The Blues Music of Mississippi John Hurt

 

Mississippi John Hurt (1893 - 1966) is one of the most famous blues singers and guitarists of his era. His deep, mellow voice and characteristic guitar style give his music a very distinctive and noticable sound. In this post, and the accompanying video, I want to have a look at his guitar playing style and give you some tips on how to play like him.

 

Tempo

Although many people think of blues music as being quite slow and moody, during the era that John Hurt was active much blues music was quite up-tempo. John Hurt's music is no different and much of his music is played at quite a fast tempo, sometimes upwards of 150bpm. Although this fast pace may not always be immediately noticable when listening to his music, it does become more evident when trying to play the guitar parts.

Because of the fast tempo, it can make the guitar parts quite tricky to play. The tempo can make changing chords when playing quite difficult as the have to be formed at such speed. Although he uses fairly basic chords in his music, it may require a lot of practise to get the changes made at the required speed.

Travis Picking

John Hurt often uses a travis picking pattern in his guitar music. This is where the thumb plays the bass notes on alternating strings and the other fingers are then used to play the melody line on the higher strings. If you are familar to travis picking you should be able to play his music quite easily. However, if you are not, it may take some practise to get the hang of this technique so the bass notes are played regularly and the melody notes are played at the correct time.

Key of C

John Hurt played his music in a variety of different keys. However, he seemed to prefer the Key of C, and a lot of his music was played in this key. In the Key of C, he used the standard three chords most of the time C - F - G. The C and G chords shouldn't pose many problems as they are played in the standard open position, but the F chord may prove trickier as you can play it in many different ways. Check out my other post for some tips on playing the F Chord. This is a very common Key to play fingerstyle in and is often seen used in folk music. So if you are familiar with playing fingerstyle folk music, you should be able to pick up these guitar parts in Hurt's music easily.

8th Notes  

In a lot of blues music, 8th notes are played with a triplet feel. This is where the time between them varies as if they were getting played as the first and last notes of a triplet. Check out my tutorial on this if you want to know more information about triplet feel. John Hurt didn't always use this in his music and often played the 8th notes as straight 8ths with a uniform time between them. If you are used to playing blues music, it can be easy to apply this triplet feel without thinking. However, John Hurt didnt always use it and playing straight 8ths in his music lends to that distinctive sound.

Picking the Strings

Because of the tempo his music is often played at, you have to be very quick with your fingerpicking. Because of this, I would recommend only using three fingers to pick the strings. The thumb for the bass notes, and the index and middle fingers for the higher, melody notes. I find that if you introduce the ring finger, or even the pinky, that this can slow the speed you pick at. Although this may not be the case for everyone, I would recommend only using these three fingers when playing his music. 

Repetition 

John Hurt's music is generally very repetitive. The guitar sections usually last for about 6-8 bars and then they are just repeated with different vocals sung over the top. Because of this, it can make learning and remembering the guitar sections a lot easier, as there is usually very little to learn. However, this is offset by the high tempo the music is played at which can add to the difficulty. However, it does mean that once you are comfortable with his playing style, you can learn his songs in a short space of time.

There is a brief overview of Mississippi John Hurt's music and guitar style. If you are used to playing fingerstyle folk music you should be able to pick his music up easily at it has a similar musical structure. His use of travis picking and the fast tempo of his music can cause some problems but with enough practise, you will be able to get the hang of it. I will make some videos and post up some tabs of his music in the future.

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