Hey Hey (Tutorial + Tab)

Hey Hey is a classic blues tune by Big Bill Broonzy. It is a 12 bar blues played in the Key of E in 4/4 time. It is a fingerstyle piece played on a guitar in standard tuning. Above is a video of me playing the tune along with the tab. In this post I will give some advice on playing the tune.


The video shows me playing it first at normal speed, then again at a slower speed with the tab beside it so you can see the fingerings.

Here is the tab for the music

Hey Hey Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

Playing Advice 

• Tempo - This tune is played at a fast tempo so I would recommend learning it much slower and gradually increasing the speed.

• Structure - This version of the tune is split into bridge - verse - bridge. You can cut and paste these sections to elongate the tune and adapt the phrases as you wish.

• Right Hand Fingers - The thumb plays the bass notes and the index and middle, or the index middle and ring fingers play the treble notes which is standard for fingerstyle guitar. There are no deviations from this in this tune.

• Left Hand Fingerings - The left hand fingerings are straightforward and you should be able to pick most of them up from the video. However, a small section which occurs in bars 11 and 35 is not so obvious. I have shown the phrase below. You could use two fingers on your left hand to fret the notes if you wish but I find it more efficient to barre the two strings with either my index or middle finger, release the barre, then use the same finger to barre the next two strings.
  

• Slides - The tune incorporates numerous long slides up and down the neck played on the 5th string. On the tab I have marked the frets to start and finish the slides on, however this does not need to be that precise. You can play them more freely starting and finishing on different frets, and sliding into and out of them if you wish, and it will still sound fine.

• Runs -  There are two fast runs in the tune which serve as turnarounds. They are on Bars 12 and 13, and Bars 24 and 25. These are some of the trickiest parts to play in the tune especially at the fast tempo. Thus, I would recommend learning these very slowly with a metronome so you can get the timing correct. They incorporate triplets and quavers with a triplet feel next to each other which can make it easy to get the timing incorrect when playing them.

• Half Barre - In Bars 6,7,10,18,19,30,31 and 34 it is preferable to play a half barre across strings 4-1. You could maybe do some of these without the barre if you don't like playing them, but using the barre is the most efficient way and allows the most versatility if you wish to alter the melody line in these sections. 

The advice above should help you learn and play the tune along with the video and tab. I hope you have fun with it.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil