Avalon Blues - Mississippi John Hurt - With Free Tab

 

In this video I want to share with you my version of the blues song 'Avalon Blues' by Mississippi John Hurt. It is very typical of John Hurt's music and it is a fingerstyle guitar piece using a travis picking pattern. As is common with John Hurt's music, it has a quick tempo and is very repetitive, with one main section being repeated through the entire song. What i have given you in this tab is that main section. There are numerous different versions of this by John Hurt with many variations. What i have done is written a version that contains of the main elements of the music, which can be repeated as many times as needed with variations of your choosing, if required.

The music 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.

Avalon Blues Downloadable Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT

 

• To Hammer or Not - In the first bar of the main section at around the 4th beat I play fret 0 then 1 on the 3rd string. Now this can be tricky to play this at speed and pick both notes. If you are struggling to play it like this just play it as a hammer-on from 0 to 1. Just be mindful if you are playing it as a hammer-on to get the timing right as it can be easy to play the note to early. This part is discussed more fully in the video.
  

• The 2/4 Bar - If you look ay my tab you will notice I have added 2/4 bars just after the main riff and before the change into the fills. Now a lot of other peoples versions have a 4/4 bar here instead. I have listened to some of John Hurt's recordings of this and it defintely sounds like he uses a 2/4 bar. Now this can make playing it a bit trickier. Because of the tempo, this 2/4 bar feels really quick and it can be tricky transitioning into the proceeding bar. If you are struggling to incorporate this 2/4 bar, just play it as a 4/4 bar and add in a couple of extra bass notes to elongate it to a 4/4.
  

• Changing the Picking Pattern - In four of the bars of music, during the fills, the bass picking pattern changes. The song uses a travis picking pattern which is mostly on strings 6 and 4, or 5 and 4, which is common. But during the bars of the fills, it changes to using strings 6 and 3. This change to picking a higher string in the bass pattern can be really tricky. Firstly, keep playing the bass picking pattern with the thumb on strings 6 and 3. It is tempting to use other fingers but that will confuse you. Next, I recommend playing these sections only using the thumb, index and middle fingers, without the use of the ring finger for picking. If you usualy use your ring finger for picking, stopping using it for a few bars could be tricky, If so, just play the whole piece of music using the thumb, index and middle fingers for picking.
  

This is about all I need to say about this piece. It is a fairly straightforward piece but the fast tempo and some of the fidgety sections may trip you up when playing it. Just start slowly and work up the tempo and it shouldn't be too difficult.

Thanks for Reading,
Neil