Chords for Blues Guitar Lesson - How to Play Big Bill Broonzy Blues Guitar

_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ I'm troubling [Abm] _ _ my_
_ _dead
I'm [G] blue.
[Ab] _ _ _ Yes, [E] _ _
but I [Dbm] _ won't_
_ _won't
be blue always.
_ _ You know [Eb] the sun_
_sun
gonna shine_
_ _ _ _in
my bright old sunboom.
_ _ Hi and welcome.
My name is Woody Mann.
And you just saw a clip from
the 50's of great Big Bill Brunzi
when he was touring Europe.
And this is the video of his music
and we're going to get into some of his later styles
and some of his earlier styles
and I'm going to try to illustrate some of his great picking for you.
The first tune I want to do
is a tune called Long Tall Mama
from his early years, [F] 1930.
[B] And let's begin with Long Tall Mama.
_ _ [C] _ _ [Abm] _ [C] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ [F] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [D] _ [A] _ _
[D] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [C] _ _ [E] _ _ [F] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [C] _ _ [Ebm] _ [C] _ _ _
[Gb] He recorded it in 1930
and he also recorded it
later on in his career in the 50's
as a tune called House Rant Stomp.
Both rags and sea.
And I wanted to focus on this one to begin with
because it really illustrates
a lot of his basic picking
and the bounce and the feel of his playing.
And Brunzi was one of those artists that
played blues, rags, spirituals,
hokum tunes, good time tunes
and he had one of the few blues artists
who had a long career from
like I said the late 20's to the early 60's.
And _ Long Tall Mama
like I said
gets into a lot of his_
illustrates a lot of the basic sounds in his playing.
And what I mean by that is
[C] in terms of finger picking in the right hand
instead of kind of a normal
alternating bass that you hear
in a lot of folk picks
or people like John Hurt, that kind of thing.
What it is, it's more of a bounce in his playing.
_ [G] _
[C] _ [G] Where he's taking the [C] thumb
and he's [G] dragging from string to string.
So instead of a [C] typical
bass being this kind of idea, it might [G] be_
_ _ _ _ [C] _ [G] [Ab] So even though the chords are simple,
his [C] playing has this real drive to it.
And this is evident in like I said his ragtime playing
or his blues playing and all over.
So I think once you get the feel of that
then the music in this video
should be a lot easier.
And I think you'll see that same theme
throughout, the picking theme throughout all the tunes.
So why don't we get into Long Tall Mama
and I'll explain the
first verse and some of the variations. _ _
And it's in the key of C.
And the chords are basic
just [F] C, F [G] and G chords.
_ [C] _ And one thing that gives the song its bounce
[E] is this business with the thumb on the downbeat.
And it's a little bit like
And so for instance, even if
Brunzi is hitting a single string
instead of hitting it with just the fingers
you might hit it with
alternate the thumb and fingers to give it that kind of
basic pulse that you have
with the thumb on the [C] downstroke.
So in the first verse
we play it through slow and you get an idea
of what's happening in the left hand.
But at this point more importantly the right hand
to get that thumb.
Because the notes are one thing
but I think it's more important to play
the notes with the right
thumb and gives it that
sound.
So here we go.
[B] Here's C.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [Eb] _ [E] _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [Bm] _ [G] _ _
_ [A] _ [Am] _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Ebm] _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _