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Author Topic: John Lee Hooker Tuning(s)  (Read 7040 times)

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Offline framus12

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John Lee Hooker Tuning(s)
« on: August 03, 2006, 11:32:37 AM »
I may not be 100% on this but I think almost all of John Lee's stuff is in open tuning and usually Spanish at about G (boogie chillen, dimples, boom boom...) Although some of it (decoration day and Tupelo, Mississippi for instance) do sound like vestapol, at around E or D but it's hard to tell with all the drone and crazy hammer on riffs. Some of the more learned weenies should respond and please correct me if I am wrong.
Hope it helped some.

Offline a2tom

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  • stickman's got 'em
John Lee Hooker Tuning(s)
« Reply #1 on: August 03, 2006, 02:12:33 PM »
A band member once said of John Lee, in response to John's comment that he could play in a variety of keys, (paraphrasing, here) "sure, John can play in any key, as long as its E" (from Jas Obrecht's book Rollin' and Tumblin', highly recommended).  Basically, I have been led to understand that John had a great ;) preference for E standard.  This is what he was doing in the several thing I've seen him do on videos.  For example, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOyj4ciJk34&search=john%20lee%20hooker

Watch long enough and you'll see his nearly constant home hand position, which is a two-finger E chord (maybe he covered the 4th and 5th string 2nd fret with his middle finger, but you don't need to - and in fact I think he left the 5th string open a lot).  This left his ring finger free for hammers all over the place.  I play like this all the time.

Here's another one, a great version of Tupelo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qThmM5-y_Ok&search=john%20lee%20hooker

Again, watch long enough and you'll see that hand position at around 2:30.  Some classic John Lee riffs up close and personal.  Unless I'm wrong, it's all E standard.

All that said, in this thread you will see that apparently in his early career he used more open G - I need to check out some of those earlier tunes, since I most know his later stuff which I think is mostly E standard.

http://www.guitarseminars.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/003008.html

tom



Offline Bunker Hill

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John Lee Hooker Tuning(s)
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2006, 09:48:25 AM »
I'm guessing it's the United Artists release, Coast To Coast Blues Band, check it out here
http://webpages.charter.net/slpell/

Offline Bunker Hill

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John Lee Hooker Tuning(s)
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2006, 10:55:58 AM »
We Brits had to be content with a release which dispensed with the wonderful gatefold...cheapskates! This was noted by reviewers and even prompted a letter from Andrew Lauder, the UK label manager. I can't now recall what excuse/reason was given.

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