The Ultimate Hideaway Guitar Lesson (Freddie King & Eric Clapton)

When the clock struck 9:55 P.M. every Friday night for six years, I played the same song.

"Wait, what!" you may be asking. "You played the same song at the same time every week for six years?"

"Yes!" 

"What song is it that you may be wondering?" Well, the answer is "Hide Away" by Freddie King. While this may sound a little crazy, let me fill you in on the backstory. Decades ago, I was sitting in a private guitar lesson with a great teacher I had at the time. In the lesson, he started playing this really cool blues in the key of E. I heard it and was immediately hooked.

I thought, "Wow," and asked my instructor, "What is that?" He said, "That's the Hide Away riff." He didn't really explain it; he just played the riff and said, "Yeah, it's a blues break tune I've been playing for decades." 

Then I said, "Awesome, what's a blues break tune?" And he said, "Well, it's a song you play at the end of your set when you are going to take a break. You know it's the one where the leader gets on the mic and says something like, 'Hope you all are enjoying the music tonight. We're gonna take a quick break, but don't go anywhere because we've got a lot more music coming your way. Grab a drink and we'll see you in a few minutes.'"

I thought, "Wow, that's interesting," and then I heard the opening melody again. "Yeah, that would work well for that." Fast forward a few years later, and I had an evening gig by the beach in Santa Monica, California every Friday for six years. At this gig, I used "Hide Away" as my break tune.

"Hide Away" is a 12-bar blues chord progression, and 12-bar blues songs are perfect for break tunes because you can just keep looping the chord progression. You can play it over and over until it's time to take it out, at which point you drop in a blues ending, and that's it.

In this post, I am going to take you through an essential “Hide Away” guitar lesson and share with you deep insights into playing in the style of Freddie King.

Hide Away Chords 

You only need to know three chords to play along with “Hide Away”. Those chords are E7, A7, and B7.

For E7 you can play this: 

For A7 try this:

And for B7 try this:

Once you get those shapes down try plugging them into a 12-bar blues progression. To start, just strum once on each chord shape and count to 4 in each bar. (Hint: In the blues it’s very important to make sure you spend the correct amount of time on each chord in the progression.)

• E7 (4 bars)
• A7 (2 bars)
• E7 (2 bars)
• B7 (1 bar)
• A7 (1 bar)
• E7 (1 bar)
• B7 (1 bar)

A lot of guitarists like to breeze over this, but make sure you get this part down. You want to internalize the progression and be able to play it without thinking.

How do you play Freddie King Hideaway on guitar? 

King throughout this song plays a combination of licks, and blues rhythm patterns over the 12-bar blues chord progression. Each chorus or time around the 12-bars he mixes it up.  

Here is an example of combining a lick in the style of King, with a common blues rhythm pattern.

This pattern, referring to the notes on the 6th and 5th string, I like to call the basic blues shuffle. However, one simple trick I want to point out that King applied to this basic blues shuffle pattern, is the use of open strings. Notice on the “and of 2” and “and of 4” he plays open strings in the blues shuffle pattern. My first thought when analyzing or even thinking about doing that would be to not do it. I would think those notes wouldn't sound good. But give it a try! It’s a nice move that you definitely hear on the recording when you listen closely.

Another technique that King would use is repetitive figure licks. These are catchy little licks that he would repeat. Adding these to your blues progressions can give them a nice momentum.

King had an unusual playing style. In his strum hand, he plucked the strings with his fingers. He used a plastic thumbpick on his thumb and a metal finger pick on his index finger. The metal fingerpick gave his sound a little extra bite, which he used during his solos.

Bass Lines & Riffs

As “Hide Away” progresses King comes up with a myriad of ways of playing through the 12-bar blues in the key of E. Some choruses he is focusing more on higher melodies and other times he is down on the lower strings playing more bass lines and riff patterns. 

Here is an example of a King-style blues bass line riff: 

King would take a riff like this and move it through the standard 12-bar blues chord progression. For example instead of starting the riff on E, he might start the riff on the A note like this:

How to Sound like Freddie King 

King played a number of different guitars throughout his career but he is often most associated with a cherry red Gibson ES-345. Now this guitar is a semi-hollow guitar with humbucker pickups. However on the front of his album Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King, he is seen with a Gibson Gold Top Les Paul with P90 pickups. This is what was used on his early records which included some of his most famous instrumentals like ‘Hide Away‘ and ‘San-Ho-Zay‘.  

Obviously as mentioned above a huge part of his sound is in the licks and riffs that he plays, plus his unusual playing technique of fingerstyle with a thumbpick and a metal fingerpick.  

If you want to get a sound like King, a semi-hollow Gibson guitar and leaning more on the bridge pickup for a biting tone is a great place to start. 

Hideaway Guitar Lesson (Eric Clapton Version) 

Conclusion:

Learning how to play "Hide Away" by Freddie King is a great way to improve your blues guitar skills and expand on your repertoire. By taking just a few of these licks from this blues guitar classic and working them into your own music you’ll see great progress in your blues guitar playing. Keep practicing and you'll be playing "Hide Away'' like a pro in no time! And for another great blues lesson check out "Stormy Monday" next!