![]() ![]() Please do not use inappropriate language, including profanity, vulgarity, or obscenity. Be respectful of artists, readers, and your fellow reviewers.Feel free to recommend similar pieces if you liked this piece, or alternatives if you didn't.Are you a beginner who started playing last month? Do you usually like this style of music? Consider writing about your experience and musical tastes.Do you like the artist? Is the transcription accurate? Is it a good teaching tool? Explain exactly why you liked or disliked the product.It’s also worth checking out the download lessons available on my website If you subscribe to my free newsletter, you’ll get free play along tracks, free tutorial videos and other goodies regularly. These lessons include tabs/scores, audio and video files and play along tracks that I send to you via email. If you want to learn more concepts like this you should consider taking 1-on-1 lessons with me (in Friedberg, Germany or via Skype). In the second part of this article we’ll take a look at the lead guitar part. Try to adapt other bass lines and riffs to different keys, tempos and grooves (suggestion: Make it funky with some 16th notes!). Now try to invent a few more variations of this bass line. This example is in the style of ‘I Want To Be Loved’ by Muddy Waters (CD ‘Hard Again’) and ‘When The Lights Go Out’ by Jimmy Witherspoon (CD ‘The Complete Jimmy Witherspoon’). This example is in the style of ‘Hallelujah, I Love Her So’ by The Animals (CD ‘The Complete Animals’) and by Eddie Cochran (CD ‘The BestOf’). Try to play this for a Chicago Blues with a shuffle feeling. ![]() Now let’s try to change the riff to a shuffle feel.Here is a version where the bass line is expanded to a two bar phrase. The E-pattern starts on the 7th fret of the A-string, not on the low E string.Ĭhanging the groove / style – applying the ‘Killing Floor’-Groove to other songs Play this as a 12 bar blues in the key of A and you can play along to ‘Killing Floor’ Howlin’ Wolf (CD ‘The Real Folk Blues’): || A | A | A | A || D | D | A | A || E | D | A | E || If the tempo is even slower, you could consider using 16th notes: Here is a popular variations of the bass line with eighth notes for slower tempos: Usually the slower the tempo of a song is the more notes you play and vice versa. Off course, we have to change the fingering.Ĭhicago Blues Guitar: Changing the tempo. If you want to play this riff in a different key, you can use a capo or try to get rid of the unfretted string to make the pattern movable. (‘Chromatic’ is a fancy word for ‘in half steps’.) Chicago Blues Guitar: Changing the key Between the major third and the fifth we add two chromatic passing tones. What happens here is that we start with the root of the underlying chord followed by the major third and we end on the fifth. This could be used in a Chicago Blues Guitar style with a straight feeling. Here is the most basic version of the ‘Killing Floor’ groove. Later, when the Fender Precision Bass was invented, these low guitar lines were transferred to bass guitars. The upright bass – if present at all – would play a ‘country bass line’ (that is the root on beat ‘1’ and the fifth on beat ‘3’ with rests on beat ‘2’ and ‘4’). When Muddy Waters and his band invented electric Chicago Blues in the early 50s this was a typical guitar part for one of the two guitarists. The rhythm guitar plays a low repetitive line that nowadays would be considered a bass line. If you can adapt your licks to different tempos, keys and styles (like blues shuffle, straight blues-rock feel or funky 16th blues) you’ll get a lot of milage out of the licks and grooves you learn! Chicago Blues Rhythm Guitar in the style of ‘Killing Floor’ by Howlin’ Wolf Instead of learning hundreds of licks without knowing how to actually use them, it’s far better to know a few licks inside out and to understand the concepts behind them. The result is that they usually can play each particular lick only in that exact key, in that exact tempo, with that exact groove. Many guitarists learn licks and riffs by rote without understanding the How and Why of note choice, phrasing etc. But instead of just showing you a bunch of different licks and grooves I’ll focus on just one idea and then I’ll show you how to adapt this idea to different situations. ![]() ![]() Today I have a Chicago Blues Guitar lesson that many of my students love – it’s in the style of ‘Killing Floor’ by Howlin’ Wolf. ![]()
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