Fingerstyle Blues Guitar Lesson -- Play Like Mississippi John Hurt

Fingerpicking the blues is a ton of fun!

Now, I love Chet Atkins and the boom-chick style that he played.

And this style has been carried on by players like Tommy Emmanuel and many others…

But what a lot of people don’t know about, is how the blues players played differently than this classic Chet style.

Sure, they didn’t use a flatpick and had alternating bass movements etc. 

But there is much more to getting the sound. 

And it’s quite different from any other style of fingerpicking. 

Today I want to share with you some of these differences. 

And also break down how to play like Mississippi John Hurt using my 2-step method.

So put away those picks for today and let’s get started with this fingerstyle blues guitar lesson!

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar Lesson Step 1:

Let’s begin with learning the chord progression and alternating bass line. There are only 3 chords we’ll use in this song D, G, and A. We’ll play them in open position.

D major we’ll play from the 5th string down like this:

G is played using all 6 strings like this:

And finally, A we’ll play from the 5th string down like this:

These 3 shapes were used extensively by Mississippi John Hurt. 

The progression is going to follow a 12-bar blues in the key of D.

However, we’ll be counting it in a 2/4 time signature. 

So we’ll have:

D (4 bars)

G (2 bars)

D (2 bars)

A (2 bars)

D (2 bars)

Another way of looking at this is like this:

| D | D | D | D |

| G | G | D | D |

| A | A | D | D |

This progression is for “Corrina, Corrina" a traditional blues song with a rich and varied history. While its exact origins are unknown, it is believed to have originated sometime in the early 20th century among African-American communities in the southern United States.

In the key of D major, the three chords D, G, and A all have specific relationships that contribute to the overall tonality and harmonic structure. 

Here's a breakdown of each chord's relationship:

1. D Major:

• Function: Tonic (I)
• Relationship: The central chord of the key. It provides a sense of stability and resolution, serving as the "home base" for the music.
• Notes: D, F#, A 

2. G Major:

• Function: Subdominant (IV)
• Relationship: Adds color and variety to the progression. It can provide a sense of contrast and movement away from the tonic.
• Notes: G, B, D

3. A Major: 

• Function: Dominant (V)
• Relationship: Creates a strong pull towards the tonic chord D major. It adds tension and anticipation, leading the listener's ear towards the resolution.
• Notes: A, C#, E

Fingerstyle Blues Guitar Lesson For Beginners

Let’s next bring in the alternating bass on each chord. This is where you’ll start to see key differences between Chet style and blues fingerstyle.

For the D chord, our fingerpicking hand thumb will alternate the 5th string to the 4th string. This puts the note A in the bass on the downbeat of the bar, which turns our D major chord from above into a D/A chord.

These bass notes will be counted as eight notes and will alternate like this: 

D Major:

e|----------------------------------------------------------|

B|----------------------------------------------------------|

G|----------------------------------------------------------|

D|--------------0-----------0-------------------------------|

A|--------0-----------0-------------------------------------|

E|----------------------------------------------------------| 

Now, even though we are not playing any fretted notes yet from the D major chord. I still place my fingers down in the D shape and play the bass line. I call this pattern a 5-4-5-4 pattern. This is because the bass line is playing the strings 5-4-5-4. 

Then for the G Major we’ll alternate these notes: 

e|----------------------------------------------------------|

B|----------------------------------------------------------|

G|----------------------------------------------------------|

D|--------------0-----------0-------------------------------|

A|----------------------------------------------------------|

E|--------3-----------3-------------------------------------|  

Again, plant down the G major chord shape. However, you’ll notice in the demonstration video above I often just put down a minimal amount of notes from the chord. This is the beauty of fingerstyle. You often don’t have to plant down all the notes of the chord like you would if you were strumming all 6 strings. I call this pattern a 6-4-6-4 pattern. This is because the bass line is playing the strings 6-4-6-4.

And finally, for the A Major chord, we’ll play:

e|----------------------------------------------------------|

B|----------------------------------------------------------|

G|----------------------------------------------------------|

D|--------------2-----------2------------------------------|

A|--------0-----------0------------------------------------|

E|----------------------------------------------------------|  

Here I fret down the A chord from above. This would be another 5-4-5-4 pattern.

A huge part of learning to play in this style is training your fingerpicking hand thumb.

So let’s next take these alternating bass patterns and apply them to the progression for “Corrina, Corrina".

Remember we’ll be following the 12-bar blues but in a 2/4 time signature. Each bass pattern shown above is the same as 1 bar. 

I count the bass part in eighth notes like this:

1 + 2 + = 1 bar

The first 4 bars are all going to be on D using a 5-4-5-4 thumb pattern like this:

Then the next 4 bars are split evenly into 2 bars of G and 2 bars of D like this:

Bars 9-12 are played with 2 bars of A followed by 2 bars of D like this:

Note: Mississippi John Hurt would often use his fretting hand thumb to get that 2nd fret on the 6th string in bar 11. This is a subtle variation that greats a 5-4-6-4 thumb pattern. (See the video above for a demonstration).

Practice these individual pieces 4 bars at a time. Once they are starting to feel comfortable try playing them all together like this:

Step 2: Adding in the melody:

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You've taken your first steps towards unlocking the fingerstyle magic of Mississippi John Hurt and fingerstyle blues guitar. 

Learning the chords and their alternating bass patterns and applying them to "Corrina, Corrina" is a fantastic foundation. Stay tuned for a second part to this lesson. We'll build even more on this and start adding in the melody. For now get this foundation rock solid, and for more great blues guitar lessons check out this Delta Blues guitar lesson or this Stevie Ray Vaughan Acoustic blues guitar lesson next!