PREMIER CLINIC
Paul Rishell’s Dirt Road Blues
“One Dime Blues”
All right, we’re doing “One Dime Blues” by
Blind Lemon Jefferson, standard tuning, no
capo, in the key of E. When he starts the song,
he sort of starts by fiddling around with parts
of the song, so that’s what we’ll do. Basically,
he runs through the chord changes he’s going
to use, so we might as well do the same thing.
FINGERSTYLE
fretted notes are played against an open low E
string. The hammer-on on the E chord is from
the open G string to the first fret, which is the
major third of the E major chord (G#).
G with your first finger with both hands, play
the B open with your first finger with your right
hand. Then when you get to the E to finish the
phrase, you’re pinching that low E on the bottom, so get your thumb moving there.
He uses a substitution for E, basically a D
chord moved up two frets, in which only the
So start out the song sort of alternating E to D
with the right hand, hammering that G. After
you hit the G, play the B string open with
your first finger, alternate picking. You want to
pinch both Es at the end of that. Hammer the
