BLUE SUEDE BLUES
It was the early 1950s, and rock ‘n’ roll was beginning to take off. Amidst folk music, country and swing, the influence that African American blues musicians were having on mainstream music was becoming undeniable. One musician that found fame in this period was Carl Perkins. His blend of rock and roll riffs with down-home blues guitar licks and country picking influences would launch him into the charts and the history books as the king of rockabilly. In this issue’s column, we assimilate the ideas of the innovative Carl Perkins, and I’ll walk you through some of the loose concepts that could be applied to his ideas so you can make them your own!
This twelve bar form is recorded at 160bpm and slowed down to 100bpm on the second track for practicing and learning purposes.
BARS 1-4
You will notice that the ideas outlined in this solo are close to the A minor pentatonic shape - a scale you should be familiar with in a position you should also be familiar with. With this being your basic framework, try and note the things Perkins does that you may not be familiar with. This is the trick to understanding different styles - take what you know and add to it! So, the first thing you will notice is the use of the seventh fret on the second string - the F#. This note is v ery cool; we call it the sixth note. We are currently playing over the A chord. It would be the sixth note in an A major scale. We then launch into a series of double stops with bends - very Chuck Berry (or is Chuck Berry very Perkins?). In Bar # 3, we get a little bit of chromaticism - you can always experiment with notes between notes - have no fear! You can see and hear that this works well. The last bar is almost like a rhythmic groove on two different notes setting up the shift to the D or IV (4) chord.
BARS 5-8
Once we hit the D or IV (4) chor d, the double stop section that plays on the notes you would see in a D9 chord is really cool. It’s almost a syncopated drumming approach - not complicated, really, but quite rhythmic. You’ll also notice that the next bar utilises the F# or seventh fret on the second string once again. It’s now acting as the third note of a D major scale, so worked into your A minor pentatonic shape, it sounds really cool and connects with the A minor pentatonic very nicely. Bars #7 and #8 are probably the most signature Carl Perkins - this rhythmic little motif is very rockabilly. I like to keep my hand swinging as if I’m strumming when I do this, keeping the up stroke on the off beat and the down stroke on the beat. Listen to the track to get a feel for this lick.
BARS 9-12
If you didn’t follow the mention of a D9 before in Bar #5, the tab here has it covered. You are looking now at an E9 chord, sitting over the final turnaround on the E or V (5) chord. Get the rhythm right here, but otherwise once you hold your fingers in place, it’s quite simple.
Bars #11 and #12 is a commonly used walk up that Carl Perkins popularised in quite a few of his tunes. This is a classic way to end a song, and I recommend learning it in a few different keys - it’s a great way to sort a band out if they are floundering for a spot to finish. It’s very much just a chromatic walk up from the third note of the A chord that then goes up the major scale from the fifth note or E, rounding out with the E F# G# and resolving on the A. You’ll hear it like freight train when you listen to the track for the first time.
SUMMARY
I hope you enjoyed this month’s installment of This period of guitar playing - regardless of the genre - was in my mind the coolest, freshest and most exciting time where music was about having fun and joy in a time of optimism post-World War II. Thanks again for reading, and I’ll catch up with you all in the next column!