E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E E E E
|-------------------|-------------------|
|-------------------|-------------------|
|-------------------|-------------------|
|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|
|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4---|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3-4---|
|-------------------|-------------------|


  E7
              |-3-|               |-3-|
  E E E E E E E E E   E E E E E E E E E
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-------------------|--------------------|
|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2-|-2-2-4-2-2-2-----2--|
|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4---|-0-0-0-0-0-0-3h4----|


  B7                 A7              E7             B7
   E E  Q   Q   Q    E E Q   Q  Q    E E Q  Q  Q    q  Q  H
|------------------|---------------|--------------|-------7----||
|------------------|---------------|--------------|-------7---o||
|------------------|---------------|--------------|-------8----||
|------------------|---------------|--------------|-------7----||
|-/9-9-11--12--11--|-7-7-9--10--9--|-2-2-4--5--4--|-9-----9---o||
|-/7-7--7---7---7--|-5-5-5---5--5--|-0-0-0--0--0--|-7-----7----||

Last week, some of you may have read that I purchased a Blackheart Little Giant. I also ordered an Epiphone 1 x 12" cabinet from Musicians Friend, but it is on backorder. Any other 1 x 12" suggestions while I have extra little time to think it over? Also considering a Vox 1 x 12", Blackheart 1x12 or Blackheart 1 x 10".

Yesterday was my birthday and a friend gave me a nice chord book and a Boss Blues Driver BD-2, can't wait to try that out too!