# How does Robert Johnson do it? (Guitar playing technique.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694 "2014-03-02T20:13:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/41 "2014-03-05T21:08:44Z")
Rory Block plays his style rather well. She can’t sing like him worth a damn, though. I read somewhere that he would sit facing a close wall, and it would acoustically change the sound. Since Eric Clapton liked his guitar work so well, why did he record _Me and Mister Johnson_ with a band? ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/42 "2014-03-05T21:25:58Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I’ve been listening to [this](http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Recordings-Centennial-Collection/dp/B004OFWLO0/) Robert Johnson CD lately, and it sounds like he’s playing two guitars simultaneously. What’s this technique called? More importantly, how is it done? > > Am I correct in assuming this is very difficult to do? Getting back on track with this thread, the way I learned to fingerpick, way back in high school, was by holing up in my room with a guitar and a Mississippi John Hurt (a later blues guitarist/singer, whose style is considerably different from that of Johnson, but it’s still fingerstyle) and just working for hours and hours (days and days, really) to get my thumb independent of my other fingers. Once I had that down, the rest wasn’t that hard. Back then, when I was an ignorant kid, it never occurred to me that Hurt might be tuning his guitar differently than the standard EADGBE tuning, so I probably made it harder for myself than it had to be. I did manage to figure out that dropping the low E to D made everything easier, and I used a capo to deal with different keys. Thumb independence is the key to the whole thing, at least at my less-than-professional level of playing. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/43 "2014-03-05T21:40:33Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Rory Block plays his style rather well. She can’t sing like him worth a damn, though. > > I read somewhere that he would sit facing a close wall, and it would acoustically change the sound. > > Since Eric Clapton liked his guitar work so well, why did he record _Me and Mister Johnson_ with a band? The hotel room where he cut his tracks that ended up being our only record of him is known. I believe the folks recording him had him face a corner to get a bit of reverb/space into the mic… As for Clapton - heck, why not? Slowhand doesn’t have many recordings - even Unplugged - where he plays solo fingerstyle blues, even though he can. Not sure why… ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/44 "2014-03-06T18:39:51Z")
It was that “sounds like he’s playing two guitars at once” sound of a waltz that got me started on classical guitar 30some years ago. Here’s a video that demonstrates it nicely. It is a beginner’s piece, but very pretty. [Waltz in A minor by Matteo Carcassi](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1UL66COelk) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/45 "2014-03-06T18:44:23Z")
[Mike Dawes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1bzUaf_gvU)is one of the best fingerpickers around these days. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/46 "2014-03-07T01:12:25Z")
I’ve never seen any evidence that Clapton can play true fingerstyle blues. He just adapts the material to his style. RJ played in the typical Delta fingerstyle manner. RJ’s greatness isn’t in his guitar playing: there were and are much better fingerstyle blues players (Blind Blake and others could play circles around him). “Kind Hearted Woman,” for example, is actually very easy to play. His greatness was the total package he offered: the combination of his guitar playing and singing with great material and an almost otherworldly emotional commitment to that material. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/47 "2014-03-07T03:02:55Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#): > > I’ve never seen any evidence that Clapton can play true fingerstyle blues. He just adapts the material to his style. > > RJ played in the typical Delta fingerstyle manner. RJ’s greatness isn’t in his guitar playing: there were and are much better fingerstyle blues players (Blind Blake and others could play circles around him). “Kind Hearted Woman,” for example, is actually very easy to play. His greatness was the total package he offered: the combination of his guitar playing and singing with great material and an almost otherworldly emotional commitment to that material. Are there recordings of Blind Blake and the others available? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/48 "2014-03-07T03:12:39Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Are there recordings of Blind Blake and the others available? Sure. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GF8fjfQaTok?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/49 "2014-03-07T03:15:44Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Are there recordings of Blind Blake and the others available? Blind Blake recordings are easy to find - just look on Amazon, iTunes or your favorite music site. You can also find his stuff on Youtube. Blind Blake was a great guitarist who played both blues and ragtime. He could play intricate passages very smoothly. I think Robert Johnson was a better singer than Blake was. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/50 "2014-03-07T03:23:59Z")
Thanks, off I go. I recorded a documentary on Robert Johnson. Am elderly Black woman was interviewed, and asked, “Did you ever hear him play?” She responded, “Yes, that’s how I got pregnant.” (Love in Vain.) She did not know that he became rather famous as a Blues guitarist. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2014, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/51 "2014-03-09T18:51:19Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I think Robert Johnson was a better singer than Blake was. Absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/52 "2014-03-10T17:00:33Z")
I’ll also point out that RJ is _not_ the King of the Delta Blues Singers. That title belongs to Charley Patton, as RJ himself well knew. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/53 "2014-03-12T16:46:29Z")
/hijack ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/54 "2014-03-22T21:48:06Z")
One last thing (I hope) about the recording speeds of Robert Johnson’s records. Bruce Conforth, a professor in the Department of American Culture at the University of Michigan, just posted to his Facebook page a quote on the topic from the lead archive engineer at Sony. You can see it [here](https://www.facebook.com/Bluesprof?fref=ts). I would reproduce the quote here, except that I don’t know if it would violate copyright rules (or SDMB rules). The gist of it is that this engineer thinks the theory is nonsense, for many reasons: the recordings were made over several sessions, there is good evidence that nothing was wrong with the recording equipment (based on recordings made by other musicians in the same studios on the same days), and it’s unlikely that they would have gone to such trouble for an itinerant blues musician. The engineer also says if they wanted to speed up the recordings, they would have made a record at the standard speed and dubbed it. They have the original metal parts for many of the recordings, and their speed matches the released records. Also, if they were dubbed, there would be an extra layer of noise on the released records, and it’s not there. I’ll say it again. Robert Johnson’s records don’t sound the way they do because someone speeded them up. They sound that way because he was a good guitarist. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/55 "2014-03-23T02:49:36Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I’ll say it again. Robert Johnson’s records don’t sound the way they do because someone speeded them up. They sound that way because he was a good guitarist. And had at times a really, really, creepy voice. Not that there is anything wrong with that. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/56 "2014-03-23T03:09:51Z")
Playing a bass note with the thumb is a common picking technique. Or even playing a short walking bass line between chord changes. Techniques like that can really improve an intermediate player’s sound. Robert Johnson took it to an entirely different level. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/57 "2014-03-23T03:29:28Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Playing a bass note with the thumb is a common picking technique. Or even playing a short walking bass line between chord changes. Techniques like that can really improve an intermediate player’s sound. > > Robert Johnson took it to an entirely different level. Not really. I’ve been playing this stuff for decades, and RJ’s songs are relatively easy to play compared to stuff by Blind Blake, Gary Davis, Willie McTell, and others. It’s the whole package that makes him great, not any one element. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694/58 "2014-03-23T03:30:30Z")
I will say that RJ’s slide vibrato is _unreal_. Wicked. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-robert-johnson-do-it-guitar-playing-technique/682694.md?page=2)