Spoonful - Willie Dixon

Hello there!
Does anyone know the original tabs for Spoonful - Willie Dixon.

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Welcome
Allan Bellamy

Hello @JohnJohn, this?

Greetings from Astrid :woman_in_lotus_position:

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Hey @JohnJohn welcome to the forum my friend! Yep:

-2 -3’ -2 -3’ -2 -3’ -2

Rock on,
Luke
:metal:t3:

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Guten Samstag Astrid,

Beste Grüsse aus der Schweiz

Paul

PS: I just tried the Lick - Makes fun :slight_smile:

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Gruetzi in die :switzerland: Paul, @PaulCharly. Wunderbar, :metal: weiter.
Viele Grüße von Astrid

Hey @PaulCharly - welcome to the forum! Thank you so much for being here my friend!

Rock on,
Luke :sunglasses:

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Just wanna confirm we’re talking about the same song here:

This song is in the key of G, and is played in 2nd position on a C harmonica. The main riff is -2 -3’ -2 -3’ -2 -3’ -2. Those 2 notes are G and Bb.

You could play this riff in 5th position on an Eb harmonica and achieve the same notes of G and Bb in which case the main riff would be 2 -2 2 -2 2 -2 2. That would sound good and wouldn’t require the technical demands of trying to play that pesky -3’ in tune when playing it on a C harmonica in 2nd position.

My understanding is that Big Walter Horton is the player on the Willie Dixon recording, and his playing is FANTASTIC. I’ve only discovered Big Walter Horton later and life, and the more I hear, the more I’m impressed.

On this track he’s doing some really tasteful tongue slapping the -2, you can hear it really well at 1:00 where I started the link above, and then at 1:10 he busts into a badass solo,

@JohnJohn were you wanting the tabs for the solo? If so, it starts with a nice long dirty -4.

When I say Dirty -4 that means he’s opening up the right width of his mouth ever so slightly so that a tiny bit of the -5 is getting in there too, and gets a bit louder the longer the note sustains (and he also bends it down as it approaches the end.)

After he holds that note, he plays an overdubbed solo. You can tell it’s overdubbed because whereas the -5 is cleaner and more in the distance in the right speaker, the solo starts in the left speaker more upfront and slightly more distorted and just before the -5 finishes. I guess it could have been played live and altered in post.

At any rate he comes right down the blues scale from the 4:

4 -3’ -2 -2" -1 -1’ 1 and then finishes with the -2 -3’

He plays a tasty lick -3’ -3 -4 6 (the -4 is so fast you hardly hear it. -3’ -3 6 is typically how I think about playing this lick. For you theory nerds, that’s the interval of a 6th, and it’s beautiful!)

And then he plays the coolest lick:
-6 6 -5 -4 -4’ -3’ -2 -2" -1 -1’ -1 -2 -3’

And then does a quick tongue rake -4 -3’ -2 and then resumes the intro lick.

Hope that helps. So stoked on this song. Really tasty stuff. Might need to do a video on this at some point?..

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Perhaps the Cream version is a little different. I based my observations on a guitar lesson for that version, so I’m definitely willing to admit that I could be wrong when it comes to the original, or at least, older versions, and the harmonica.
While I’ve sung it hundreds of times, I haven’t played it much, and just do as I’m told! :slightly_smiling_face:
I’m sorry if I’ve confused the matter, but I did look it up to confirm (I thought so anyway!) that I was remembering it correctly, but it seems like I’m mistaken.
Edit- I’ve deleted my post as it will just cause confusion.

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Luke you are amazing! 1000 thanks man!!! Sorry for the late response!

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Right on @JohnJohn FANTASTIC tune man. Glad you’re finding my response helpful. Rock on! :raised_hands:t3:

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