blues

This one is closer to the original and will provide a challenge for most of us.

This song, as do many of Johnson's, implies a 12 bar structure without actually playing the changes. In this version, we play the changes which maks it a lot asier to navigate. Not one for the purists though.

For intermediate and advanced players, this one will help you play notes based on the sound that they make.

There's mountains of stuff throughout the site on playing a shuffle so subscribers will have seen most of this before, could still be worth a look though.

17 Blues turnarounds for the 3 string. Grab the TAB here

Howlin' Wolf's version of Willie Dixon's one chord classic

This is actually the harmonica riff but the guitar underneath is not nearly as strong in Muddy's version so everyone just plays this, and it works better on the 3 string anyway.

Willie Johnson's classic is a one chord tune with a slide guitar riff that closely mimics the vocal line.

Try and play it up-tempo if you can which means you'll have to be very accurate with your slide particularly. The trick to this one is in following the phrasing very closely to get the melody tight around that constant downbeat on the thumb.

Elmore James take on the old Robert Johnson song. This is a good one to demonstrate how triplets work in a shuffle groove

An 8 bar slow blues from Elmore James, probably the most influential slide player of the 1950's. The licks in this intro represent the foundation of his playing and countless players after him. They can be played on a 3 string although you do have to have your slide working well. It's definitely worth the effort.