On Practicing Guitar

The First Five Songs I Jammed On

I was fourteen going on fifteen, and my friends Mike Jett on drums and John Przedpelski on bass and I played in a tiny attic room on the third floor of Mike’s house in Forest Hills, where we all grew up. Mike somehow crammed his brand new, six piece Ludwig black pearl drum set in there and John had a Gibson EB-3 bass and a Baldwin bass amp. I played a ’76 Hard-tail Strat through a Silver Face Twin. I also had an electro-harmonix Big Muff. It was very loud! We did everything instrumentally – no mics, no singing, and no ear plugs. Michael’s brother Robert told me later, “Don’t practice all the time with a fuzz box or you’ll get sloppy.” I took his advice to heart.

 

Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo – Rick Derringer

This song makes for a great workout. We must have dragged it terribly, because the pace of the original is very up. What a production! Interestingly, this and another of my formative songs, The Thrill Is Gone, were both produced by Bill Szymczyk. He actually doesn’t take credit for this one, but is listed on Derringer’s album. With Rick Derringer and Edgar Winter in the studio, who needs a producer? In addition to hearing it and seeing the album cover at another kid’s house, I saw local cover band Threads of Iron playing it at a church dance (St. Luke’s). Although Johnny Winter recorded the song first, I think of it as Rick’s song. He wrote it and recorded the hit version.

 

Jumpin’ Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones/Johnny Winter

I love the Rolling Stones’ original version of this song, especially the way Mick Jagger says, “Watch It!” at the beginning. I would imagine he was half passed out in the gutter and someone was going to swipe his wallet when he gave this warning. But I was turned onto the song more by Johnny Winter, who was very popular in NYC at the time. This was before anyone thought about using the open G tuning ala Keith. There are three main, chunky parts, perfect for fledgling garage (or attic) rockers. I also love the original video for the song, which includes Brian Jones. He apparently hung on long enough to show Mick and Keith how to do it one more time.

 

Foxey Lady – Jimi Hendrix

My guitar teacher at Crest Music Center, Terry, showed me the riff. I took lessons from him for three years. He turned me onto Mississippi John Hurt and lots of other stuff. He even tried to turn me onto the Jam, but I couldn’t get my head around their haircuts. He showed me how to play blues scales all over the neck and in different keys, such as F# ala Foxey Lady, and how to use modes from major and minor to dorian, mixolydian and the rest. I still play this song and it’s always exciting and a challenge. Thanks, Terry!

 

Hey Joe – Jimi Hendrix

This is a song that everybody learns and loves. I once heard some kids playing it in a garage as I was walking over to my friend’s house. They played it clean, like The Leaves, who had the first hit version. We played it a lot louder and more aggressively. I used my Big Muff fuzz pedal, although there is none on the original. I still like to take aspects of Hendrix and mix and match them, ie a fuzz pedal on Hey Joe, or octaves anywhere. My first blog post discussed the solo, and I would eventually write my master’s thesis on Hendrix.

 

Sunshine of Your Love – Cream

This one would have to be included as the first time I ever jammed on a song, because I played it with John and our sadly departed friend Arty McKean (1962-2013) in John’s basement one night. We played this one song the whole night. I had a copy of The History of Eric Clapton, a landmark collection that you never see or hear about anymore. I remember John once saying about the solo, “The thing that’s so cool about it is that it sounds like shit!” He was too young to understand the “Woman Tone” at the time, I guess. At another church dance (Lady Queen of Mercy) I saw the eventual lead guitarist of Threads of Iron renamed Highway, Rob Perucci, playing it left-handed on a Black Les Paul Custom, upside down and backwards. To this day, I hate to see anyone playing upside down and backwards, I don’t know why. Maybe because Perucci nailed every single note of the solo. Some things never change! -Chris Botta

Earl Hooker - Will My Man Be Home Tonight - Solo Tab and Video

 

The jury may have finished with Jimmy Page for the moment, but the Zepmeister must certainly enjoy a chuckle from time to time knowing that one of his greatest sources may never be revealed: Earl Hooker. That’s right – the music for the track “You Need Love,” by Muddy Waters was not actually written by Willie Dixon, but was written and performed by Earl Hooker. So, Earl Hooker turns out to be one of the main architects of “Whole Lotta Love.”

I had long heard about Hooker’s slide guitar prowess and his deep bag of tricks. I found an interesting collection at the library, the Chief/Ace Story that includes some EH tracks. The tune that really caught my attention was the weeper (literally) by Lillian Offitt, “Will My Man Be Home Tonight.” It was recorded in 1959 when Hooker was thirty years old. I decided to learn the slide part which is greasy, difficult and sly as the devil, comprising fills throughout, a big twelve bar solo and even a wickedly weeping descending lick over the ending.

 

I admit however that I am not literally copying Earl’s style. Hooker mixed straight (fingered) guitar licks into his slide excursions and this piece is no exception. He also played in standard tuning. This song is in the key of D, one of my favorite open tunings, so I decided to just play it that way (D - A - D - F# - A - D), fully with the slide. I hope to incorporate some of the ideas into my own open D slide work. It's probable that Hooker placed the slide on his pinky, but I can't confirm that.

There are some interesting aspects of this tune beyond the solo. The interplay between the piano and guitar is almost telepathic, and Hooker’s use of dynamics is highly sophisticated. Then there’s the sound of Lillian Offitt crying throughout the solo. At first I thought, “Is she laughing?” Obviously not but there’s a sense of irony to the playing that takes this blues to another level. The guitar and piano are so slick and the rhythm section perfectly restrained. Makes you wonder a little bit, “Whose side are they on?”

Check out the tab and video. The hardest part of the solo is the extended single note run that goes from the second half of measure four to measure five. I figure that Hooker played all but the last note with his fingers, and I’ve tried it, but it doesn’t make it that much easier, especially in terms of duplicating the sound. I had to play this run a million times and many of the licks in the solo had to be broken down and practiced as three or four note fragments. Another point of interest is that Earl stays in a pretty minor mode. He never quite reaches up to a full major third. Perhaps that’s another layer of emotional commentary. In terms of right hand technique, I find I prefer the sound of my index finger and I use it for a lot of the notes.

For the video, I used my ’76 hardtail Strat through an MXR Dyna-Comp and a Fender Pro Junior. A little noisy, but I feel that I got some of Earl’s smooth, glassy sound along with an element of attack that was missing from my attempts with a Marshall. I used a Dunlop #218 glass slide.

Earl Hooker’s achievements tend to fall somewhat below the radar of all but die hard blues fans and musicians. But an invaluable source did come into my possession during the time that I was researching this article and digging Earl in general. It’s a book by Sebastian Danchin, a noted blues and jazz scholar, writer and radio programmer, entitled, Earl Hooker: Blues Master (1998). It’s a detailed, well-researched and spirited work that will help anyone who is interested in finding out more about Earl Hooker and the 1950s and ‘60s blues scene in general. -Chris Botta