The Lightnin' Hopkins Style - Page 6

by Jim Burger This is a solo similar to one I heard in a recording of Lightnin's signature song "Mojo Hand". Mojo Hand is basically a fast blues shuffle. Accordingly, I have started this example of with the last 4 bars of a shuffle so you can see how we go into the solo starting in bar 5. Note how Lightnin' always uses that little sweep up on the open strings (see the last beat of bar 2 and first beat of bar 3) when he's playing a shuffle, no matter how fast.

One important note -- this solo slightly modifies the standard blues progression as it is a 13-bar solo with 5 bars in E at the beginning. This is the kind of thing players like Lightnin' can get away with!

The following pages break this solo down bar-by-bar.