Main Blues

Robert Johnson, “King of the Delta Blues “, was born in Copiah County, on May 8, 1911.

Guitar Book Month December 2002 – Dave Rubin: Robert Johnson’s signature licks

Format: Methods
Medium: Book / CD
Series: Signature licks
Publisher: Hal Leonard



Robert Johnson is a blues guitarist. You can not cut if you want to play the blues. For most other artists, it is a question of what style you will play. But Robert Johnson standing at the crossroad of many influences and styles of blues that each player must pass. And if you want to learn guitar from Robert Johnson, which I think you should do, there’s no better place to start from Robert Johnson’s signature licks by Dave Rubin

This is the second book by Dave Rubin, who appeared as The Book of the Month, and will not be the last. Dave Rubin has a deep knowledge about the subjects he covers, both when it comes to historical background information and more guitaristic part of it. He put the song in the context of the biography of Robert Johnson, and he shows the elements of style that you should not ignore. The book was published in the Hal Leonard lick Signature series, one of my favorite book series guitars. This is a book about blues guitar players of the most important, written by one of the best guitar book author, and published in one of the best guitar book series.

Robert Johnson recorded 29 songs. 15 of them and anlyzed presented in this book is selcetion ini.Ini good song that will give you a good insight into Robert Johnson’s guitar playing. One can still say that the two songs are missing: They’re Red Hot and From Four Until Late. Both are in the key of C, and different, each with their own way, the songs are presented (there is no other song in C). But then they are not typical of Robert Johnson, and rather to show how he was influenced by other players. Selection provides the main image, but instead of competing against his style image bermain.Dapatkan one of the books by competing transcription, if you want all the songs.

All songs are played by Dave Rubin on the CD that came with the book. All songs played as an instrumental, with no singing. This is of course not the real thing. But as long as our goal is to learn to play guitar, it is a good approach. You should get a double CD with his Complete Recordings, so the CD included with this book only supplement to help the learning process Anda.Semua songs played up to tempo, with no slowing down the track like you usually get in a lick Signature Series. But the tempo is not a problem if you want to learn the main style of playing, so there should be no need to slow songs.

The first song is a good-hearted Woman Blues, a beautiful song in A, with a lot of Robert Johnson’s trademark, as well as reduced use of a nice chord.

The next song is I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom. This song has become one of the signing of Elmore James songs, and usually one of the first songs you would play if you are learing to play slide guitar blues. But Robert Johnson played this tune with his fingers, not with a slide. But Robert Johnson playing this tune with his fingers, not with a slide. Song i is presented in an unusual tuning, which is labeled Aadd9 in the book. In all other transpriptions I have seen, this song was written well in Open D or Open E, and this is the tuning I always use for the song.

Ramblin ‘On My Mind classics, recorded by Eric Clapton and others. It combines the shuffle and slide – and is the only Robert Johnson tune to do that.

Come On In My Kitchen is one of my favorite slides. This was followed by Terraplane Blues and Blues 32-20. Then came one of the most famous song Robert Johnson: Crossroad Blues. It must suffice to say that the movie based on Robert Johnson called the Crossroads of life, and that the two box sets of both Eric Clapton music called Crossroads.Hal was followed by another classic, ‘Blues Walkin, based on my Black Mama Son House.

Preachin ‘Blues is a standard blues song to play slide. If you can play this song well, then you really slide player. In the book, followed by If I Is Ownership During the Day of Resurrection, who is the Robert Johnson version of the Roll and Tumble tema.Kemudian come I’m Rollin ‘Man Steady, another tune shuffle in A.

Hell Hound On My Trail is another song that has contributed to the myth of Robert Johnson. Dave Rubin has written a song in Em-tuning Open, and he heard a clear inspiration from Skip James in the song. In other transcriptions I have seen, the song was written in Open D or E Open Again. Dave Rubin argued the case well, and the song that works very well in the Open Em-tuning. I can not say who is right, and I do not feel to be interesting to argue if Robert Johnson really used this or any other barrel. Your ambition to learn to play Robert Johnson must be a better you, not to be a copy of Robert Johnson. Experiment with the barrel, and choose the one you want better.

The book concludes with two songs Breakin ‘Down Blues Stop and Love in vain.

This book seems very well researched. I do not know how anyone could say that a song is played with guitars tuned half step down with the capo at fret 2, except if written in the recording log.Tapi you get this type of information in the book ini.Setiap important aspect of the music and play are discussed. This is a must for anyone who wants to learn blues guitar.