Spike Driver Blues - Mississippi John Hurt - Tutorial + Tab

 

In this video, I will show you how to play the guitar part from Mississippi John Hurt's song Spike Driver Blues. The guitar part is played on a guitar in standard tuning and is in 4/4 time. Like most of Mississippi John Hurt's songs, this is very repetitive. The guitar part is 10 bars long and is repeated through the entire song. The guitar part uses a travis picking pattern, so if you are used to playing like this, it shouldn't be too problematic. 

Below are some tips to help you play this piece and links to download the tab. I have also provided the lyrics if you wish to sing the vocal parts too

Spike Driver Blues Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

Spike Driver Blues - Mississippi John Hurt - Lyrics

This is the hammer that killed John Henry
But it won't kill me
No it won't kill me
No it won't kill me

Take this hammer and head to a captain
And tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone

John Henry, he left his hammer
Laying 'side the road
Laying 'side the road
Laying 'side the road

John Henry, he left his hammer
All painted in red
All painted in red
All painted in red

John Henry, he left his hammer
Laying 'side the road
Won't you tell him I'm gone
Won't you tell him I'm gone

John Henry, he left his hammer
All painted in red
All painted in red
All painted in red 

 

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• Locking the G Chord - The whole song employs one chord, which is G. And the whole song can be played by locking down this chord with your fretting hand. If you anchor the ring finger of your fretting hand on the 3rd fret of the lowest E string, you can keep that finger there to play the entire song. All the other notes can be fretted using the other fingers on the fretting hand. This allows this G note to ring out through the entire song. If you are finding this tricky, try playing the notes with whatever fingers you are comfortable with. However, it may not sound the same doing it this way and the bass notes may have a more staccato sound.
  


• Travis Picking - The song employs a standard travis picking pattern throughout with the bass notes alternating between the 6th and 4th strings for the entire song. If you need some advice on travis picking, check out my other video here:

 

• Fast Tempo - The song is played at a very fast tempo, like a lot of John Hurt's music. This is played at roughly 145bpm which is fast for a fingerstyle guitar piece. Although the fast pace shouldn't pose too many problems, you do have to fret the notes quickly so that they ring out cleanly. I recommend learning this piece of music at a slower tempo and once you can play it, try upping the tempo then.

 
This is about all I need to say about this piece. If you are used to playing travis picking fingerstyle guitar you should be able to learn this quickly enough. Once you get used to the fast tempo and are able to fret the notes quickly and accurately, you should be able to play this song quite easily.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil