Topic: Mississippi John Hurt's Guitar Style--Queries and Tips

[barry james]

I.m working on this & I believe I have the chords down...G/D/G7/C/
                                                                                           repeat & end with G back to C.

Just repeat with variations each time thru...a professional guitarist tells me he's playing in E tuned way down, but I think what I've worked out is correct...anyway before I go off in a tangent trying to perfect it, I thought it would be a good idea to post to see if I'm on the right track...Hopefully somebody may have advice or opinions.

Thanks.

Barry

[btasoundsradio]

G/2nd fret, 1st string/G7/C
Thought I heard somebody say
Repeat
F/C
Funky butt stinky butt take it away
F/C
G/C
'cause I don't like it no how

[si]

Forget how MJH plays it, this is how I play it the first bit (probably not what MJH does)
While playing this on the thinnest string
G G F# F# F F E
I play this on the bass strings
G G A A B B C
The original lyrics are not very nice I change them to something more complimentary e.g......
Who's that girl with the red dress on?
Pretty girl, sexy girl, hey what's your name?
Won't you come home with me?

[barry james]

Thanks guys...with this new info + what I already have + the recording I'm going to work out my own version..I used to want to play music exactly as the recording itself but it really is an impossible task...probably if Hurt recorded this tune a 2nd time it wouldn't be quite the same as the 1st....perhaps close enough  is good enough sometimes,  plus you could go a bit crazy trying to get it exactly as he played it.

Barry

[AX17609]

Hello all,

   Does anyone know where I might find tablature for "Here am I Lord Send Me"   John Hurt?

 AX

[Blue in VT]

Allright I've got a gripe....I have acquired several different learning aids for MJH tunes.  Both from Guitar Workshop and Home Spun.  From HS I have their DVD on Figerpicking MJH tunes...From GWS I have Stefens Book/cd combos.  Both of these cover a lot of songs....that good....but mostly its just one verse...and maybe a slight variation in a guitar break that is presented.  This gives me a feel for the tune....but thats it.  At this point in my learnign process I am not comfortable trying to make stuff up to fill space and time....I;m just not there yet!   Are there complete transcriptions out there of MJH tunes....with intros....verses...breaks and endings???!!!  Are John Miller's DVDs the way to go for complete coverage.  Any help you all can provide would be greatly appreciated....by me....and my wife....if she has to listen to the same 12 bars of Creole Belle one more time I think she'll kill me....

cheers,

Blue

[uncle bud]

Hi Blue,

Speaking as a long time MJH nut, I would strongly recommend both John Miller's instructional DVDs on Hurt's music. I would be very surprised if you could find anything better and would like to know if you could. I don't think you'll ever find a complete transcription of these songs with intros, all verses, solos and endings in any instructional material. But just as an example, the lesson on Creole Belle on the DVD has an intro, verse, solo and ending.

John's obviously a friend here at WeenieCampbell but I'd be giving the above recommendation regardless.

Also, if there's sections of a tune you're having trouble with, feel free to post questions (e.g., I'm learning Song X but can't get the end tag... etc)

[Slack]

(I see UB beat me to it -- but I'll post anyway)

John Millers DVDs are highly recommended (and I'd plug him even if he did NOT like hanging around with us. ) - he teaches complete songs and I think you'll be pleased at the high quality of his DVDs.  We owe Stefan a debt of gratitude -- but there is a reason Stefan brings in other artists to produce DVDs that compete with his own.

[Blue in VT]

I should have certainly gone right to John's DVDs....As you have seen from my Back Porch posts I love his E. Cotten video...and it covers complete songs. 

This whole question kinda ties into the "mimicing styles" discussion...I need to have at least a few of his songs completely under my belt (from Begining to end)...and a feel for how MJH improvised guitar breaks and riffs....before i would feel comfortable taking one of these more basic (framework) transcriptions and expanding upon it myself.

Thanks for the input,

Blue

[Johnm]

Hi Blue,
In the interest of accuracy, I should point out that none of the transcriptions on my John Hurt instructional DVDs transcribe a performance from beginning to end, but I have made an effort to get breaks and verse accompaniments for the songs on there.  Truthfully, the Libba Cotten video was kind of a special case.  Stefan owned the rights to a lot of performance footage of Libba and so wanted me to transcribe from those performances rather than from recordings, as I would normally do.  I can't remember why, but I decided to transcribe the performances from beginning to end.  The John Hurt transcriptions are not as complete.
All best,
Johnm

[Blue in VT]

John,

Thanks for your input....it still sounds to me as though they will have more in-depth arrangments than the material that I have now...And heck whats a few more DVDs laying around?....pretty soon I'm gonna have at least one version of all of MJH's stuff and alternate versions of several tunes....

thanks again,

Blue

[pbyhre]

Hey Blue,
Thought I'd chime in and let you know you're not alone.

I've got the same problem.  Not just with MJH materials, but with most of the books and videos out there (I don't have the John Miller vids).  I can usually memorize the verse, but I wouldn't have any idea how to figure out the whole song and god help me if I ever tried to play a song with someone else...I think my head would explode if they did something not right out of the book. 

I've decided to try a new approach.  I'm going to start taking lessons from a real, live person and just use the books and vids as supplemental material.  I'm hoping that my teacher can help me to really understand the music so I can play it instead of just repeating what's in the book.  I'm really lucky in that I got Mary Flower to try and teach me.  If she can't help me, I'm packing the damn thing away and switching to kazoo!

Good luck,
Pete

[GhostRider]

Pete:

No, not kazoo. Anything but kazoo!

Alex

[Stuart]

Hi Blue:

Have you been to this site?

http://www.msjohnhurtmuseum.com/tablature.html

I haven't reviewed the TAB, but I thought it worth a look.

[Blue in VT]

Stuart,

Thanks....no I had not seen that site and I will give it a good look over tonight!

cheers,

Blue