Blues in the Bottle - Lighnin' Hopkins - Tutorial + Free Tab

 

In this video I want to have a look at the blues song 'Blues in the Bottle' by Lightnin' Hopkins. This is a less well known blues song but is a good fingerstyle guitar piece. The song is a 12 bar blues and the 12 bar blues sequence repeats throughout the song. In my version I have structured it slightly different to lightning Hopkins original version. What I have done is put the intro then the 12 bar blues section as it's played on his first solo break. Then the second solo break and then another 12 bar section which is stripped back a bit and this is similar to what he would have played when he was singing over it. The reason I have done this structure is because I feel it's better for solo guitarist who isn't singing, and by putting the the stripped down verse last, it incorporates the outro section better.

The structure of the song in my version is:

Intro - Verse (1st Solo Break) - Verse (2nd Solo Break) - Verse (Sing Over) - Outro

The music is mostly in 4/4 time, it is in the Key of E and is played on a guitar in standard tuning.

Below are some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab.

Blues in the Bottle Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

 

• Improvising - Within the song, Hopkins plays the 12 bar structure over and over. Each time he plays it, he plays it slightly differently. When he's singing, he has a more stripped down version of it with less melody notes, and then he has the solo breaks in between which have a more melody notes added. I would imagine that when Hopkins was playing it, there was a lot improvisation in each of the repeats of the 12 bar section. And I think this song lends itself to quite a lot of open improvisation, and it will still sound good. I think if you look at the structure, he usually plays the 1st 2 bars with similar notes and then he sticks to the same 12 bar chord structure, but over and above that the notes he plays are far more free and loose and unscripted. As such, it's certainly worth playing around with the melody notes within the song and coming up with something that not only sounds good to you, but you find comfortable a play as well.
  

• Fast Picking - Within this song, there are some fast, single-note runs that have to be played. The way Hopkins plays he only uses his thumb and index finger, so these fast note runs are getting played with the index finger and I would imagine there's quite a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs done. However, the way I play, I use my thumb and three other fingers to play it, and this opens up scope for articulating every note in these runs. i.e. not playing them with  with hammer-ons and pull-offs. To achieve this speed what you'll have to use is a technique called picado where you alternate your index and middle finger to play these notes quickly. My previous video gives a demonstration and lessons on how to do this picado technique. As I said, you could play it using hammer-ons and pull-offs or using picado, but if you're still struggling to play these fast single note runs, just either omit them completely or strip them back and leave out some of the notes.
  

• Mixing up the the Bass Picking - Instead of playing just quarter notes on each beat of the bar for the bass notes, Hopkins likes to mix it up a bit and add in some 8th notes in the bass picking as well. This adds variety to the music  and gives it more interest. Within the version I have done, I have added in some of these 8th notes into the bass picking pattern as well. When listen to Hopkins original, he seems to do it in some places and not in others and this varies during each repeat of the 12 bar sequences. Therefore, I think there's some scope for adding these 8th notes into the bass picking where you feel comfortable or where you think it sounds good in the music. By adding in these notes, it does make the bass picking slightly trickier. So if you're struggling with playing them, just stick to the straight quarter notes when playing the bass picking pattern and the music will still sound good.
  

This is about all I need to say about this piece. It is a nice 12 bar blues song and is good to play for a solo guitarist without the singing. The fast tempo of the music can lead to some fast picking required to play some of the notes, but these can easily be omitted or reduced to make it easier to play.

 

Thanks for Reading,
Neil