Topic: Walk Downs and Turnarounds?

[jacksmart]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with
some walk downs and turnarounds in "C" and "G"
for guitar. I would really appreciate it if anyone could advise
me in this area.
Thanks in advance,
Jack

[uncle bud]

What kind of help are you looking for? Any particular styles in C and G? Help with turnarounds from specific tunes? General turnarounds in these keys?

[jacksmart]

Uncle Bud,
  To be honest with you, I would like any help I can find. Things seem so limited on the web. I have found a few things in E , but thing in C and G are very hard for me to find. I would be appreciative of anything I can find. I really like the Bukka White, Lightning Hopkins, Willie McTell, and Robert Johnson. However, I like all kinds of Blues - Delta, Chicago, etc.
Thanks again for responding to my post,
Jack

[jacksmart]

Uncle Bud,
  Mostly, I would appreciate simple tabs or something in word form.
Jack

[waxwing]

Part of your problem here is going to be that walkdowns and turnarounds did not really become prevalent until the Chicago band thing started to happen, and concurrently C and G became much less popular. I always think of turnarounds as a place to join back in if you got lost in the middle somewhere, but solo players don't have the luxury of a band to fall back on, eh? But in the later stages of country blues they certainly do exist. You might want to check out the current thread on slow blues in G to give you some leads as to where to listen for possible turnarounds.

For instance, you mentioned Robert Johnson, who commonly used turnarounds. His Love In Vain, in G, has a double walk down at the beginning; the first, with double stops starting at the high D and B on the the 1st and 2nd strings; the second, a single string walkdown from the open G string and then chromatically from the the 3rd fret on the D string, against the G on the first string, similar to his famous walk down in A. He uses this same walkdown between verses, but against the open G string. Actually, now that I think of it, Blind Boy Fuller uses the same walkdown on the D string in his raggy Step It Up and Go.

In fact, Blind Boy Fuller, having recorded in the post depression era, as did Robert Johnson, seems to have a variety of walkdowns, or walkups, in a lot of his raggy C blues. Off hand, he walks up the bass E string, E, F#, G against tripled eighths on the 3rd and 2nd sting of the C chord in Jivin' Woman Blues in C, and in Meat Shakin' Woman he has a tricky turnaround from the C7 that goes down the 3rd and 4th string after a bass C on the beat : 5th str. 3rd fr, - 3rd str. 3rd fr. - 4th str. 2nd fr. - (then to an F chord) 3rd str. 2nd fr. - 4th str. 3rd fr. - (then to a questionable chord, Gaug5 or D#, maybe?) 3rd str. open - 4th str. 1st fr. - to a doubled bass note on the C chord 5th to 4th str. and into the pick. Very cool, but perhaps more rag than what you're looking for. Both these BBF songs and several more are taught by Ari Eisinger in his excellent video on Stefan's Guitar Workshop label, soon to be transfered to DVD if it hasn't been already.

Altho' I'm not that familiar with them, the works of Rev. Gary Davis I think would yield some interesting walkdowns possibly in G and C. There is a particularly pretty double walkdown in the bass and treble over a C chord in Delia that I only know from a simplified version in one of Stefan Grossman's early fingerpicking lessons. Sorry, I'm not going to try to write that one out, but I'm sure the tab is readily available. Maybe Frank, or someone else deep into RGD, will mention some other walkdowns.

That's all I can think of at the moment.
All for now.
John C.

[waxwing]

I also would point out that walk downs and turnarounds and such are a good place to start to develop your ear to be able to transcribe for yourself. If you listen to the songs mentioned in the thread on slow G blues, knowing the songs are in G should make it easy to figure any capo position (or down tuning) and usually these little figures are not that hard to pick out, particularly if you have some slowdown software. Willie McTell, whom you mentioned, might be a good place to look as he played in G a fair amount, altho it could be complicated by the fact that his 12 is tuned to standard down around B. You can also find more raggy songs by McTell, and the key they're played in, in the thread called Georgia Blues Workshop.
All for now.
John C.

[GhostRider]

Howdy:

RG Davis uses a neat turnaround in C (in his version of Hesitation Blues) that goes:

C-C⁷-F-Ab⁷-G. Each chord (except the last) is played with a one beat pinch of the G and D strings.

R Johnson employs something similar in "From Four Until Late"

Alex

[uncle bud]

Variations on the C7 F Ab7 C G7 are fairly common in C. Blind Boy Fuller certainly used them. In Truckin' My Blues Away he plays C7 F Ab C (doesn't go to the G). He uses it in You Never Can Tell as well, and I've always played Meat Shakin' Woman with it as well.

in order (low to high strings):

C7=x3231x or x32310
F= xx3211 or x33211 or 133211
Ab or Ab7=xx111x or xx1112
C
and could go to G or G7

He also uses these chords as part of the main structure in raggy pieces, often throwing in a diminished chord (xx4545) to substitute for the Ab7, the familiar C C7 F Gbdim of his C rags.

Blind Blake does a simple little turnaround in Wabash Rag that is something like

C=x32013 (form the chord but you mostly play the 5th and 1st strings)
A=x0xxx2 (I don't even form the chord just play the 5th and 1st strings)
G7/B=x20001 (again, 5th and 1st really)
C=x32010
C=x32013

Blind Lemon does something very similar in Black Horse Blues. In other C tunes, Lemon does a walk down from the third string as a kind of turnaround, open 3rd string twice, 4th string 4th fret twice, 4th sstring 3rd fret twice, 4th string 2nd fret.

Blake does a really nice turnaround in G, in Too Tight and That Lovin' I Crave for example, which goes:

G
G7=xx3003
C=xx2013
Eb7=xx1323
G=xx0003 or 320003 or xx0033 etc
D or D7

The neat thing about that one is the bass is descending on the 4th string while the treble is rising on the 2nd. Rev. Gary Davis uses something similar in Lo, I Be With You Always, I think.

My favorite turnaround in C, which I'm not even sure is a turnaround, is Charley Patton's great rolls at the end of the form in Down the Dirt Road Blues.

---------------0--------------------------------------------------------------0---0----0----
------------4------------1---------------------1------1-----------------------1---1----1---
---------0--------------------2--------------------0--------------------------0---0----0---
------------------------------------------------------------------------------2---2----2-----
--3-----------------3---------------------3---------------3-----------3--------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------3---------------------------

Totally cool. I may have that slightly wrong, as it's hard to hear exactly what he's doing, but whatever it is, it's great.

[jacksmart]

Waxwing, Pyrochlore, and Uncle Bud- Thanks so much for the words
of wisdom. I have printed them out and will work on them this
afternoon. You have helped me a lot and I really appreciate it.
Jack

[uncle bud]

Hi Jack -

You're welcome. You'll want to make one correction. I had a typo in the turnaround for Blake's Wabash Rag. The "A" chord should be

x0xxx2 

So fretting the 1st string at the 2nd fret, not open as I originally posted. I corrected the original post above as well.

[waxwing]

Hey UB, just curious, but how are you playing the Ab7 in the Meat Shakin Woman turnaround. What I'm playing, 1st fret 4th and open 3rd, an Eb and a G, could be construed as AbMaj7, I guess.
All for now.
John C.

[uncle bud]

Wax, I actually play it as a plain old Ab, xx111x.