Key to the Highway (Tutorial + Tab)

 

This song was originally recorded by blues pianist Charles Segar, and then recorded for guitar by Big Bill Broonzy a year later. The song has become a blues standard and has been covered many times by famous artists including Little Walter and Eric Clapton. This is a version for a solo guitar based on the Big Bill Broonzy version and incorporates the melody (vocal) line within the guitar piece. It is based on an old tab by TLSpider which I have adapted.

The tune is in 4/4 time, is a fingerstyle piece, and is played on a guitar in standard tuning. The song basically repeats the same body of music over and over. This version plays through the main body of the song twice but can be repeated as may times as necessary. It is a fairly straightforward piece to play and shouldn't provide any significant problems if you are used to playing fingerstyle guitar. Below is the tab in various formats and also some tips to help you play it.

Key to the Highway Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

Playing Advice

• Variation - This song repeats the same body of music over and over again for each verse. In the orignal, the lyrics provide a level of variation to each verse. However, as this piece incorprates the lyrics as part of the melody, it can become overly repetitive when playing. One way of avoiding this would be to add variations to the melody line on each repeat.  If you want, this could mroe closely follow the lyrics as they are sung. Another way would be to incorpate different turnarounds between each section. If you search around on the internet, you can easily find many turnarounds in the Key of E.
  

• Bass Line - The bass line in this tune does not follow a standard picking pattern. For example, Bar 7 plays the bass line on alternating strings and Bar 8 plays it on the same string. It is easy to get caught out with this variation and play the bass line incorrectly. If you practise slowly and pay heed to these changes in the bass line, you shouldn't have too may problems playing it as it is written.
  

• Mix up the Intro -The intro to this piece loosely follows Big Bill Broonzy's intro. However, the intro can be re-written and played as you see fit. The chords to the intro are E - B7 - A7. In my intro, I am just playing the melody using the notes of the underlying chord. However, you can write a more elaborate intro playing over this chord sequence. 
  

This is about all I need to say about this piece. It is a relatively easy piece to play and shouldn't pose many problems. Once you get to grips with the non-standard bass line, the rest of tune should be easy to learn. Alos, because of its repetitive nature, it offers a lot of scope for varying the music when repeating each section.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil