So the last few open blues jams I’ve been to I’ve seen someone try to “play” this song in kind of a funk blues feel… and it didn’t work out.
Therefore today’s lesson is a Public Service Announcement to anyone going to an open jam any time soon – learn this feel in case it comes up 🙂
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60 replies to "PSA: Big Boss Man…"
Is this similar to the Elvis Presley version?
Another way to home
In on the groove is to….imagine a steam locomotive (choo choo train) very similar sound/groove.
Hey Griff, Without question playing a funk rhythm it’s really challenging for me. When I follow your instructions it becomes possible. I appreciate the way you break things down.
Thanks
Tricky!
11/12/19
OK, I finally starting counting out loud for this one. Damn! It works. Happy now? I am.
Which version is this? I’ve never heard it played this way. When I think of Big Boss Man, I think of Jimmy Reed
Same here. Jimmy Reed Rules
I used to play blues harp for Moses Rascoe. We recorded “Big Boss Man” but we did it in a different style. I like what Griff is doing with it. Best to learn different ways to play and figure out what works best for you.
Hey Griff. Today, 02-12-18, I received another box from “Blues Guitar Unleashed”. The problem is, I already have these exact same items. I do not want to pay twice, for the exact programs. Please let me know how to go about sending this one box back, without paying the postage due. Thank You, brother!
Griff may not see this go to bgu.com and you can contact support from there.
Excellent video on strumming 16th vs 8th notes. Thanks Griff.
I would never dream of playing Big Boss Man as a funk with a C9 chord. I play it as a medium tempo blues shuffle almost Chuck Berry style. I love the Grateful Dead version sung by Ron “Pigpen” McKernan. Much more grit than funk. Sorry, Griff…you just talk…that’s all 😬.,
I love the Dead version also. It’s my favorite. Griff is just offering us another option, and that’s just about all. Peace out, David
I agree. I normally love Griff’s teaching’s. But I’ve never heard this version. I love the Dead version in E.
So many versions… how about BB King… with a little Billy Jean thrown in….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJRshdNugEA
Hey Griff nice groove It sure helps with the counting but I keep wanting to hit down stroke on the 3 gotta keep working!
As a young bassist, I backed up the late great Jimmy Reed (Big Boss Man), and the original is in common time.
Super site
Hey Griff,
Already working on this and counting although I have the timing the counting makes sure.
Michael- St Andrews NSW Australia
Thanks Teach ! gonna have to practice that for a while !
Too much talking ,and not enough playing. Sometimes Griff does not set enough musical context before lesson begins . l like to hear a musical context audibly before getting into the dink ,dink, dink stage. Probably just me.
Yo Griff
Your the Man.. I’m counting out loud !!! Many thanks
Ditto to that
Thanks Teach! Gonna learn that one! cool groove
Very helpful. Nice easy strumming pattern after you show me how. Thanks.
Griff , I really love this lesson. It is so much fun to play, even though I am not up to full speed yet. Thanks for sending. Mike Z
One of my biggest issues is smooth, consistent strumming like that. What can I do to over come a sloppy right hand?
Hey Griff,
You owe me a pick! I bloody worn the the live out of mine doing your little excercise! LoL
Very good!
Dan
Thanks Giff! I’ve always had trouble with 1/16 note strumming. I long time ago I took some lessons and I wanted to learn Purple Haze. I could not get a strum pattern that would sound right and I ask my instructor if he could show me the strum pattern. He said yes, it goes like this, and preceded to play it at full speed. He didn’t break down the timing, he just expected me to follow along. By the time I got home I had forgotten the feel of the rhythm and could not even come close. I gave up eventually. Thanks for breaking down the timing, It gives me a solid foundation to practice.
Great point. You have just explained the downfall of some “guitar teachers”. These folk can demonstrate the material and have no really effective way to explain what is being done and why. Or the instructor spends 20 minutes saying who he played with in the past and showing off his guitaring abilities on your time.
Like David I was exspecting the old Jimmy Reed version of Big Boss Man! still enjoyed the lesson and it definetly is a style of rhythm I need to work on….
Thanks Griff
Once again, good little lesson, Griff! Now, for the buzzkill.
I don’t know what we’re supposed to play. The rhythm EXACTLY as you showed (and wrote) or just close? Each of the video links in the comments contributed here play it differently. And, at the end of your lesson you even played it differently and said that if it’s not “exactly” what you just showed us, that’s OK. Am I missing the point? What did you just teach us?
That was different than what I expected. I play it as a walk-up blues shuffle in E. But I went back and listened to the Jimmy Reed original and realized the rhythm is strummed along the lines of your video.
By the way, I am working through the 52 rhythm fills and variations lesson program and really enjoying and learning from it.
Thanks.
I hadn’t heard the Jimmy Reed version before (thanks for the link above) but I remember the Grateful Dead version sung by PigPen – that’s a kind of slow blues, not tricky at all. I guess you could try to do it as a funked up version, but why unless doing funked up versions of tunes is your thing.
At any rate, some of these lessons would be much easier to follow what you’re showing if there was a vocal on it as a reference point. Unless a tune is a straight instrumental (couple classic examples – Hot Lanta and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed by the Allman brothers, Take 5 by Dave Brubeck), the vocal is always the point of reference that brings people/the average listener into a song, in spite of how many shredders may not like to hear that. At the jams I go to, it’s always some singer everybody else is backing up (with few exceptions). I’m sure jazz jams have many instrumental only jams but for people who are not musicians, the vocal is the key. If they don’t like the singer, they don’t care how good the band is, you’ve lost the majority of people in the room.
Thanks
I agree – you have to follow the singer. A lot of the old blues guys would sing any way they felt like, and the band would sometimes have to hold a chord a little longer and wait for them to catch up. Anyway, as far as Big Boss Man goes, Jimmy Reed had the definitive version, and it plays more like Memphis. I can’t imagine what this one sounds like, but I probably wouldn’t like it. I usually go easy on the 9th chords, because they tend to make a song sound too “citified.”
Hi Griff
Thanks for that.
Here’s a version from a great South African band based in Cape Town.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHDKcyDo0Qs
Cheers Dean. Being a Capey myself but now living in the UK that struck a chord 🙂 That is some lovely acoustic work.
Happy I’m progressing more than I thought I would or could. But his one’s hard–for me rhythm is, as you said is often the case, the hardest part. But thanks for the lesson…I’ll try & try.
Hi,
I want to thank you for all these little lessons that you give us. I really appreciate. It’s great to do music and to feel it with the spirit and attitude you have.
For the first I can say I got one step ahead of Yor Griff . Started on a G7 to the C9 then varied it up . You are right about what could be done here. Going to bring this in at my band pratice tonight. We actually have a tune we do like this in another key . We call it Hot sause . I added a cool lic over it and its in the Am penatonic scale . So we played it at the local bar and it was also recorded and its okay kinda crazy good. My new old stock 2002 mexican strat sounds freaking awesome . Its got hot rod pick ups on it WICKED . I can tell this is a newer video ,but, thats what having childrens about( more gray hair)
When I think of this tune, I remember Bill Cosby recorded a vocal of it in the 1960s on a record LP called “Silverthroat–Bill Cosby Sings”
Thanks Griff. I’ve been in that exact position on that song, snd that is one groove, (of many) that I have yet to master. Thanks my friend.
He Griff, Check out this version by The Kentucky Headhunters. It’s much more up beat, a little less bluesy but really rocks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUEXU7UWmWk
Give credit to the late Jimmy Reed for his recording of this song and universal acceptances…. I for one of so many, wore out his records listening and learning to play his grooves and riffs. Great place for a beginner blues player to start….. He was a tremendous influemce to so many others…
SWEET GROOVE Griff.. Thanks
@bluejack….Me too several old CHESS vinyls saved…My first was a 45 cut ( 1958 or 9) then a toal lp in 1961…totally worn out. Now i’m trying to play it and I’m going on 75 yrs old, come May
Thanks Griff, look forward to trying this. I do have a question though, I noticed you have the same guitar I just bought. I have been practicing on an acoustic but just bought the electric, I need a little guidance on getting the sound set up on the guitar and amp. Do you have a any suggestions on this?
That rhythm always reminds me of a old steam train climbing a graded uphill track.
Good lesson, Thanks Griff
Bob K I was just thinking that myself!
thanks griff brilliant stuff,can be used in a lot songs,i think bo diddely was the original artist
Great rhythm feel! Thanks! I’ll have to work on that!
When I think of the song “Big Boss Man” I don’t think funk, The original by Jimmy Reed is one of my all time faves, and he did it in a shuffle feel, emphasis on the backbeat.
Here is the Mighty Jimmy Reed himself.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jimmy+reed+big+boss+man
Agreed – I’ve never heard it done like this. When we play it at a jam it’s with that Jimmy Reed straight-eighths feel – similar to High Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker. But, in Griff’s jam it may well be they are following somebody else’s interpretation…?
Great rhythm lesson, looks hard, definitely an area I could brush up on so I’m on it, thank you.
Hi Griff,
Very cool as always!
I’m slow, but I’m learning.
Thanks, Gus
Nice lesson. Thanks.
Great lesson, Griff! Thanks!
Unfortunately not able to jam with any others
But I will keep practicing, love the emails , cheers.
Dude’s got it down!