The best way to liven up up your playing is to learn the blues shuffle rhythm. I am not sure where the name derives from, but the shuffle is a term used to identify the break down of a beat into 2 components where the first is lengthier than the second.
The blues shuffle rhythm is founded on an eighth note triplet rhythm. A triplet is when you use 3 notes in a given time space instead of two. In a standard 4/4 time signature where there is four quarter notes the eighth notes would be counted as...
1-&-2-&-3-&-4-& ... where the &'s are the eighth notes between each quarter. to fill the same time signature with eighth note triplets we'd count as...
1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let ... where the trip's and let's are eighth notes amounting up to 3 per quarter note. So basically...
1-& = 1-trip-let
The blues shuffle is accomplished by playing the first and third notes in a series of triplets. And so if the count is...
1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let ... then you will be playing on all the down-beats or numbers and the let's. I have bolded the notes you should be striking to better illustrate.
1-trip-let-2-trip-let-3-trip-let-4-trip-let.
To hear what the shuffle rhythm really sounds like try listening to Led Zeppelin's - You Shook Me or Grateful Dead's - Truckin
I hope this has clarified any confusion you may have been having about the blues shuffle rhythm
