Sunflower River Blues (Tutorial + Tab)

Sunflower River Blues is a fingerstyle guitar tune by John Fahey. It is not a standard 12 bar blues and does not apply the triplet feel to the playing, so it has more of a folk guitar sound rather than that of a standard blues tune. It is played in the Key of C on a guitar tuned to Open C, and is in 4/4 time. 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.



Here is the downloadable tab for the music

Sunflower River Blues Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

Playing Advice 

• Intro - This tune has an intro section which goes from bar 1 - 9. The tempo of the intro is much slower than that of the main body of the tune. I have added a tempo rubato musical direction meaning the timing is flexible, so just play it as you feel comfortable. You don't have to play it strictly in tempo.

• Main Section - This is the main body of the tune. It is played at a much faster tempo than the intro and is played a tempo meaning it is to be played in correct time, unlike the intro. There are three distinct parts to the main section of music. There is the main body and 2 individual bridge sections. The order in the tab is main - bridge 1 - main - bridge 2 - main. However, with all these pieces I recommend changing the order to suit yourself. I would also recommend adapting the bridge sections to your liking, or even writing new ones.

• Tempo - The tempo of the main body of the tune is quite fast. I often play it slower than John Fahey does in the original because I believe it sounds better slightly slower. However, play the tune at any tempo you desire, and as with all fast pieces, start by playing it slowly and then build the speed up.

• 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.

• Left Hand Fingerings - The left hand fingerings are straightforward and you should be able to pick most of them up from the video.

• Slides - There are numerous slides within the tune. They are all played as legato slides meaning you strike the string(s) slide to the appropriate fret but do not strike the strings again. When playing back the power tab it sounds as though you strike the strings again but this is just an error in the software. They are marked as legato slides in the tab. Most of the slides are self-explanatory and are played as written. However, in bars 11, 15, 35, 39, 59 and 63 there is a small legato slide down from fret 2 to fret 1 that does not seem obvious. All you are doing is moving the fingering shape on fret 2 down to fret one which will create a slide. However, sounding this slide is not essential and does not have to emphasised or well articulated during playing.

• Note Flexibility - As with all these tunes in open tunings there is some flexibility as to the notes you can play. Because the tun is in the Key of C and the guitar is tuned to Open C, you can add open string notes easily without them sounding out of tune. So it is worth playing around with the music and adding or removing some notes as you see fit.

Overall the tune is quite straightforward to play and one you should have a lot of fun learning.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil