I was recently asked by a student how to play the Rock N Roll classic Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran.
What a great song! As a guitar teacher here in beautiful Tunbridge Wells I couldn't wait to get started. Here's what I found:
It features three chords, which are E major, A major and B7th.
First off the song uses a very interesting technique of sliding the 2nd and 3rd fingers from the first fret to the second fret while holding down the 5th and 4th strings. So in other words, start off by putting your 2nd finger behind the first fret on the 5th string, and your 3rd finger behind the 1st fret of the 4th string. We then slide up from that position to the chord of E major. The intro is a combination of sliding between the two positions.
It's also worth pointing out that the strings are slightly muted by the right hand by resting the side of the palm on the strings while playing this part.
We then move on to the next part of the song which is the “riff” and is repeated at intervals throughout. It is played by holding an E major chord and strumming : up-down-up, then strum down once on an A major chord. Next we strum: up-down-up while holding a B7th chord and then return back to E major to strum down once.
So to summarise: E major: UP-DOWN-UP A: DOWN ( Snatch ) B7th: UP-DOWN-UP E: DOWN
There is a technique known as a “snatch” that appears between the chords of A and B7th and is a muted string sound. Here we keep hold of the chord of A, but we don't press down on it. This causes the strings not to ring. While the strings are in this muted state, we strum down- up before changing to the B7th. We can also mute the strings further by using the side of the palm on our right hand.
The lines of the verses such as “I'm gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holla” are sung over the slide up to E section. The E-A-B7th-E riff is played between the verse lines and after the chorus.
The chorus however( which is the bit that starts “ sometimes I wonder what I'm a gonna do” ) is strummed out in the chord of A major.
I recently made a video tutorial on how to play Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran, which you can view by clicking on this link - https://youtu.be/1HiPUzmvHZo
Give it a go and have fun with it!
Daniel Berry
Guitar teacher Tunbridge Wells