The Blues Guitar

  This is my version of the traditional song Down By The Riverside. This is an upbeat song and has many different versions of it by many different artists. This version is played on a guitar tuned to Open D and is in 4/4 time. In this video, I play through the verse and chorus of the song. This just needs to be repeated for any more verses of the song you wish to add. Below are the lyrics, some tips to help you play this piece, and links to download the tab. Down By The Riverside Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Here are the lyrics to the song if you wish to sing along. These follow the melody line I play on the guitar. Because there are so many versions of this song, the lyrics do vary, but they are roughly the same. These are from the Louis Armstrong version:   Lyrics    I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield Down by the riverside Down by the riverside Down by the riverside I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield Down by the riverside I'm gonna study, study, w...

    In this video, I will show you how to play the guitar part from R.L. Burnside's song Let My Baby Ride. The guitar part is played on a guitar in standard tuning and is in 4/4 time. The guitar part is very short and repetitive, with just a 1 bar chord riff played over and over, and a 4 bar lick played in between. It is played on an electric guitar with a good bit of distortion to get a nice, crunchy sound. Below are some tips to help you play this piece and links to download the tab. Let My Baby Ride Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT Muted Strings - When playing the guitar riff, some of the strings are played muted. These are represented by an X symbol on the tab. To play these, you rest your fretting hand lightly on the strings and play them so that they have a very muffled sound. Although this isn't a difficult technique, it can be hard to incorporate into this piece as the riff is played quite fast. By practising it slowly you should be able to incorporate these muted stri...

  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 H...

  Little Red Rooster is one of the most well known blues songs. The original version is attributed to Willie Dixon but it has been covered by many different artists. In this video I want to have a look at two of the most famous versions by Howlin' Wolf and The Rolling Stones. I will have a look at how to set up your guitar, the structure of the song, and then playthough each of the two versions with the tab on screen, so you can play it yourself. The song is played on a guitar tuned to Open G. Here is the downloadable tab for the song below: Little Red Rooster - Howlin' Wolf Version Tab  -      Power Tab - PDF - TXT Little Red Rooster - Rolling Stones Version Tab  -   Power Tab - PDF - TXT   Playing Advice Using a Slide - To play either versions of this tune, you will need to use a slide to get that distinctive sound. What type of slide you use is up to you. But I think a full length metal slide works best. It gives a nice raspy sound...

  This is my version of the classic blues song Sweet Home Chicago by Robert Johnson. The song has been covered many times by various artists such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and even the Blues Brothers when it featured in their iconic movie. This version is based on Robert Johnson's original. The song is in the Key of E, is in 4/4 time, and is played on a guitar in standard tuning. In the video, I play through the Intro, then the verse and the turnaround twice, and then the outro. But you can just keep looping around playing the verse and turnaround for as many times as you want, for each of the verses. Here is the downloadable tab for the song below: Sweet Home Chicago Tab  -   Power Tab - PDF - TXT Playing Advice Anchoring the Pinky - For the intro section and the outro section, Johnson repeatedly plays the note of E on the 12th fret of the highest string of the guitar. This then has a descending bass line played over it. To make this easier to play, I woud recom...

  This is a blues turnaround lick in the Key of A. It is taken from the blues tune Me and The Devil Blues by Robert Johnson. The turnaround is played on a guitar in standard tuning.    This lick is relatively easy to play and can be incorporated into a standard blues piece in the Key of A. To make it easier to play, in the 1st bar, if you anchor pinky of your fretting hand on fret 5 of the highest string and then use the other fingers to fret the other notes, it will be a lot easier to play.   In the 2nd bar, if you just form an E7 chord with all four fingers, you can easily play the last few notes of this lick.   The video above me playing it at normal speed, and then shows me playing it slower with the tab on the screen. To download the free tabs, click the links below. Blues Turnaround Lick in A Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT Thanks for Reading, Neil

  In this video, I will show you my blues version of the classic song Somewhere Over The Rainbow. The original version of this song was written By Harold Arlen and featured in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. This fingerstyle arrangement is in the Key of G, is in 4/4 time, 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. Somewhere Over The Rainbow Tab - Power Tab - PDF - TXT Getting the Right Note Duration - This piece features quite a variety of different note durations. It has 1/2 notes, 1/4 notes, 1/8 notes with a triplet feel applied, and also 1/8 note triplets. It switches between these different note durations quite frequently and it can sometimes be hard to get the timing right. Just listen through the piece on the video, keep an eye on the written music, and learn to play it slowly and you should be able to learn all these variations. Making The Chords - The chords primarily used in...