I love Crawlin Kingsnake by John Lee Hooker. One of my favorite covers is the one below by Etta James. She holds true to the original one chord style. Great track to play along with. Lots of space. I enjoy playing a B harmonica in 1st position to practice intonation on the 3 draw 1/2 step bend and the 4,5,6 overblows.
There are several versions of this song on youtube with harmonica but they all play the 3 chord 12 bar style.
Anyone know of a good cover with harp on it in one chord style? How about a one chord backing track like this or something similar. I would love to give it a try myself.
I like it okay jordan and I love RJ's playing in general, but it is 3 chord and lacks the gritty nastiness like Etta and the Hook.
little onion....I don't know how advanced you are or your knowledge of overblows. Playing all 3 notes at once as an overblow chord is something I have never heard of.
Playing the blues scale in 1st position in the middle octave use the 4,5,6 overblow as the flat 3rd, flat 5th, and the flat 7th.
I do play one pretty nasty partial chord...the 6 overblow with a strong throat vibrato and open up enough to catch the 7 blow. This gives you the flat 7th one step under the root note. Much tension. Same notes as playing the 2/5 draw in second position only the notes are flipped.
im pretty sure hooker tuned in A. i checked this etta james thing a few times and Ab came up alot. i played along with it on a G harp using the 3 draw (bend a bit) and the 456 blow. it seemed to work. i also did it with a koch in C with the button in and it worked in 2nd. i dont think this is B.
I'm not sure if it's one chord,but Rick Estrin does it solo on Little Charlie & the Nightcats--"Captured Live". Great version. G harp
Last Edited by on Mar 10, 2012 9:18 PM
yeah its in A dont try to play along with this its out of tune and ive done special things to the acoustic to get hookers bell tones and sitarish string buzz youll never get this sound with bazillion gadgets. sorry about the mistakes i was in a hurry and too lazy to get it perfect- next time. oh and BTW the strings are cheap target strings i got a special thing inside the guitar that makes them sound better and new they are over 2 years old.
heart2harp version is good too but IMHO it changes the flavor of the tune to do it in 3 chord/12bar. I would love to see a mild revival of some one chord blues.
hvyj...awesome that you do it one chord. I love it in 2nd position as well. Probably best.
billy shines...great track! tune it up and it would make a great track for some of us to try it on. Nice job. I embedded for you.
Trust me...the Etta version is in B...2nd position on an E harmonica
@harpdude61: We're doing a lot of Delta stuff. We don't do 'em "just like the record" but if they have one chord or two chords, we play them with one chord or two chords. Then, we'll do some Rev. Gary Davis and other stuff which is chordally much more complex.
We're playing electric, and with pedal board electronics. So, the one and two chord stuff comes off sort of like trance blues. Different, but it's going over really well.
hvyj....Very cool indeed. I would love to play that type of stuff in a duo with a good guitarist....take me out of the 12 bar world for awhile, yet it is still the blues.
i usually play in open G gGDGBD i dont use the bass E string i put another B on and tune it to g. whats heard isnt one chord theyre variations of many power chords (root and 5th) played microtonal in an arabian style. hooker i heard learned this from his father and doctor ross also did it. its still played in nigeria and hill country is the only thing close to it. but it had to have more students then just hooker and ross. im using a round dowel with a loosely wrapped rubber band as a choke for the mando type scale and to act as a jawari buzz nut. because the neck is rounded it doesnt work so hot a flat fretboard like an old stella etc would be better.
@harpdude61: Yeah, "good guitarist" is the operative dynamic. It takes considerable skill for the guitarist to play in that style, get that groove, and keep it going. I'm just icing on the cake. VERY different from playing 12 bar. Much more challenging, IMHO, especially if you are doing it for 4 hours. (And very physically demanding for the guitarist to play this style for 4 hours.)
Among other things, on harp you really have to be able to hit and control the 2 and 3 hole bends and play those pitches and microtones accurately in order to carry the melody lines. I mean you've GOT TO DO IT in order to make this stuff work--there's no room for fudging and no place to hide. And you have to keep it interesting WITHOUT CHANGING CHORDS. Of course, the pedals help with that.
For variety we throw in more contemporary material, too, along the way like some Dylan, "Soul Shine" "Poor Wayfaring Stranger", some Johnny Cash as well as some older originally acoustic 12 bar blues, and we'll usually close the middle set with a 5 or 6 minute instrumental of "Little Wing" which usually gets the most applause. But the Delta stuff is the backbone of it all.
I'm pretty much in second and fifth positions all night long. I use fifth for "Hesitation Blues" "Little Wing" "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" and all the other minor key material. If i were better at playing blues in first, I'd be tempted to try using first position for some of the one and two chord stuff every now and then for variety, but I'm not good enough at playing first position blues to do it. I need to work on that.
Although i don't play first, I can kinda sorta get that type of sound in second. For variety, I'll sometimes get up on the high end and construct melody riffs from 10B**, 9D, 9B and 8D. These are the 3b, 7b, tonic and 5th of the blues scale and are all the chord tones from the I chord. So, if you can hit and control the 10 hole whole step blow bend, you can replicate everything you play on the bottom 3 holes on the top 3 holes, which sounds pretty cool, IMHO, and keeps you from getting repetitive and monotonous riffing melody over one chord.
Btw, playing one chord stuff a lot really gets you refining your chops. Like being able to move quickly from 2D** to a blue third and back. That sounds like NBD, but you really have to pay attention to be sure to lighten air pressure just the right amount as you go from a deep whole step bend on D2 moving up one hole and intonating properly to create a quarter tone bend on D3 and then moving back to the whole step bend on D2 QUICKLY. Sounds easy, but you need to be pretty disciplined about technique in order to be consistent about doing stuff like that over an entire evening.
Last Edited by on Mar 11, 2012 10:13 AM
hvyj...sounds like a great program to me! I like bending the 10 hole as well. Seems to be a crowd pleaser when you hold it strong on that whole step bend in 2nd position.
I always admire the way you go to 5th for songs like Wayfaring Strange when most of us (including myself) would succumb to 3rd. I've played 5th out a couple of times so I'm slowly working it in.
@harpdude61: Yeah, the audiences seem to get all excited over blow bends.
IMHO, 5th is so much easier/better for natural minor blues than 3rd. You've got all the notes, so it's easier to play through all the chord changes. I'm not sure you can do "Hesitation Blues" in 3rd and have it sound right. I can play 3rd just fine, but given the choice, I almost always use 5th for most minor blues--in 3rd, it's like you are always approximating or fudging on the IV chord.
IMHO, the trick to playing minor is to convey emotion more through note movement rather than bending. It's not that you don't bend, it's just that movement from note-to-note through the changes is a bigger deal. For example, listen to how Otis Rush plays guitar. I think it's hard to be fluid like that playing in 3rd. But, YMMV.
To get a feel for what I'm talking about, blow some minor blues along with an Otis Rush recording using the high register in 4th position. There's only one bend available (8B* for 5b), so it really gets you concentrating on note movement instead of leaning/wanking on bends like so many harp players tend to do.
I'm not suggesting that 4th position is easiest or the most expressive position for minor key blues, but it does get you thinking in a different direction, so trying it is good exercise. On the other hand, i think playing minor in 5th is pretty easy to do.
Btw, if you are playing minor in ANY position, you need to be disciplined about what notes you bend anyway or it's easy to take yourself out of key.
Last Edited by on Mar 11, 2012 5:24 PM
