This week we look at the classic blues standard ‘Sweet Home Chicago’. You will need a harmonica in the key of A and we are playing in 2nd position (key of E).
It is all about the inflections
The phrases are relatively simple but they sound very emotive and that is because there are quite a lot of inflections. This is also known as scooping. Basically, you are playing a very small bend and quickly releasing it. You can do this by saying “kwi-kwi”.
Enunciate
You will see that we have some doubled up notes (2 or more repeated notes). To make these sound good you should use your tongue to enunciate them by saying “ta-ta”.
Shuffle rhythm
If you are having trouble remembering what a shuffle rhythm is just try saying “Humpty Dumpty”. That is what a shuffle rhythm sounds like.
Thank you
Thank you so much for watching this lesson. I hope it was useful and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Great one Tomlin
Tomlin:
A quick question about articulation in this song. Do you tongue only the first note of the opening triplet? Do you tongue both of the eighth notes in each pair or only the second eighth note?
Warm Regards,
Larry
Hi Larry, I articulate the last note in the eighth not pair. Hope that makes sense?
Best wishes,
Tomlin
Hi,
Great lessons, thank you!
I get an error when trying to download the tab for Sweet Home Chicago via the link in the automated email.
Is there another method I can use to download it?
Lawrence
Hi Lawrence, I’m sorry to hear that. Here is the direct download link – https://www.dropbox.com/s/mompv1x9kstkc7g/Sweet%20Home%20Chicago.pdf?dl=0
Tomlin:
Great lesson on a song that I’ve been anxious to learn. Thanks.
A suggestion for a follow up to this lesson is to give us a simple and a more advanced rhythm to fill in the rests on the one chord measures for when we want to play without a backing track. I must confess part of my desire for this is to figure out a rhythm line so I can play along with Buddy Guy’s versions of this song on Youtube.
Thanks again.
That’s a great suggestion Bob – I’ve been planning a course around this topic which I will be doing next year 🙂
Hi Tomlin
Nice lesson, nice effects, But the link to the backing track doesn’t seem to be working!
Hi Richard, I’m sorry to hear that. I’ll send it through to you by email later today. Cheers, Tomlin