Clapton-style Acoustic Blues - Page 2

by Jim Burger Let's look at a couple of moves that Clapton does very often when playing E blues.

Move 1: The G# Hammer-on

The first move is the hammer-on to G# (1st fret, 3rd string) followed by a quick brush on the open top two strings. This move is illustrated in two different ways in the first measure below, with the first one being a quicker use and the second one slightly more sustained.

In measures 2-3 is shown an example of how to use this hammer-on, using the quick version to start off a triplet run which then resolves using the sustained version of the hammer-on move. Note the use of rapid triplets between these hammer-ons. As we'll see, Clapton's fingers are always working!