How do You Play Robert Johnson Style Blues Pt4


Published on 26 January 2016
Crossroads Blues. Guitar Lesson on How to Play Robert Johnson's Original Recording From: http://www.secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/ssb.php?lp_id=771 Here's the video script: In this lesson we conclude our mini-study of Robert Johnson's style of Blues Guitar by working through the last four bars of the first verse of Crossroads Blues. As the underlying chord changes to the fifth - F7 in this case - we play this lick Here's the tab for that to help you practice That's actually one of the easier bits to play in this tune! But the trick is to follow it immediately with this bass note slide and open string and then get the slide back up to the second string at fret 15 like this I found that quite a hard transition so spend a bit of time practicing that bit. I think he just uses a stationery slide at fret 15 for the next bit. And the key to this is to hear that the rhythm is the same as the first phrase we tackled in this lesson...Here's the tab. Next we have one of those little fillers on open strings that just gives us a bit of time to get the hand position cued up for the next phrase. Then it's into a phrase very similar to the one we ended with last lesson. Notice the slight difference in the ending. Ok, well that's all I'm going to do for that song. I think if you have managed to work your way through that intro and first verse, you should have little trouble picking up the rest off the original recording. If you have found this a bit of a struggle, do give yourself a break - much better guitarists than I'll ever be spend their entire careers studying Robert Johnson's style. He was one of a kind and when you think that he died nearly 80 years ago, you have to say his influence has been the most far-reaching of any guitar player ever. So for those who have learned these four lessons well, let's end off with the whole intro and verse and have a crack at playing it together. But please - just don't expect me to try and sing it at the same time!