Hard Time Killing Floor Blues Guitar Lesson: An in depth look at the approaches of Kelly Joe Phelps
65Grab the TAB for the exercises, and the note for note intro on my Patreon page here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/full-lesson-hard-84664554
Full lesson on the approaches Kelly Joe Phelps used to play Hard Time Killing Floor Blues (by Skip James) for the live recordings he made for the Tap The Red Cane Whirlwind live album (2005).
The performance I have worked from is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUIuMLa3KMk
KJP was such an authentic performer.
Every performance was a snapshot in time, and he never stood still.
He played this song a number of different ways in his career, lap slide, straight guitar with an alternate tuning, and later bottle neck slide.
I have been asked about this one a number of times through social media, so I thought it was time to get on it and work out what was going on.
Turns out it took quite a while!
Time Stamps:
0:00 Welcome
0:10 Intro note for note with TAB
01:53 Patron page info
02:38 Lesson starts
03:01 DADGBD tuning capo 3
03:20 The Dorian mode
04:40 Exercise 1
05:43 Exercise 2
06:41 Exercise 3
08:43 Exercise 4 & 5
09:35 Exercise 6
10:52 Exercise 7
12:03 Exercise 8
12:50 Exercise 9
13:50 Exercise 10
14:45 Further up the fretboard
15:33 Summing up, like & subscribe
This song uses an alternate tuning of DADGBD (double dropped D) and is capo'd on the 3rd fret.
The alternating thumb is in play here, much like a lot of Kelly Joe Phelp's guitar parts.
If you like this playing style, then I have a series of over 20 pieces called 'Blues on a Bench' (BOAB) that often use some of the approaches covered in this song.
Here is the Playlist for the BOAB series - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0SCYkr-Qgk&list=PL71MaQTHVgl0S0f1JZRsQzahp9nanpX3c
Again TABs, Guitar Pro Files and playing notes are all available for these pieces for mid-tier patrons.
My Kelly Joe Phelps lessons and demos are here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLd1o68NfpE&list=PL71MaQTHVgl2mFVTYd9oo16R_PrCxRT0E
Sincere thanks to my patrons and subscribers.
I have been very busy just recently with gigs, teaching and rehearsals, and then more recently with the loss of a close family friend.
The messages of encouragement for my online materials I have received have been gratefully received.
Thanks.
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At this time, Rupes McD Guitar has 2,672 views for Killing Floor spread across 2 videos. Less than an hour worth of Killing Floor videos were uploaded to his channel, roughly 5.77% of the content that Rupes McD Guitar has uploaded to YouTube.