Topic: Kokomo Blues (Scrapper Blackwell) standard or dropped D?

[Blues Vintage]

According to the Woody Mann tab it's in standard. This lesson claims Blackwell played the song in Dropped D.

http://www.play-blues-guitar.eu/blues-guitar-lessons-preview-kokomo-blues.php

[Johnm]

Woody is right.  Scrapper played it in standard tuning, D position.
All best,
Johnm

[Blues Vintage]

Thanks John.

Scrapper Blackwell deserves a DVD or book that cover his songs.

[MTJ3]

There are no recorded examples of Scrapper playing in drop D tuning. That tuning would have impeded his style in D. Or put another way, he wouldn't have sounded like Scrapper in drop D. Among other things, his hybrid chord so prominent in his early playing (Ab/Dm), including
in Kokomo Blues, would have been unavailable in drop D.

[Blues Vintage]

There are no recorded examples of Scrapper playing in drop D tuning. That tuning would have impeded his style in D. Or put another way, he wouldn't have sounded like Scrapper in drop D. Among other things, his hybrid chord so prominent in his early playing (Ab/Dm), including
in Kokomo Blues, would have been unavailable in drop D.

Why does this guy come up with the fact it's in drop D then?

"I transcribed Kokomo into the key of E, but Scrapper plays it in dropped D, which is possibly a little easier to play"

[MTJ3]

Correction: it's actually a weirdly "neoligistic" Ab/dm7, although you could parse or describe it or Scrapper's usage of it in different ways.

In response: 1. Different people hear and interpret things differently. 2. Corollary to item 1, we all bring preconceptions or assumptions to our listening, and it can be difficult to "hear through" them to get to what was really happening. 3. Some of this stuff is hard to hear, even upon the closest listening, recording quality and record quality being what it was or is. There is predictably a lot of disagreement about a lot of transcriptions.

[Pan]

Correction: it's actually a weirdly "neoligistic" Ab/dm7, although you could parse or describe it or Scrapper's usage of it in different ways.

Hi MTJ. You got me curious about this chord you mention. Is the A flat a bass note, or are we superimposing two chords? How would you finger it? Can you point it out on this video?



Cheers

Pan

[Johnm]

Hi Pan,
If you move a D position on the first three strings up three frets, so that you're fretting 5-6-5 from third to first string, and then do a thumb wrap to get the Ab note at the fourth fret of the sixth string you'll have it.  I think this might more commonly be described as Dm7/Ab, with the chord above the slash and the bass note below the slash.  Scrapper raked the semitone between the sixth and fifth strings in the position, getting almost a "buzzing bees" sort of effect.
All best,
Johnm

[Pan]

Thanks for the clarification, John! And thanks for MTJ3 for bringing this up! You always learn something new here!

Cheers

Pan

[MTJ3]

Pan,  Scrapper starts the so-called hybrid chord in the first verse at about 12 seconds into the video that you posted.

Johnm, Correct/agreed as to slash chords.

Interestingly, in his "post-rediscovery" recordings, Scrapper favored a similar but slightly different approach in the first two bars of the verses of his songs in D.  If memory serves, in those recordings he used the so-called hybrid chord only once (about 4 1/2 minutes into "Shady Lane" on Mr. Scrapper's Blues); I don't remember whether he used the hybrid chord at all in his accompaniments on the My Heart Struck Sorrow album.  In fact, I will have to check all of those recordings again.

[Adrian_P]

Hi, I hesitate to resurrect this but been struggling with this song in D for some time then came across this:



Now makes far more sense. 1st position E. The 5th in the bass on the 1 7th is easy, the treble runs easier. V chord part not clear but also simpler I think.
Also why would he capo up to play D position in F?

Cheers

[Johnm]

Hi Adrian_P,
However much more sense it may have made for Scrapper to play "Kokomo Blues" in E position standard tuning, he did, in fact, play it in D position in standard tuning.  The reason he would capo to sound in F was because he wanted to sing it in F and play it out of D position.  Everything he plays lays out perfectly in D position and does not work in E position.  His two favorite playing positions in his early recording days were A position and D position, and he quite often used a capo, especially when backing Leroy Carr.  He played "Kokomo Blues" out of D position.
All best,
Johnm

[Lastfirstface]

So many of the videos on that youtube channel have been "pitch corrected" to keys that make less sense than the original. It's kind of irritating, really.

[Adrian_P]

Hi, yes JohnM I get the bit about the singing key. I'll keep listening and yes I can get close capoing up to F.  Main problem is I don't hear the high strings as mentioned in previous posts (Dm7/Ab) In F that would be the C on 1st string but perhaps he's not playing that string?
Anyway I'll keep trying both. I'm not really trying to copy him exactly but just get the main feel if you know what I mean.
Keep up the good work

Cheers

[Johnm]

Hi Adrian_P,
You're right that Scrapper doesn't voice the Dm7/Ab chord with the first string audible in the first several verses of "Kokomo Blues", but if you go around 1:34, the verse that begins, "Now me and my baby had a falling out last night", he is very clearly voicing the C note on the top of that chord for the first four bars of that verse.
It's worth mentioning, too, that the pitch at which a rendition sounds has virtually no bearing on the position/tuning that was used to play a piece on the guitar, due to the possibility of capo use, not tuning to standard pitch, et al.  So "pitch correction" is an absolute non-issue in determining the position in which a song was played--it makes no difference in making the correct identification.
All best,
Johnm