Lauren Bateman teaches a guitar lesson for Eric Clapton's "Before You Accuse Me," focusing on a blues shuffle in E. The video explains the 12-bar blues structure, uses three chords (E major, A major, B7), demonstrates an easier B7 voicing, and breaks down the shuffle rhythm (triplet-based "1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a"). Bateman adds single-note movement over the E and A chords (E string + notes on A/D string: 2,4,5,4) and shows options for finger stretches and alternatives for players with limited dexterity. She outlines the chord progression for the 12-bar form and describes the turnaround using B7.
Questions this video answers
E (E major blues)
E major, A major, B7
"1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a" (triplet-based shuffle counting)
2nd fret, 4th fret, 5th fret, then back to 4th fret (each note played twice)
Chapters
Eric Clapton's before youe Accuse Me focuses around a shuffle blues rhythm. It'll sound something like this.
Now, 12 Bar Blues is a very, very common blues pattern. So I'm going to explain that in this video. But first, let's start off with the chords. We're going to need to play along to this song.
So this song is in E major blues. So we're going to be using three chords. And those chords are going to be E major, A major and B7. Now, a lot of these chords, we're only going to be playing a couple of the strings. But the B7 chord is a pretty important one. And I want you to know that there's an easier way to play this if you can't do it with the pinky. You'll notice that this top part of the chord kind of looks like a backward D7. So if you're coming from an E major chord, all you have to do is lower your third finger down one string and lift your first finger up one string and you can just strum the top three or four strings.
Okay? And that will be kind of like a mini B7 chord that's slightly easier to play for you guys. Now let's talk about the shuffle rhythm. Because this is so important to this song. So most people are used to straight rhythms. You know, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. When, well, a shuffle has more of a swing to it. It's because it's based around a triplet. Now, a triplet, we count 1 and a 2 and a 3 and a 4 and a 1 and a 2 and a 3 & a 4 and a. And what we're doing in this song is we're just cutting out the middle ands. It's a very, very typical blues shuffle, okay? It's one of the. One of the many kind of patterns that I teach in my blues guitar course. And if you guys are interested in that, I'll put a link in the description below. But we're going to be starting off with an E chord, okay? And let's just focus on getting the timing of this rhythm. The best way to do this is first speak it out. Okay, we're going to start with.
One, a two, a three, a four, a one, a two, a three or a four, a one, a Two, a three, a.
Four. Okay? If you guys can do that with me, if you can speak something out or even sing it out, it's much easier to put it onto the guitar. Okay? So now that we've done that a couple times, put it on the guitar with that E.
Chord. So we've got one, a two, a three, a four, a one, a two, a three or a four, a one, a 2, a 3, a 4.
A.
Last time, a one, a two.
A three, a four, a.
One. Now I can see I'm doing all down strums for this. Okay. And that's what we're going to be using in this song, all down strums. So now that we have the foundation of the rhythm down, I want to add in the movements. Okay. And what we're going to be doing is we're going to be playing over this E chord. We're going to be playing the open E string and we're going to be playing notes on this A string. The notes are going to be the second fret, the fourth fret, the fifth fret, and then back to the fourth fret. Alright? We're going to play each note twice. So it's going to sound like this. One, A two, a three, a four, a one, a two, a three, a four, A. Okay, now if you have the stretch, I would recommend keeping these fingers down.
Now if you do not have the stretch, you can lift the fingers up. There's nothing wrong with that.
You can see I'm lifting the fingers up as I move.
Some of you haven't worked on your finger dexterity enough to keep them down or your fingers stretch, and that's totally fine. And for my older learners, I get a lot of students, they have arthritis in their fingers, so sometimes they can't use their third finger or their pinky that well. The other option, it adds in a little extra movement. But the other option is to play your first finger.
Put your third finger down, slide the third finger up to the fifth fret, and then slide it back to the fourth fret so it'll sound like this.
Still works. You can just see it adds a little bit more movement on the fretboard. But again, if you're an older learner and you have arthritis, find whatever works best for you and do that. So now let's talk about our A chord. We're doing the same exact thing. Okay. We're just moving everything down A string. So we're going to be playing the open A string and then the second fret on the D string, fourth fret on the D string, and then fifth fret on the D string. So it's going to sound like this.
One, A two, a three, a four. Okay? So same thing. Let's Just practice going between those two chords. We'll do two measures of E, two measures of A, two measures of E, two measures of A. Just so you can practice this rhythm. It's very, very important to practice this. All right, so we got 1.
A 2, a 3, a 4, a 1, a 2, a 3, a.
4.
So that's what we're going to be doing for the first eight measures of the song. So you heard me mention before, this is a 12 bar blues. So we're basically playing 12 measures of music. We're counting to four 12 times. And the pattern for this song, once you go through it once, it just repeats. So the pattern is it's going to be E, A, E, E, A, A, E, E. And then a lot of different changes happen in these last four measures. We have a B7 chord, then we have an A chord, an E chord, and another B7. So this is where our B7 comes in. And for this, I would just strumming shuffle pattern all downs.
Okay, we're going to do that for the B7A, the same.
Thing.
Okay. And for this E, you can either stay shuffle pattern. But what I like to do on this is I like to go back to the notes.
And then.
So I like to shuffle and just strum all of the chords except for that E chord. I like doing the single notes.
Because this B7 is what we call, like the turnaround. It's the point where we're turning around and going back to the beginning of the pattern. So I like that little lead in up to that B7 chord. Now you could easily just strum for this entire song. You could easily just.
Go. Before you cues me, take a look at yourself.
Before you. Excuse me, take a look at.
Yourself. You could do that for the entire song. But what I'm gonna do is a playthrough. Now I'm gonna do a chorus where I play through with the movement, okay, that blues pattern. And I'm gonna play through the verse with just some strumming so that you can hear what it sounds like both.
Ways. 1, a 2, a 3, a.
4. Before you cues me, take a look.
Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.
Been spending my money on other women and you've been taking money from someone else.
Called your mama about three, four nights ago.
Called your mama three or four.
Nights.
Ago.
Well, your mama said Son, don't you call my daughter no.
More.
Now if you guys really loved this movable blues pattern, then I highly recommend you go check out my Mustang Sally lesson right over there where we will be doing something very similar. And I'll go through it step by step. Go click on that lesson.
