Chords for Reverend Gary Davis - Hesitation Blues Guitar lesson

_ [Em] _ [E] _ [Em] _ [E] _ _ [A] _ [E] _
[Em] _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
[C] _ _ [C] _ _ [C] _ [Fm] _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ [G] _ [C] _ [F] _ [Em] _ _ [G] _
_ _ [E] _ Reverend Gary Davis was [Gm] a phenomenal guitar player, wrote a lot of great tunes, and luckily
in the early [A] 70s, Jorma Kaukinen [Gb] and Hot Tuna started playing [G] a lot of them.
Actually, he started playing a little earlier than that.
But they started putting out albums in 1969 or 70, and [Bbm] it was, for me as a teenager, this
just [Ab] turned my life around, my guitar playing life around.
And when I heard Hesitation Blues on the first [F] Hot Tuna album, [G] it was like a lightning bolt.
Like, oh my God, I've got to figure out how to do that and listen [E] and get more of it.
So this song, very near and dear to my [Ab] heart, I haven't done a complete lesson on it yet
at Totally Guitars.
I'm thinking about it.
But let me just give you a few things, a few pieces of info on it, because it really is
just a 12-bar blues tune with this very [G] neat little twist on the whole thing that in the
beginning, rather than [N] have four measures of chord I, it's in the key of C, [Am] and it uses
[Em] A minor and E back and forth [Dm] for a half a measure each.
[Am] So one, [E] two, three, [Am] four.
One, [E] two, three, [Am] four.
[E] One, two, three, four.
[Am] Now in the fourth [G] measure, it goes from [C] A minor to C7.
That [Em] is, again, just the variation on our 12 [N]-bar blues format, which I explain a lot
more over at Totally Guitars.
There's all kinds of theory lessons and stuff about blues and fingerpicking and all the
techniques you need.
But I just want to talk a little bit about the structure of Hesitation Blues, [G] because
once you get to that C7, we're now in what I would consider the second line of the 12-bar
blues, and we have to get [Ab] the chord IV.
So we go to F for four beats for one [F] measure.
One, two, three, four.
And I'm [N] playing this F without my little finger, with a fingering I like to use for F chords,
which is full bar, second finger on the third string at the second fret, and third finger
on the fourth string.
Not [G] playing anything on the fifth string, [Fm] because we're going to be alternating bass
notes back and forth on the sixth and fourth [Bb] strings.
You don't [Gm] need to waste a finger on the fifth string.
[F] So that's how we play the F.
The second measure goes to [Fm] F minor, with a little bit of [Db] bluesy
variations, adding on the D with your little finger.
And then, this very typical [C] of Gary Davis, slide of a C7 chord, working it back and forth
a half step down [B] and up.
[C] _ _ _
[C] Let me try that again.
[B] _ [C] _ [B] _ [C] _ [N] There you go.
That was a little closer.
Because you're really just working your way back and forth from [C] C7 to B7.
_ [C] _ _
[C] [Eb] Lot of different ways of [Db] playing it with your right hand, and if enough people come over
to Totally Guitars and put [N] Hesitation Blues in the recommend a lesson section, I will
get to the rest of this, because I would love to do a lesson on all of this kind of fancy
finger picking stuff, because this is what I've really been doing for the last, [E] well,
for my whole guitar playing career, since I heard Gary Davis and [G] Hot Tuna [N] back in the early 70s.
So Hesitation Blues, high on my list of things to do, if enough people vote on it.
So there's a recommend a lesson button over there on the home page, actually on every
page, and if you'd like to see a lesson on Hesitation Blues, [Ab] come check us out at TotallyGuitars.com.
[N] _