Chords for death letter blues

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ That's the main riff and opening lick [N] for Death Letter Blues done by Son House.
It's also very similar to the riff of Walking Blues done by Robert Johnson.
So what I'm going to talk about today is playing the Death Letter Blues riff and just by virtue
of being almost agape the same, the Walking Blues riff too.
Let me play this whole thing.
12 bar blues.
1, 2, [D] 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, [Gm] 4. _ _ _ _
1, _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
2, 3, 4.
1, 2, [Gm] 3, 4.
1, _ [D] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ [G] 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2, 3, 4.
[F] _
OK.
What this is for the most part is a dead thumb or monotonic bass [G] pattern.
_ _ _ [D] _ _
[Bb] With a few different slide notes thrown in.
Actually just a couple different slide notes thrown in.
[D] So I'm in G tuning.
_ _ [G] _
_ _ [A] And low to high my guitar is tuned down to 16th string is tuned [D] to D.
_ _ This string is tuned to [G] G.
_ _ [D] The 4th string, which is normally a D, stays a D.
_ [G] _ 3rd, normally a G, stays a G.
_ _ [Abm] 2nd string, normally a B, stays a B.
And then 1st string is a [D] D.
_ [G] So open G tuning.
I've got 3 D [D] notes.
6, 4, and 1.
_ _ [G] 5th string and 3rd string are both turned to G.
And that's my root note in open G. _
And then I've [B] got the B string.
[G] So that is a G major triad.
G, B, and D.
_ Often times when you're playing in G tuning and you're keeping a bass [C] pattern,
you'll be there [D] on the 5th string. _ _
_ _ I've [Eb] been told that Keith Richards actually only plays 5 strings
and takes the 6th string off because he doesn't want to mess with
that 6th string not being a root [D] note.
_ _ [A]
OK, so, and as I'm playing this bass pattern,
[D] _ _
you [Gb] know if I'm kind of choking off the sound,
I'll hit the [E] note and immediately bring my palm down to [D] kill the note.
_ _ _ [Bb] _
_ [B] _ OK, so that's my basic feel.
Kind of a choked [D] off, _ thumping, percussive sound.
_ _ In between that, I'll throw in
[Bb] _
_ [D] which is just sliding on the 4th and 3rd string. _
Plucking those with these two fingers.
[F] _ And I take my slide and I'll [G] slide from the 2nd to the 3rd fret. _ _ _
I can play my bass note and then one more [Gm] slide
_ from the 3rd to the 5th fret. _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ OK, play a bass note there on the [Gm] 6th string.
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [F] _ [G] OK, that [C] _
last note,
[B] you're sliding into a G note.
_ [Gm] And you can put as much vibrato in there as you want
because it kind of lasts there for a while.
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ My suggestion is not to go crazy with the vibrato
and if you do vibrato,
_ _ _ _ remember, you want the tarpet to be
You want to target the note which is right over the fret
as opposed to in between the frets.
Normally, _ fret a note with our fingers, we're in between the frets.
But with the slide, you want to be right over the fret. _ _ _ _ _
_ So, you want to target
_ right on the fret.
And when I vibrato, I'm pulling the slide back
[E] _ _ _
[Eb] away from the note.
I don't go past the note.
That _ sounds like a wobbly rubber band kind of sound.
It sort of muddies up the note a little bit.
_ _ So, you really want to just go up as far as the fret
back from it and back to it again
without going past the fret.
_ _ _ You can do it slowly, do _ it fast,
_ _ _ [G]
somewhere in between,
a little slow, a little fast. _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ For the 4 and 5 chords,
Son House actually would not even use the slide.
He would [C] just bar the strings
at the 5th fret for the C chord
_ and up at the [D]
7th fret for the D chord.
_ _ [Eb] And then he'd play this one little note
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [D] and then D _ _
coming up
3 frets away from the 7th fret
up to the 10th fret.
_ _ _ [Cm] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] _ _ That's it. _
Occasionally, Son House would do this little break thing
where he would [G] walk down the 6th string
on the [F] 5th fret, [E] 3rd fret, 2nd fret.
[G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
You can also double that up
since these are 6th string and the 4th string
are both D notes, you could play both of [D] those.
_ _ [G] _
_ [D] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [G] _ And then you'd go up
And what I'm doing there
I use a thumb pick _ _ _
_ and I get underneath the string
you don't need a pick to do this, you just use your thumb
and I _ pop the string up. _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _
[D] _ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ That's it.