Chords for Lonnie Johnson Chord and Intro Lesson by Tommy Harkenrider

Hey everybody, my buddy Peter just posted a birthday wish for one of my favorite guitar
players Lonnie Johnson.
And it dawned on me that other than the one Lonnie Johnson instructional that I did years
ago I haven't followed up with any other ones.
So I thought today would be a good opportunity to do another lesson.
So if we take a look at some of the ideas that Lonnie Johnson used in his later career,
which is actually some of my favorite playing that he does.
It's not quite as _ athletic as his earlier stuff, but I find it to be slightly more emotive.
And he uses these chord voicings that you can see in the live videos of him.
_ On the recordings you can also hear the clarity so you can kind of pick out the voicings.
But there's a chronological record, I think it's from 49 to 52 where Lonnie Johnson is
trying to do more R&B orientated material.
Which is ironic, right?
Because guys like B.B. King were looking to Lonnie Johnson for ideas.
_ _ And towards the end of Lonnie's career he was [Gb] playing more R&B ideas.
So he was trying to mimic more stuff that B.B. King was trying to do, if that makes sense.
So a lot of songs have this intro, a 1-6-2-5 intro.
And he does play a lot of the key of E flat.
I'm not quite sure if [B] he detuned his guitar or not.
[Eb] But if we have a 1-6-2-5, [Cm] traditionally we'd have 1 and [C] 6, _ _ [Eb] then a 2 and a [Bb] 5. _
[G] And that sounds fine and well and it'll work.
And then you can carry it into your 12 bar blues form.
But Lonnie had this way of voicing on the bottom strings.
So his [Ab] E flat would be something like this.
So [Cm] if this is an E flat major 6, _ it would form it [Eb] like that.
And then put the index on the second string.
So you have the root on the top as well. _ _ _ _ _
_ Now to get the 6, you just play a single note.
So we go.
_ [C] _ _ _ _ [E] And the 2 would be right underneath it.
[F] _ _ _ [A] _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ And there's a lot [G] of variance in how he gets back [Eb] on the 1 using the C shape and the A shape.
So we have this. _ _ _
_ [Cm] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [Bb] And then you hit to the [Cm] 5. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
And that would just be a [Ab] 5 chord right there.
Now when he plays his blues, he's using those chords as well.
[Abm] So he plays 1 with these 3.
[Eb] I don't think he'd get the root in the [G] top only because the G string [Ab] hasn't opened.
You have to mute it.
But more so it would just be this.
So it looks like you're playing an [Eb] E major.
_ And I'd probably form it like this, but I just don't get to that.
_ _ _ _ [Ab] And my 7th chord for the 4 would be down here.
Where I play the root, 3, and the 7.
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ And you can swap between the 1 and the 5 very quickly here.
So we have 1, [D] 5, [Eb]
1, _ _ [E] _ [Ab] 4, _ 4 [Abm] minor, _ _ _ [Eb] back to the 1. _
_ [E] _ [Eb] _ _ It has that syncopation to it.
[Bb] 5.
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _ [Eb] _
_ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [Bb] _
And those would be some pretty nice _ _ Lonnie Johnson chords to use.
So again, I [Eb] have this would be my E flat.
If I play this, this would be the 5, 7.
And it's very common that you voice the 5 over the 1 to kind of create some motion.
You have 4 bars of the 1, so you can always impose the 5 briefly.
Just to create a little bit of change.
[Ab] Because it gets kind of boring if you have to sit there on that 1 [Eb] chord just going_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ [Ab] _ _ Now a good transition from the 4 to the 1 is using either a minor or a diminished.
And I kind of find that during this period of playing that the minor tends to [Em] _
run pretty dominant.
And so [Ab] if I have_
_ If I'm playing this as my [G] 4 chord, where I have the 3rd right there.
_ I can be able to get by _ flatting the 3rd right there.
So I have root, 3, 7.
[Abm] _ That would be a minor.
_ And then [Eb] back to the 1.
_ _ _ _ [Bb] 5.
[E] _ [B] _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [G] And it works well for Lonnie Johnson songs.
Now his soloing all takes [Ab] place in this area too.
[Eb] Where we have the C structure, the E flat and the A structure. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Lots of ideas and you can see how they work well with the chords.
So you know if you're playing_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ So anyway, I'll probably do another lesson talking about the solo ideas.
But at least for now you have some chordal ideas you can use that were probably utilized in his later career.
And [Ab] let me just recap that intro one more time.
And that's another thing.
If you pick up that record 49 of 52, the chronological Lonnie Johnson.
Maybe 80% of it sounds like it's [Gm] a broken record.
Because you'll [Eb] hear_
[Cm] _
_ [Fm] _ _ [C] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
[Bb] _ You'll hear that over and over and over and over again.
And there's lots of variance on it.
So pick that up.
And thanks for posting about Lonnie Johnson's birthday.