In today’s Acoustic Guitar Tutorial we’re looking at how to play Eddie Cochrans SUMMERTIME BLUES.. Released in 1958 this rock n roll – infused song consists of only 3 chords in the key of E – E A & B7.
It’s a simple, upbeat tune with a repetitive song structure that’s easily memorable. In this lesson I introduce muted strums in order to build the rhythm and contribute to the drive of the song. I have shown how to play the song without the mutes which is perfectly fine. If you’d like to add in the percussive elements of the mutes I have added these in step by step and included rhythm charts to help with the visual learning.
The second half of the Verses contains the classic blues riff used in thousands of songs. This is on the A chord section. This is a great riff to master and endlessly effective and useful as a guitarist. I have included tab in this section. If you are unable to play this just play the A chord for this section. Enjoy learning this summer-inspired Rock n Roll tune. It’s a guitar classic. 🎸
THE SONG:
The chords-
3 chords today. The I IV V in the Key of E
The Intro-
The song begins with a slide & chords intro.
The tab below shows the slide section
This is followed by the chords and mutes. It’s best to set up the fluency with just the chord rhythm below before adding in the mutes.
Once you have mastered the above rhythm start to include the muted strums (indicated by the X).
The whole intro plays the slide section, followed by the 2-bar chord rhythm played twice.
The Verse –
There are 3 Verses in the song. They are all exactly the same (guitar -wise). I’ve divided the Verse into 2 sections.
- Chords/mutes
- Blues riff
The chords / mutes –
The mutes lie underneath the lyrics. Play the rhythm below on muted strings for this.
The chords are after each lyrical sentence. They punctuated the story. This is the same rhythm/chords we’ve already covered in the Intro.
The blues riff –
Follow the tab below. Play this twice.
The structure of the Verse is – mutes | chords | mutes | chords | blues riff & chord stabs x 2 |
The Song Structure –
FULL VIDEO LESSON
FULL SONG PLAYTHROUGH
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