Understanding Turnarounds in Music

Turnarounds are so cool! You can use them for a lot of things, including:

• Introductions
• Ending a 12-bar sequence

Key Takeaways

Here's one thing I want to make sure you get: we talked about building blocks, and this is a huge building block. This tip has got to be worth about 50!

Listen to this one. Here's the turnaround that we'll be using from this chord.

Now, just to learn this as a lick is not going to help you. But if you use your brain and say:

"Look here, man, that's a G sharp on the top. Where can I find that G sharp an octave lower?"

Well, let's look.

• If we go here, that's not going to help us too much.
• We can't move too much with that one.

But look here:

"There it is right there."

This means we've got it here. If this chord works, this chord's got to work.

Got to.

It's the same notes. It looks different and sounds different because one voice is lower, but it's going to work.

Exploring More Turnarounds

So you have two turnarounds there.

Got me two.

Now, let's keep it going.

Let's say, okay, we got these notes.

• What if we take this lead note, which is the D, and we take that off?
• Where can we find that an octave lower?

Well, it's right there.

"Now, I don't like this shape because it gets me nervous."

But I'll take this shape and this.

Discovering New Sounds

What's really cool is these notes now become available.

• Instead of having these, now these are available!

You get this sound that's almost like... something!

But it's a turnaround in blues, and you can use that.

Now, if we come up here in the middle part, let's see where they are.

• We're looking for the notes G sharp, D, and B, right?

Okay, let's get up here.

"Here it is right here!"

This is the same as this, but with this form, we can get the high E happening.

"Dig it? See how that sounds?"

In this form, we don't get the high E, but in this form, we do.

Keep Searching for Options

And why do you do that?

It's options.

The music that you hear in your head, you can play. You don't have to sit there and say,

"Well, I don't know where to play that, so I won't play it."

Don't do that.

Find it!

"Say, okay, I'll find it. It's got to be on the guitar somewhere."

So let's see where these other ones are.

• Let's go here.
• I don't know right now, but I'm going to find it.

Let's see. We've got the G.

"Here it is. This one!"

Let's see, there.

"Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom."

Now, all of a sudden, this guitar is shortening.

The neck on this guitar is shortening down.

We can work from here to here.

Comfort.