Learn to play Sweet Home Chicago by Robert Johnson on JustinGuitar!
View the full lesson at Sweet Home Chicago by Robert Johnson | JustinGuitar
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If you’re interested in some of the history of this song pre-Robert Johnson, check out Kokomo Blues about Kokomo, Indiana, originally written by Scrapper Blackwell, the guitarist for Leroy Carr and made famous by Kokomo Arnold. This NPR piece about it is pretty cool! https://knkx.org/jazz-and-blues/2013-11-29/kokomo-blues-among-the-roots-of-sweet-home-chicago
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Wow! I’m so stoked and inspired by this lesson!
This is the best Christmas present even though a month late 
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Finally some Robert! Awesome. Thanks. How about some more of him or Blind Willie Johnson, perhaps Charley Patton? Cant wait for the intensive course. Hope to see some Delta blues in there.
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Am I going mad or are there 13 bars in the tab? And it doesn’t follow the standard V IV I V pattern in the last 4 bars?
It’s early though and i haven’t had caffeine yet! 
WB
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The written chord chart has that appearance but it is 12-bar and it is V, IV, I, V on the turnaround section.
Thanks Richard, that is as i thought.
The tab seems to show half a bar of E then half of B in the last bar. Is that due to the turnarounds used?
I’m just getting used to the simpler beginner pattern first hence my confusion over the standard V IV I V finish in the last 4 bars.
Regards,
WB.
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Does anyone have a Guitar Pro file for this song? I’ve tried creating one myself but it’s a bit beyond my skills at the moment. I could download a file from the GP site but I’d prefer Justin’s version so I can play along with it using the GP features of slowing the tempo etc…
Regards,
WB.
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Sharing the tab publicly is against copyright. 
I disagree that a copyright this old should still be held, but that is a different topic.
Justin has the tab for this. I subscribe to his tabs so I see it on the lesson page. If you get the tab, then you could just play along with Justin in the intro and not a GP file to play with.
I agree this tab would be hard to create in a few places. I hear something different than I see on his tab - specifically the flourish he covers in detail between the E/A shuffle changes. You can slow his lesson down and probably get it ironed out. The timing is a bit rough to see and hear for me. I do think it is fair to ask for guidance for short section and that may get you past a trouble spot building your own GP file.
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I am having difficulty playing the fingers on this without the thumb just stopping. Is there a good exercise to work on that will help with this?
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S - L - O - W - L - Y.
Try this pared down training with a muted 6th string to get the finger picked timing working.
I am consciously not sharing the actual tab due to copyright. But this gives the essential information.
A one bar count in. The drum is playing shuffle 8ths as a guide.
Two bars of concentrating solely on the finger picked embellishment notes and their timing. I have notated everything in triplets so you can clearly see what is happening and when - and when nothing is happening too ( therests) and count along.
Now the muted thumb 8ths have been added. These are the x symbols on the 6th string of the tab. Notice how the 1, 2, 3, 4 always line up with the first of the triplets but the & after 1, 2, 3, 4 is always offset. It falls between the trip and the let parts of the triplet.
Make the first part automatic before incorporating your thumb for the second part.
I know this sounds contrary and most advice would be to train your thumb first. I am not contradicting that. I am assuming that you have already spent a great deal of time training your thumb to play shuffle 8ths with the chunka-chunka rhythm. If you have not then you also need to put the effort into that aspect before the second section above.
Beyond this pared down approach is the shuffle rhythm in the bass with the embellishment notes.
I hope that helps.
Richard
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I wonder who claims to own the copyright in perpetuity for sheet music of a Robert Johnson song considering he died almost 100 years ago. Maybe it was part of his deal with the devil at the crossroads.
Should we pay the copyright tax every time we play it too haha.
While certainly not an expert, I used to work in the patent and trademark space. I believe even though the original music may no longer be under copyright, recent arrangements or transcriptions may still be under copyright of the arranger / creator. For example, you can’t necessarily go photocopying scores of classical music and freely distributing them.
I can answer my own question because I do have the published music. The copyright is with Lehsem II, LLC and one Claud L. Johnson. Lehsem is a NY publishing house “affiliated to BMI Associated with Robert Johnson”.
Surprised if this is still in force that Justin didn’t get a copyright strike on YouTube!
Thanks for the comprehensive reply Richard, I will take a studied look a little later.
> I am assuming that you have already spent a great deal of time training your thumb to play shuffle 8ths with the chunka-chunka rhythm. If you have not then you also need to put the effort into that aspect before the second section above.
No. I am completely new to fingerstyle, I chose this song because I like it and it’s within my very limited singing range. I am realising it is far more advanced than I at first thought and I need to start fingerstyle at the beginning if I can find a suitable course/lessons.
Hi @Steve_t1 ,
My initial attempts at thumb and finger independence were with songs too hard. It really helped me to go with something very short and repeating that didn’t have a lot of flourish changes throughout the song. For example:
I initially tried M&O Blues. This was before I was out of Grade 2. It was quite far beyond my skill and it took me months to get the basic two riffs working and I STILL do not have all the flourish deviations in the turn-arounds in memory and a couple are still awkward to perform. I have a similar story with Hey, Hey (Justin’s lesson).
I gave up on completing those for a time and was able to learn the repeating riff on Smokestack Lightning in just a few days. It took another 4-5 weeks for me to play it fairly reliably. I think the Howlin’ Wolf version is pretty fast to start with, but there are a few slower covers. The one with Billy Gibbons is slow enough that I was able to start to fiddle with the riff a bit. My favorite to play with is from The Cat Burglars and can be found on Youtube.
I learned this riff by going extremely slowly using thumb and fingers together where they were needed to be together and individually when they need to be. I paid low attention to the timing and rhythm, starting with 3 notes, then 4, then 5… once I have that in memory, I added timing, but still going very slowly. I do mean slow - like initially one note per second or slower until I had it fixed in my head. I slowly increased speed until I could play it with one of the slower covers. Over time, I can now play it maybe 15-20% faster than the Howlin’ Wolf version but it does lose a lot of feel when I do that and I can occasionally have a train wreck when I lose concentration.
I used this same method on the Sweet Home Chicago flourish. It is still learning in process, but I can pull it off reasonably well when I have my concentration on it. I hope this makes some sense for you along with what Richard said so you have a faster progression to playing this! Once you get one song working, the next will be a bit easier.
Hi and thanks
Yes that makes a lot of sense, I certainly need to find something slow and simple to begin as I have always been a pick player. I will give Smokestack a go and look for some exercises as well.
If it is bluesy fingerstyle you want, this is a fantastic learning module.
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That looks like it could be just what I need right now I will probably purchase it, cheers Richard
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It is a free course Steve.
You could donate of course
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