How to Play 12 Bar Blues in John Lee Hooker Style – Boom Boom Riff

Hey, how’s it going this is Jon McLennan with Guitar Control, bringing you this video lesson and we’re looking at a song called “Boom Boom” by John Lee Hooker. This is a great riff to learn going through a 12 bar blues and I actually had the pleasure of getting to play with John Lee Hooker Jr. at the Central Organ Blues Festival when I was on tour in Oregon and yeah his guitar player was just phenomenal.

12 Bar Blues in the Style of John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom Riff

Electric-Blues-Guitar-Lesson-12-Bar-Blues-Riff-in-the-Style-of-John-Lee-Hooker-Boom-Boom

What I did is I combined the main riff with the base line, so you could play it and sounds like you know the full song. Here’s the first riff, but we’re starting on the 2nd fret and we’re sliding up to the fourth first finger down and slide back down from the fourth and second,  just typical blues down there.

And then I play the bass line which is 0, 4, 0, 2, 0, and then you do this phrase that’s 2, 0, 3, 2, 0, 2, 0, and 2. And leave you the baseline again, same lick all those time going to an A and then the riff number 2 and then B7 and that’s 1, 2, 4, 2, and I started that same note.

That’s just pentatonic 2, 0, 2, 0, 0, and 2. You can start back over at the top again, but be sure to click the link below for the tabs for this it’s a great tune to learn take it slow go rift by riff and you can always omit if this is too hard omit is just go. Let the bass line play because that’s what John Lee Hooker does on the recording. Make sure to subscribe on our You Tube Channel and we’ll see you in our next video lessons, thanks for watching.

12 -Bar Blues Guitar Song Lesson

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