Jesse_Dylan Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 https://youtu.be/hWqA1Z4lPHw (Why can't I ever get it to show the video instead of the link?) Just wanted to share a real guitar hero. Of course, this is the real reason I want a Batwing pickguard. :) (okay, so my dad also had a batwing) Never have figured out how to play like that... Gibson J-50. He played in E almost all the time, but he was never tuned up to concert pitch (or even in perfect tune). Friends of friends of his have told me he said, "Ole Lightnin' don't ever practice." Doesn't seem like he needed to... He used to play clubs, but he'd also just sit on the bus and play. I think that was his "practice". Course you guys probably all know this stuff already, but maybe some younger folks will pop in and be educated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Part 2 Notice how much he relies on "acoustics," such as his foot tapping, his hands making contact with the wood as he plays. I don't think anyone plays like him anymore. Maybe no one ever did! Whomever has that guitar now, has a guitar with a heck of a lot of mojo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 https://youtu.be/hWqA1Z4lPHw Just wanted to share a real guitar herO. He played in E almost all the time. Friends of friends of his have told me he said, "Ole Lightnin' don't ever practice." Good stuff. Sam wont lead you wrong. For the record, while E was his old reliable, he also recorded in A (come back baby, shining moon), drop D (sugar mama, santa fe) G (bad luck and trouble), and C (shaggy dad, fishin clothes). The G and C numbers show what he got from Lemon Jefferson. In any case, he knew his way around the fretboard. An all-round great player, rancatour,and rascal. Ernie Hawkins has a great lesson out on Vestapol for those who want to crack the code. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 Good stuff. Sam wont lead you wrong. For the record, while E was his old reliable, he also recorded in A (come back baby, shining moon), drop D (sugar mama, santa fe) G (bad luck and trouble), and C (shaggy dad, fishin clothes). The G and C numbers show what he got from Lemon Jefferson. In any case, he knew his way around the fretboard. An all-round great player, rancatour,and rascal. Ernie Hawkins has a great lesson out on Vestapol for those who want to crack the code. Very interesting. I want to crack the code!! I will check it out. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 I've been a big fan ever since I first heard one of his recordings in 1968. I have over 18 hours of his songs and AFAIK every video in existence. Check out "The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins" if you can, it is an amazing documentary by Les Blank, have watched it over 100 times at least. The last part where he sings "That Woman Named Mary" sitting on his couch looking hung over is one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. Just spent over a year working on his technique and made a lot of progress but still have a long way to go. During that year I completely immersed myself in his music and rarely listened to anything else, was quite an experience. Have been taking a little break from it recently, but still spend a little while each day. I actually just noticed the Ernie Hawkins DVD on Amazon last week and bought it, should arrive in the next day or two, looking forward to it. There's a clip from one part of it on YouTube if you do a search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Sounds more like the friends of friends have been reading books. Hopkins apparently never picked up a guitar until it was time to hit a stage. I only saw Lightnin' once and it was toward the end of his life - at Carnegie Hall in 1979. Honeyboy Edwards and John Lee Hooker were there as well. I heard my first Sam Hopkins record around 1961 and would have sat at that guy's feet if he just banged on the back of a guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 Sounds more like the friends of friends have been reading books. Hopkins apparently never picked up a guitar until it was time to hit a stage. I only saw Lightnin' once and it was toward the end of his life - at Carnegie Hall in 1979. Honeyboy Edwards and John Lee Hooker were there as well. I heard my first Sam Hopkins record around 1961 and would have sat at that guy's feet if he just banged on the back of a guitar. Pretty fricking cool that you got to see him! Can't even imagine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 THE MAN! A few slobbery words by me are not ENOUGH! The best! BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Another old Hopkins fan here. Coffee House Blues is a long time favorite: "She drank black coffee, and it was without a drop of cream." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Pretty fricking cool that you got to see him! Can't even imagine! One of the advantages of being a geezer and living within an hour of New York City. I also worked for Lee Hays (bass singer with the Weavers)in the late 1960s. Not much of a job. I did some work around his house and helped tend his vegetable garden but pretty much Lee just liked the company and would sit and tell me story after story. He could also get me any record on the Vanguard label for free which was cool. But folks like Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Brownie McGhee would stop over. I never asked anybody to show me anything but I watched and listened and got to sit in on the music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 19, 2015 Author Share Posted August 19, 2015 One of the advantages of being a geezer and living within an hour of New York City. I also worked for Lee Hays (bass singer with the Weavers)in the late 1960s. Not much of a job. I did some work around his house and helped tend his vegetable garden but pretty much Lee just liked the company and would sit and tell me story after story. He could also get me any record on the Vanguard label for free which was cool. But folks like Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and Brownie McGhee would stop over. I never asked anybody to show me anything but I watched and listened and got to sit in on the music. Wow! This is the stuff books and movies are made from. Also, sounds like a nice job! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Very cool Zomby. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted August 19, 2015 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Very cool Zomby. I miss Lee a lot. It was a privilege to know him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willie King Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Been a fan of Ole Lightnin' for more than 1/2 a century, got to see him play along with a lot of other old blues guys. They could transport me to another time and space more completely than any other music. The cruel realities of their lives was an unspoken presence. They were wise men and very human all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Good stuff. Sam wont lead you wrong. For the record, while E was his old reliable, he also recorded in A (come back baby, shining moon), drop D (sugar mama, santa fe) G (bad luck and trouble), and C (shaggy dad, fishin clothes). The G and C numbers show what he got from Lemon Jefferson. In any case, he knew his way around the fretboard. An all-round great player, rancatour,and rascal. Ernie Hawkins has a great lesson out on Vestapol for those who want to crack the code. I have those and others - just great stuff - not only the exacting lessons from Ernie, but the bonus tracks of the original recordings that come with the lessons. Kenny Sultan has sections in some of his instruction books that would be called 'in the style of' Lightning Hopkins and are highly recommended for those starting down the Lightning guitar road - they are a bit less exacting than Ernie's but have the feel of the E and A stuff.....it helps getting your head around the thing before going deep! BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 I actually just noticed the Ernie Hawkins DVD on Amazon last week and bought it, should arrive in the next day or two Got the DVD and haven't spent much time with it but it looks good. Noticed one minor thing that was just wrong however. In "Shinin' Moon" he says Lightnin' uses his little finger on a chord. I have spent many hours watching video of Lightnin' and never saw him use his little finger for anything. Always thought this was one of the remarkable things about his style. If you watch the video of Lightnin' playing Shinin' Moon, you can see that he doesn't actually use his little finger on that specific chord. No big deal anyway, just a little detail that stood out to me. It's great to see the way Ernie breaks down and analyzes these songs. I use my little finger when I play Lightnin's songs too. :) They have uploaded that whole lesson to YouTube if you want to watch it: All the songs on that DVD are included on the "Lightnin' Hopkins Rare Performances" DVD, along with a lot of others. Highly recommended :) http://www.guitarvideos.com/products/vestapol-dvds/lightnin-hopkins-rare-performances-1960-1979 BTW, Stefan Grossman offers their DVD's in downloadable form as well, but I would think twice before purchasing in that form. I bought two other videos in the download format and you have to use their buggy proprietary video player to watch them. Had a lot of problems with that and won't make the same mistake again. I prefer the DVD because I can rip it into iTunes where I keep all my other media. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 BTW, Stefan Grossman offers their DVD's in downloadable form as well, but I would think twice before purchasing in that form. I bought two other videos in the download format and you have to use their buggy proprietary video player to watch them. Had a lot of problems with that and won't make the same mistake again. I prefer the DVD because I can rip it into iTunes where I keep all my other media. I have been a SGGW junkie for a long while - many doors opened. I was a blues nut first though and saw every single thing that had 'blues' in the title that came past, so had a bit of the music in my head but getting it to the fingers was tricky as nobody local taught the real thing. I liked the first DVD lessons that came with the little TAB book tucked in the case! Now you got to print. Download lessons need the TAB printed too. I was printing them to my Epson I use for photos, but that took forever and used all my ink so now I email the attached PDFs to my Princess who prints it illegally to her work printer in miniseconds! (Depending on her mood, of course). The Epson is so slow, I could walk to her work with the files, print, walk back and the Epson would still be considering it. So lately I have been downloading the lessons and they work really well on my MacBook - AS LONG as the whole file is downloaded to the computer. The streaming option just doesn't work with my lousy broadband - it is ok if you watch the WHOLE thing, but it just won't go to the individual sections. I do like the DVD option because I like to watch the various tunes on tv with my feet up, then go to my music room with the TAB and make a go at it over the next...gulp...many years sometimes. I get annoyed sitting in front of the tv stop starting reversing, but do it for sticky bits.... BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 This was a couple years ago, so maybe the downloads have improved? I had problems with corrupted downloads and it took several tries to get a working copy. I never have that kind of problem with I download from other places. I also have a very slow internet connection, so it was a pain to have to download files multiple times to get a working copy. To make it worse, they hide the files and lock them in away that made it difficult to even delete the corrupt ones. I also use a Mac, but have lot of experience with unix (the foundation of MacOSX) and had to use the command line in terminal to get rid of the files. Finally got it working but now whenever I go to watch there's a long delay while the buggy software installs new updates (or something). I got really fed up with this and figured out a way to rip them into iTunes finally. The lessons are really great and worth the price. But I just don't have any patience with buggy software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 Gonna have to get those DVDs... I can't even master the basics. I tried a thumbpick because of him, but I couldn't get used to it, and I have never been able to do that thumbpick thing where you mute just the bass strings. Super interesting about the pinky finger. I noticed before that he had, and made good use of, long fingers, but I never noticed he relied on his ring finger instead of pinky. I guess when you have long fingers, you don't need a pinky! Funny that the instructor keeps mentioning the pinky over and over, and in the video of Lightnin' just before... he quite obviously is using his ring finger. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Stefan Grossman has an excellent free download of the booklet that accompanies the "Rare Performances" DVD here: http://www.guitarvideos.com/_literature_107437/13022_PDF_Booklet If you want to learn a little more about "Po' Lightnin'" then check it out. About 30 pages of fascinating history there. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesse_Dylan Posted August 21, 2015 Author Share Posted August 21, 2015 Stefan Grossman has an excellent free download of the booklet that accompanies the "Rare Performances" DVD here: http://www.guitarvideos.com/_literature_107437/13022_PDF_Booklet If you want to learn a little more about "Po' Lightnin'" then check it out. About 30 pages of fascinating history there. :) Thanks--grabbed it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlejohnny Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Guys don't you dare to talk about music here. This place is about Gibsons... .his j-50 seems to have a rosewood adj. bridge no wonder that he sounds so good! Really nice stuff though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boyd Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 My '65 J-50 has the original rosewood adjustable bridge and I love it. But there are plenty of people around here who don't ;) see this: http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/119466-adjustabe-bridge-debate/ Dan ended up removing it from his J-50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted August 21, 2015 Share Posted August 21, 2015 Guys don't you dare to talk about music here. This place is about Gibsons... .his j-50 seems to have a rosewood adj. bridge no wonder that he sounds so good! Really nice stuff though. Guitar talk then..... No plan at the beginning, but when playing different guitars in shops I have a few little 'guitar riffs sampler of the sort of thing I like and the guitar has to do well at least or it is next guitar on the rack time' type things I try. Various mishmashy versions of the famous Lightning E riff are the mainstay of my little guitar test kit! At one stage, hard to believe I know, but I was learning these very riffs and .....only had my metal Dobro...I know, I know, what happened? I thought to myself that I could need one of those Gibson J50 things like you know who. Not a sign of anything like that in this cowtown and I bought a Martin 000-15 mahogant top which had a sound like Lightning playing his mahogany Guild. So I was at a guitar shop and played those Lightning-esque riffs and others on a sweet little ......ha ha ha....Gibson Blues King L-00.......it had that sound and was soon to be mine! Another dangerous thing about those DVD lessons is you need to listen over and over and over and over to get a handle on it, and now and again we think: 'Eff, I want a guitar like that!!!' Oh oh!! BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rambler Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Gonna have to get those DVDs... I can't even master the basics. I tried a thumbpick because of him, but I couldn't get used to it, Ernie has 2 out on Lightnin. I would recommend the more recent Early Blues set, which covers all his keys. But if E and A is your bread and butter, his first one is a decent intro. About that thumb. Not to worry, It's all a matter of reps. ps for those who didnt have the good fortune to be in Newport or Houston or other relevant locales in the 60s, the Vestapol videos are a reasonable facsimile way of having been there. Stefan Grossman has his teachers doing it the Gary Davis way--phrase by phrase. Having been working with these for a while, I can say there is a crossover point when the learning ceases to be by rote and that new pieces begin to make musical sense on the bais of accumulated experience. They are a great resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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