PREMIERCLINIC
DavidHamburger’s NewSchoolFingerstyleBlues
Kerosene
FINGERSTYLE
the hammer-on at the same time as the bass notes. You’ll only get
halfway through the second measure before the hammer-on/pull-off
combination.
The epitome of the relaxed, late-night groove is “After Hours,” pianist
Avery Parrish’s hit feature with the Erskine Hawkins big band. It has
long been to blues pianists what “Honky Tonk” or “Hideaway” is to
electric guitarists – a rite of passage and a source of essential vocabulary on the instrument. “Kerosene” makes use of the same triplet-laden 12/8 feel as “After Hours” – minus the horns and the rhythm
section.
Kerosene is a slow blues in the key of D, and we’ll be using drop D
tuning, which is fairly common in blues tunes, to open up the possibility for some different voicings. This tune has an alternating bass
note feel, but keep an eye out at the turnaround when it switches to
a walking bassline. To get a feel for the mood of this tune, listen to
some ‘50s and ‘60s blues ballads from players like saxophonist Jim
Webster, which is sometimes referred to as the “After Hours” feel.
Kerosene starts out on a D7 chord, followed by a hammer-on combined with a double-stop with a triplet feel, so hammer-on to the
second fret on the third string and hold down the note on the second
string, first fret. Meanwhile, your thumb will be alternating between
the sixth, fourth, fifth and then the fourth string again, performing
The third measure moves from a D6 to an Am, but you could also look
at the Am as a D9 with an A on the bottom, or D9/A. This is followed
by another hammer-on/pull-off – this time to it’s open to first fret to
open on the D string while you also grab the G string with your picking thumb.
The G chord is just like a barred version of the D7 moved up to the
fifth fret. The hammer-on is the same, with the same feel, the difference being instead of the bass being sixth string, fourth string, fifth
string back to fourth, we will play the sixth string, fourth string, the
open sixth and then fourth string.
Watch the bass line in the next section as it requires a bit of flim-flam
to get everything in there. Grab the notes with your thumb, index and
middle fingers, then slide up to the G6 and G9 voicings.
Try the parts out individually, playing them slowly to get them to
groove, and then you can start to stitch them all together and have
the whole piece under your fingers.
Head to premierguitar.com
to find 6 video lesson segments, notation
and Power Tab - powered by TrueFire!
92 PREMIER GUI TAR OCTOBER 2007
