Music Lesson: Exploring the Playing of Papa John Creech

In this lesson, we're going to look at the playing of Papa John Creech. He was a great blues player back in the 70s, known for his work with Jefferson Starship and Hot Tuna. One of the key lessons to learn from him is simplicity and repetition.

The Power of Repetition

He used lots of blues licks, but played simple licks over and over again. I'll show you how powerful it can be to just keep doing the same thing.

The Double E Lick

We'll be using a lick I call the double E lick, where we:

• Play an open E string
• Use the second finger to slide up to that note

This creates a great effect with a big, fat sound. Let's hear that with some chords, repeated over the changing chords.

Exploring Patterns

Here's another example:

• We're playing around with a simple pattern and repeating it in different parts of the bar.
• We start at the beginning of the bar, then shift it to the fourth beat.

Let's hear that with the backing. Here's one more with a repeated slide.

1, 2, 3.

Let's hear that behind the blues SA.

Modifying the Lick

We can modify that lick just by changing one note to achieve a good effect. Instead of sliding from that note, we'll slide up to the A.

Let's hear that! Notice how, with that lick, I wasn't just staying rigidly with it. I was developing the lick as I continued, adding extra notes and extending parts, but using it as the root around which we grow.

The Harmonica Trill

One of Papa John Creech's trademark licks was what I call the harmonica trill. There are lots of different ways within a chord to use this technique.

For example, within the key of A:

• We slide up to the A and trill with the third.
• Then we can play on the D string in third position, and then on the E string.

It's a selection of different notes and blues notes, but basically the same effect. Let's see how many times I can do it!

Experimenting with Fingers

Earlier, I mentioned that when you're playing a blue note and a non-blue note, you often use the same finger to slide. However, sometimes it's good to use two separate fingers. This way, you'll get two distinct notes instead of one blurred note.

Assignment

Your assignment for this lesson is to:

• Learn and memorize all of the licks in this lesson.
• Try playing them over the A blues backing.
• First, learn the melody for Blues Breaker.
• Then, try improvising over the changing chords for Blues Breaker.

See you again in the next lesson!