Chords for How to Play: Death Letter Blues - Son House Lesson

This will be an instructional video on how to play Son House's song Death Letter Blues.
And to play the song you'll have to [B] get your guitar tuned to Spanish tuning [C] in open G.
And if we tune our guitars together that will be a low D [D] _ _ _
and _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
a high D.
_ _ _ Death Letter Blues
starts with that opening riff that [N]
has come to be very _ famously associated to Son House.
And this begins with an [G] upstroke on the open strings and [E] then a [G] downstroke. _ _ _ _
[Ab] Then at the third fret of the bottom string there's a snap [F] bend like _ that.
And you want [F] to bend down _ _ [G] and then a downstroke. _
So all together so far that's_ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] Then using the middle two strings _
[Gm] there's _ _ [G] _ _ a [Fm] slide up to the third fret [D] _ _
[A] and then it's hit open.
[Bb] _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ [A] And of course because this is a sort of reggae style [D] you can hit the surrounding [B] strings.
_ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ When [D] put all together this is played as an upstroke and then a downstroke.
_ _ So then that's_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ At the fifth fret then on the top string _ that _ _ _ is the the finishing note and you'll want to
almost snap it with one of your fingers _ and add a lot of vibrato. _
_ _ _ _ _ [B] And to make sure that you don't
add a lot of [Gb] the B string into that sound [N] you can actually have your slide at a bit of a slant
at a bit of an angle _ so you can be sure that it's only hitting that top B string. _ _
[A] Rather than accidentally getting _ [N] that weird sort of double stop that you don't want to have.
[G] So then all together you've got_
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[E] _ _ When Sunhouse actually starts singing when the song picks up he plays a sort of
riff [F] that goes a bit like [G] this.
_ [Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] And how this actually [G] goes is he goes he hits the strings
with a downstroke _ [Bb] and then _ hits the third fret [C] of the G [Bb] string _ _
[F] while muting the top two strings with his middle finger.
[Bb] _
_ _ _ [N] And also muting the D string right below it with the flesh part of the middle finger right at the
tip.
_ _ So the result is that you've got that note with [C] three muted strings.
_ _ The D [Gm] string, B [Bb] string
and top string the [G] D string. _
So then that's open string then [Gm] immediately _ it's [G] _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ [G] hit open again. _
_ Snap string at the bottom. _
_ _ So again, [Gm] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ leading into the four of the song, Sunhouse plays a bar across
top four strings.
[G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Ab] And as you hit the first four chord [C] _ you'll [Fm] want to have that slide [G] up. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Abm] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ And [F] then Sunhouse picks up when the blues returns to the one to that same opening [G] riff.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Now [D] the blues has reached the five chord and Sunhouse plays the same bar that he used when
he hit the four. _
Barring the top four strings sliding up to the seventh fret this time.
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
[C] So again, let's slide up with the [Am] downstroke. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
And then he [N] slides up to the four chord at the fifth
fret.
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ One thing that you [C] can add into [N] the five or four chord when you're playing the turnaround
is you can make these chords into a sort of brief and quick dominant seven by adding in the pinky
three frets above on the top string.
So it'll go like this.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ So it's at the tenth fret when you're
playing the five chord.
And if you want to play the dominant seventh sound on the four chord
_ [C] _ _ _ [F] it'll be at the eighth fret. _ _ _ _ _ _
And [Ab] Sunhouse really only throws this in a couple times during
_ _ different choruses to kind of [G] make things a bit _ changed up.
So this is something that you can add
[D] when you play this song.
And to finish up the song he [Abm] returns to that same opening [G] riff. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [N] _