[00:00] [Music]
[00:11] do
[00:17] hey guys what's up welcome back this is
[00:19] the song going down south this is
[00:22] another hill country style blues and
[00:24] remember guys the difference between the
[00:25] hill country blues and maybe delta blues
[00:28] or other styles of blues is that with
[00:30] the hill country blues it's really more
[00:32] riff-based or groove based often they
[00:35] won't change the cords as much and
[00:37] things like that so it's really great
[00:38] for kind of working your hands out
[00:40] working your right hand working your
[00:41] left hand and getting a good short
[00:43] groove to play over and over and over
[00:46] again i'm going to teach you how to play
[00:47] this riff today but i'm going to teach
[00:49] you in two different ways with two
[00:51] different right hand approaches
[00:53] [Music]
[00:57] so it's important for you to kind of see
[00:59] both of these different types of
[01:00] approaches and then try to pick the one
[01:02] that you think sounds the most
[01:04] appropriate for you okay so let's jump
[01:06] right in and learn that riff and then
[01:08] we'll talk about the right hand
[01:09] technique all right cool so
[01:11] basically this riff is kind of made up
[01:13] of two parts the main bit of the song is
[01:16] just these eight bars that repeat over
[01:19] and over and over again but let's go
[01:20] through the riff in two parts so we've
[01:22] got the first four bars which we're
[01:24] going to talk about now and that sounds
[01:25] like this
[01:26] [Music]
[01:34] okay that's the first four bars now if
[01:37] you've noticed
[01:38] the last bar there is actually and we've
[01:41] added two beats so we're counting to
[01:43] four for the first three bars and then
[01:45] the fourth bar we're counting to six
[01:48] okay now essentially it's just playing
[01:50] this part
[01:51] [Music]
[01:52] okay but in the fourth measure we're
[01:54] playing it twice in a row
[01:59] like that so we're playing this fifth
[02:00] fret twice in a row let's slow down the
[02:01] riff and show you all the parts to it
[02:04] so
[02:04] we start with this
[02:07] fifth fret here on the d string okay
[02:09] along with the open e string we're going
[02:11] to pluck both those together for beat
[02:13] one one
[02:14] okay notice also we're giving it a
[02:17] little tiny quarter step bend okay
[02:19] remember we're not bending it really far
[02:21] we're just bending it kind of
[02:23] a little tiny bit just to give it that
[02:24] blues bend okay and that first
[02:27] riff all the only note that's really
[02:29] changing is this fret
[02:31] goes to the second fret so we have the
[02:32] fifth fret the second fret the fifth
[02:35] fret the second fret okay and then the
[02:37] third and then the fourth measure it
[02:38] plays the fifth fret twice one two three
[02:41] four five six like that okay
[02:44] let's add the other parts to it now too
[02:47] so now we have we're pinching thumb
[02:49] okay index finger on the low e and the d
[02:52] string
[02:53] okay
[02:54] then we're gonna pop these two top
[02:56] strings so the high e and the high b
[02:59] string in between the riffs so it's one
[03:02] two and three
[03:04] four and one
[03:06] two and three
[03:08] four and i'll keep repeating that
[03:15] okay
[03:16] now notice the thumb is going one
[03:18] two and three
[03:20] four and one two and three
[03:24] four again the whole riff one one more
[03:25] time slowly the first three bars
[03:27] one
[03:29] two and three
[03:31] four and one
[03:33] two and three
[03:35] four and one
[03:38] two and three
[03:40] four okay now the fourth bar remember
[03:42] we're gonna play the fifth fret twice in
[03:43] a row so it goes one two and three
[03:47] four and five six and
[03:51] okay that's that first four bars so that
[03:53] kind of is a cool groove they play that
[03:55] for about half of the song you know they
[03:57] alternate between that first riff and
[03:59] then the second riff that we're going to
[04:00] go over right now
[04:02] and that's basically the whole song
[04:03] that's one of the cool parts about this
[04:05] hill country style blues is that
[04:08] you know the riffs are kind of short
[04:10] they take a little bit of work to get to
[04:11] but once you can do them basically you
[04:14] know the whole song okay so that's what
[04:17] that first technique now notice we're
[04:18] just plucking with all the fingers there
[04:20] it sounds like this one
[04:22] two and three
[04:24] four okay a couple of the dynamics
[04:26] markings i want to talk about is making
[04:29] the pops short
[04:36] okay notice what i'm doing there with my
[04:37] left hand
[04:39] is right after i play it
[04:41] i'm kind of using my left hand to stop
[04:43] those notes
[04:46] okay like that now if you don't do that
[04:48] at first that's okay it'll sound like
[04:49] this
[04:52] okay
[04:54] it doesn't have the same pop to it okay
[04:56] but that's still okay to way to practice
[04:58] at first just to try to get the right
[05:00] hand motions eventually after that
[05:03] try to just
[05:05] play it real short like that
[05:07] okay and stopping remember with the left
[05:09] hand here
[05:10] okay
[05:12] let's go through the second half of the
[05:13] riff and then next and then after that
[05:15] we'll talk about the alternate right
[05:16] hand approach okay here's the second
[05:18] riff it sounds like this
[05:28] okay now essentially we're only really
[05:29] playing that three times in a row and
[05:31] then we go back to the
[05:34] first riff okay
[05:36] during the solos though you typically
[05:38] play that riff that
[05:40] um that riff that sounds like this
[05:44] okay over and over again while the other
[05:46] players will take turns soloing so check
[05:48] it out
[05:49] what we have here it's
[05:51] these pops are in the same spot beads
[05:54] two and four okay so we go one e and two
[05:58] and three
[05:59] four
[06:00] one e and two and three
[06:03] four
[06:04] one e and two and three
[06:06] four
[06:07] one e and two and three
[06:10] four okay
[06:12] i'll try to slow that down a little bit
[06:13] more so we have hammering on first uh
[06:15] finger on the second fret of the a
[06:17] string
[06:19] okay and that's that triplet we'll count
[06:20] that
[06:21] and that's that triplet we're counting
[06:22] it as one e and two and three
[06:25] four
[06:27] one e and pop and three
[06:30] pop
[06:31] one e and pop
[06:35] [Music]
[06:46] so this is a really fun riff to play
[06:47] once you kind of get it okay so that's
[06:49] the timing of it and that's how you do
[06:50] it so the right hand technique here is
[06:52] we're just really
[06:53] popping the strings normally just with
[06:56] two fingers
[06:57] if you can't use two fingers or you
[06:58] don't like using two fingers
[07:00] alternatively you can just try to pop
[07:02] with one finger like that
[07:08] okay like that that's a little bit
[07:10] harder of a motion to do but if you
[07:12] can't use these other fingers then
[07:14] that's really your only option for this
[07:16] first approach with our right hand
[07:19] okay so that riff basically you play
[07:21] that riff three times in a row
[07:23] and then the fourth time you go back to
[07:27] our opening riff okay and then you go
[07:29] back to the opening riff and you're
[07:31] going to cycle through these parts
[07:33] throughout the
[07:34] length of the song
[07:36] all right so at the beginning we talked
[07:38] about how there was a different right
[07:39] hand approach now i think that this
[07:41] right hand approach
[07:42] in a lot of ways is actually a little
[07:44] bit easier in the long run
[07:47] it'll also be easier to learn other
[07:48] songs that are similar to this in the
[07:50] long run but in the short run if you're
[07:53] learning this technique for the first
[07:54] time today
[07:56] it's going to feel pretty awkward it's a
[07:58] really kind of a
[08:00] specialty technique that doesn't come up
[08:02] very much but once you get the technique
[08:04] it has so many benefits that carry over
[08:06] to a bunch of different genres not just
[08:08] like not just this one song so if you
[08:11] like this kind of style of music or
[08:14] other styles of music that use this
[08:16] technique i mean this is a great
[08:17] starting spot for it okay and here
[08:19] essentially what the technique is this
[08:24] [Music]
[08:31] i don't know if you can see
[08:34] i don't know if you can see what i was
[08:35] doing there but basically instead of
[08:37] popping the strings like this
[08:40] the top two strings
[08:42] i'm popping them
[08:44] with a backhand strum okay what that
[08:46] allows you to do is simultaneously also
[08:48] hit kind of a
[08:50] percussion hit on the low string so i'm
[08:52] doing this motion here it's a rotation
[08:54] motion so i'm rotating my hands like
[08:57] this
[08:58] simultaneously hitting my thumb on the
[09:00] sixth string making this little click
[09:02] sound
[09:03] along with
[09:05] okay the backhand
[09:06] strum on the top two strings so the riff
[09:11] with that technique sounds like this
[09:12] [Music]
[09:21] it sounds like that right it's a it's
[09:22] very similar it's almost exactly the
[09:24] same here's with the other technique
[09:25] [Music]
[09:31] that with the other technique it sounds
[09:33] really cool but then once you add this
[09:34] new technique in there it kind of feels
[09:36] like something's missing or something's
[09:38] left out
[09:40] [Music]
[09:48] okay you get the idea right so
[09:51] just by kind of adding this backhand
[09:53] strum
[09:54] with this it kind of gives it a little
[09:56] bit more rhythm a little bit more groove
[09:58] which is a really kind of big concept
[10:00] for hill country style blues where it's
[10:02] really groove based it's not just wrist
[10:04] based okay so let's do that technique
[10:06] over the first half riff so that sounds
[10:08] like this
[10:14] okay it's a little bit more simple to go
[10:16] through the motion because there's not a
[10:17] hammer on or anything like that so let's
[10:20] look at that motion a little bit closer
[10:22] plucking together
[10:23] then we slap okay
[10:25] [Music]
[10:27] okay same idea once we
[10:32] do the slap and hit the top strings you
[10:34] want to stop it with your left hand and
[10:36] now the whole riff with the backhand
[10:37] strum sound like this
[10:40] [Music]
[10:55] okay
[10:56] so it's a little bit different right um
[11:00] [Music]
[11:05] that's without this is with
[11:06] [Music]
[11:12] okay i think it just has a little bit
[11:14] more of a groove to it so this is a
[11:16] really fun one to play guys so what i'd
[11:18] recommend to do is just kind of learn it
[11:20] through the tab maybe try it the first
[11:21] way first um it's kind of tricky it's
[11:24] it's not super easy with that right hand
[11:26] but once you get the riff you know it
[11:28] just repeats over and over again okay
[11:30] once you can kind of get the riff
[11:31] memorized then see if you can try it
[11:33] with the
[11:37] the backhand
[11:38] [Music]
[11:43] okay and then see if you can kind of
[11:45] combine both parts together okay so what
[11:47] we're going to do now is i'm just going
[11:48] to do a really slow play through of all
[11:50] eight bars of this with a metronome so
[11:53] that you guys can try to play along
[11:56] one
[11:57] two
[11:58] three
[11:59] four
[12:02] [Music]
[12:12] so
[12:19] [Music]
[12:35] okay so that's all eight bars with the
[12:38] uh standard style let's try it this time
[12:41] with the backhand style
[12:43] one
[12:44] two
[12:45] three
[12:46] four
[12:48] [Music]
[13:22] all right
[13:24] all right great so those are the two
[13:26] versions now one last thing i want to
[13:28] say on the
[13:30] on the backhand strum one
[13:32] don't put too much effort on the slap
[13:35] part okay the most important part is
[13:37] just getting
[13:38] the notes in right with the backhand
[13:40] that gives it also just a kind of
[13:42] percussive type groove by itself
[13:44] notice that sounds different than
[13:46] okay it has a different tone to it when
[13:49] you stroke with the backs of your
[13:50] fingers okay
[13:52] so if you can't do the click and the
[13:54] backhand strum at the same time
[13:56] like this
[14:00] then don't worry about it but this is a
[14:01] good exercise to do is just literally
[14:04] this rotational mechanic okay
[14:07] now i'm rotating i know that you think
[14:09] that i'm a lot of people think i'm doing
[14:11] this motion with my arm
[14:13] like i'm coming up off in the strings
[14:15] i'm not my wrist is basically staying
[14:18] put it's rotating it's like i'm doing a
[14:20] key motion okay like opening a key at a
[14:23] lock okay it's this motion
[14:26] not
[14:27] this
[14:28] okay so it's rotational
[14:30] [Music]
[14:30] [Applause]
[14:36] all right guys
[14:38] i hope that makes sense i hope you guys
[14:39] have fun learning this riff this is a
[14:41] really fun song and check out all the
[14:42] different versions of it rl burnside and
[14:45] the black keys version and a bunch of
[14:47] other people play this song as well so
[14:49] have fun learning it and i'll see you
[14:50] guys in the next one
[15:00] you