Johnny 99

I had my weekly guitar lesson today, and for the first time my teacher and I sat down and figured out how to play a song I brought on CD.  I chose Johnny 99 by Bruce Springsteen to keep it simple.

Ryan figured it out in about eight minutes.  I checked the clock.  It included the following.

• Figuring out that Springsteen's guitar is sharp on the recording.  Speculation is that the original 4-track was sped up when mastered.
• Determining it was a straightforward 24-bar blues with a basic rhythm.
• Deciding it sounded better with a capo on the first fret after trying it both with and without capo.
• Throwing in some embellishments for the solo where Springsteen is blowing his harp.

After that it was just another five minutes to write out the basic chord structure and talk a little about the embellishments.  We still have some followup on that next week.

He mentioned, by the way, that 24-bar blues shows up in the craziest places.  Remember Prince's song, Kiss?  Yep, 24-bar blues.