At some point in your blues playing, single notes start to feel thin. You want more texture, more body, something that fills out the sound without requiring a full chord change. Thirds are the answer. This classic blues guitar technique gives you two notes at once, and the way they interact over a droning chord underneath is one of the signature sounds of the genre.

The foundation here is an E7 chord with your pinky adding a D note — a standard blues chord voicing you’ve probably seen before. What changes now is what you put on top of it.

What Thirds Actually Are

A third is simply two notes that are two scale degrees apart. In a C major scale (C, D, E, F, G), the third above C is E. The third above D is F. You’re stacking consecutive scale steps, skipping one in between. That interval creates a rich, full sound that sits nicely in the mix without muddying anything up.

There are two types you’ll use in blues: major thirds and minor thirds. Both appear in the same progression. Blues lives in that territory between major and minor, and the thirds reflect that. You’re not picking one type and sticking with it. You’re moving between them, which is exactly what creates the characteristic blues color.

Where to Find Them on the Guitar

For this lesson, the focus is on the 4th and 5th strings (the bottom four strings of the guitar). The good news: thirds patterns on these strings are consistent across positions, so once you learn one shape, you can move it up and down the neck predictably.

Start with the major third. Put your finger on G at the 3rd fret of the 6th string. That’s the root, the “one.” The third above it is B, found at the 2nd fret of the 5th string. Play those two notes together. That’s your major third over E.

Now here’s what makes this powerful: you’re playing these thirds on top of the E7 chord ringing underneath. The chord provides a stable harmonic foundation while the thirds move freely above it. The droning E7 plus the moving thirds creates that classic blues texture: full, warm, and unmistakably bluesy.

More Than Just One Pattern

The combinations you can build from thirds are genuinely huge. This lesson just scratches the surface. Once you’re comfortable with the basic major and minor third shapes over E7, you can start mixing them, adding movement between positions, and building longer phrases that walk up and down the neck.

The major scale pattern on the bottom four strings is your map. Every third you play comes from that pattern, so the more fluently you know it, the more freely you can move. Take your time with the foundational shapes first. Get the sound in your ears before you chase speed or complexity.

Thirds are one of those techniques that sound impressive to listeners but aren’t as hard as they look once you understand the system. Start slow, get the shapes clean, and let the E7 chord do some of the work underneath you.

For more blues guitar technique and context, take a look at the lesson on building a full 12 bar blues progression with a riff included. Thirds fit right into that framework. The blues guitar riffs lesson on thirds takes this even further with more shapes and movement. And when you’re ready to see how all these pieces connect, the blues guitar lessons hub has everything organized for you.

Watch the full video above and pause as often as you need to find each third on your own guitar. Get the sound in your hands, and you’ll have a blues guitar technique you’ll use forever.