Griff's Hoochie Coochie Man blog post and lesson

MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Just got this link in today's email:

https://bluesguitarunleashed.com/blog/easy-blues-song-arrangement-hoochie-coochie-man/

Man, I'm all over this! A great-sounding bl00ze tune that's not über boring but I think I can play with a reasonable amount of work. Win-win! My goal is to have it playable by next Thursday's open mic; we'll see. I'll probably want to do it at the BGU NE if I can find some folks game to join me.

Main challenge off the bat for me is...wait for it...counting and keeping the beat. The signature riff wraps around and ends on beat 1 of the next bar so I had to sit down and write it all out to get the bars (and corresponding lyrics) sorted in my head.

Gots me a video of Clapton covering it, too, so I can practice to a live performance. Woo hoo! :Beer:
 
Elwood

Elwood

Blues
I was trying to figure out where the version of that main riff that Griff uses came from. I found a you tube of Clapton playing with Nathan East. They are playing it that way.

Even on the old standards I guess there is always more than one way to skin the cat. I had always heard it played in a slightly different way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_l6A7krjrQ

Both sound just fine. I was just confused at first when I viewed Griff's arrangement. I never noticed EC using a slightly different riff, interesting, and cool.
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Interesting stuff. Have to admit: before seeing his video I hadn't heard the song before. I know, I know, but I'm still a dewy-eyed n00b when it comes to things bl00ze. That's part of why I treasure these kinds of posts so much: I need ideas.

I've nabbed several videos of folks doing the tune since this morning and I see there's some variance in styles. I see that a lot in "standards" or so it seems. :Beer:
 
Elio

Elio

Student Of The Blues
MarkDyson said:
Interesting stuff. Have to admit: before seeing his video I hadn't heard the song before. I know, I know, but I'm still a dewy-eyed n00b when it comes to things bl00ze. That's part of why I treasure these kinds of posts so much: I need ideas.

I've nabbed several videos of folks doing the tune since this morning and I see there's some variance in styles. I see that a lot in "standards" or so it seems. :Beer:
Click to expand...

The are actually 3 songs that all use very similar variations of the riff. Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley essentially one-upped each other by creating new variations in Hoochie Coochie Man, I'm a Man, and Manish Boy. I just posted a short chronology and videos in this forum here: http://bluesguitarunleashed.com/forum/index.php?threads/a-bit-of-hoochie-coochie-history.27427/
 
Elwood

Elwood

Blues
Cool. Back then folks I knew just figured they were separate tunes. It was not unusual to hear, or play, 2 or 3 of 'em in the same night. There's a lot of old 1,4,5s that were very similar and were used seemingly at random. Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, and many others gave us lots of fun stuff. I always had a soft spot for Jr. Wells & Buddy Guy's stuff too.
 
arock

arock

Help! I'm a rock
Love this song! Found an old video of my band's version from over 2 years ago. We don't even have the same bass player or drummer at this point. Just goes to show that there are many ways to interpret this great blues classic! Excuse the poor playing. If I remember correctly this video was shot by our very own CapnDenny1. Also, I believe it was just our second gig. We still play this song, and the "crowds" always like it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivyr4qdd4...chie Kootchie Man - Brewskies 042817.mp4?dl=0
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
If that's "poor playing" then when you're "good" it must be off the charts! :Beer:

Great rendition, thanks for sharing. It's gone into my source material folder for learning the song. Can't hear it too many times!
 
MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
It's funny how my mind/hand-eye-coordination seems to work. I hammered on this riff about a gazillion times yesterday. I'd get it down, then after running through it a few times my mind would wander or something and I'd blow it. Like my fingers would just freeze up.

This morning, just picked up the guitar and flew through it a half-dozen times with no problems. Guess it helped to sleep on it. :confused:
 
PapaBear

PapaBear

Guit Fiddlier
I play pretty much the way @Griff teaches it, but I slide into the C and I use the C shape 7 chords for the 4 and 5 and the 5th position A between them
 
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MarkDyson

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
sdbrit68 said:
total thanks man
Click to expand...

No problemo. I find I have to get stuff like this ordered in my mind before it starts to make sense. I know the last words of some of the phrases "bleed" into the start of the next bar, but a lot of that seems to be interpretation, and is kinda fluid, so I didn't try to capture those phrasing breaks exactly.

Now if only my fingers would cooperate. Beginner-friendly or no, this one's gonna take some work before I'm ever ready to play it out. :confused:
 
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