As well as knowing how to use scales and arpeggios, it is important to be able to play things which work over specific parts of a progression or song. In Blues, one of the most important things is having control of turnarounds.
If your turnarounds don’t indicate the end of the progression clearly, it can easily confuse other musicians you are playing with. The following examples demonstrate different ideas to fit turnarounds in the final two measures of a Blues progression. Each of these turnarounds begins on chord I and ends on chord V. The first three are in the key of E and use open strings.
Here’s one in the key of C which is played in the G form.
This one is in the key of D and is played in the A form. It ends with two 6th intervals.
This turnaround works best for a slow Blues and contains two chords per measure.