 I'm Kelly Francis Carrado and I am a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and today we are going to learn a traditional blues riff. The first time I heard this riff I was eight years old and it was the first time that I can remember hearing guitar and my parents had taken me to the Chicago Blues Fest. I grew up in Chicago and I saw Coco Taylor perform who was just an incredible powerful amazing singer and she had this incredible guitar player named Beverly Watkins and that riff came on and I just remember watching the audience and just feeling this rhythm for the first time and I really wanted to learn how to do that. There's been a lot of talk or about the history of that particular riff and nobody knows who exactly wrote it but that was the first time I heard it so so today we're going to learn it. So you are going to need a guitar. Acoustic, electric, doesn't matter, a guitar pick. Also it's in standard tuning which is E, A, D, G, B and E. This is how the riff goes. So this particular riff is in two sections. Now the first section that we're going to learn is picking on the neck. So we are going to go to our fifth fret. Now the frets are the space between the metal bars. So let's start with the first one. One, two, three, four, five. Some guitars have a dot there, some don't. Let's take that first finger and we're going to wrap it around the guitar neck and we're going to press down just on that string. Now it's really important when you're holding the guitar to have the guitar tucked under this particular part of your body. So you're able to kind of move around a little bit here. A lot easier at least. So let's go back to the fifth fret, take that first finger, wrap it around. So pluck. This is going to sound like this. Now I'm going to say open and when I say open I want you to take that finger off and play it. Closed, back on that fifth fret. And let's just kind of go back and forth on here for a second. Now we're going to move to the third fret, which is two frets that way. One, two, and we're going to do the same thing. Open, closed. We're also going to stay on the low E string. Open, closed. Open, closed. Let's try putting both of those together. Open, closed on the fifth fret. Open, closed on the third fret. And then open again. Let's do it again. Open, fifth fret, closed. Open, closed on the third fret. And then open again. So we're going to do it a few times. I'm going to start off slow. Take your time with it, go a little bit faster, and then I'll go even more faster, up to speed, a little faster. Again. Okay, now for the second part. We're going to take that first finger and we're going to wrap it around our first fret. And we are going to go to one, two, three, four, which is also the G string on the first fret. We're going to take that middle finger and we're going to go to the second fret and we're going to go to the second string. One, two. Then we're going to take that third finger and we're going to go to the D string, which is right behind this finger here. Now this is your E chord. And let's just strum on this for a second, just to kind of get familiar, because this finger configuration can get a little uncomfortable. Let's just kind of get used to it. So now let's put all those two parts together. Open, five, open, three. Take the first finger down four strings, one, two, three, four on that first fret, middle finger on the second fret, on the second string, third finger on the string right behind it, the D string. And let's just strum that three times. Okay, let's try it again. Open, closed, open, closed. One more time for good luck and just practice that for a little bit. Get more familiar with it starting on the A string. Open, closed, open, closed, open. Let's do it again. One more time. Okay, now we're going to learn the A chord, which goes with it. So let's take that first finger, we're going to go to the second fret, and we're going to count down one, two, three strings, which is also the D string. Then we're going to put this finger behind that string on the G string right there. And then we're going to kind of squish this third one in there on the B string, all on the second fret. Now this is the A chord. So let's just sit here with it a minute and strum it. Now let's put both those sections together. Starting on the A string on the fifth fret, it's going to go open, closed, open, three, open. Now the A chord again is one, two, three strings down on the D string. Next finger right behind that, the other one right there too, all on the second fret. And we're going to strum it three times. Let's do it again. Open, five, open, three, open, A chord, one, two. Let's do it again. Open, five, open, three, A chord, one. Now we're going to put all of it together and we're going to start off with it slow. So just take your time and then I'll speed it up a little bit. So let's start on that E string. We're going to go open, five, open, three, open. Our E chord, first finger, one, two, three, four, middle finger, second fret on the A string, third finger on the D string on the second fret, strum three times. One, two. Okay, now we're going to go to the A string and do the same picking pattern. So open, closed, open, closed, open. And let's go to that A chord, one, two, three, starting on the D string, then the G and the B all right behind it on the second fret. One, two, three. Okay, again. A string, back to the E string, A string, get up to speed. But I want you to keep in mind, there's a lot of things going on here. There's picking, there's strumming, we're doing two different chords. So just take your time and go slow. And then the more you feel like you have it, then speed it up. This is the speed that it should be at. Thanks again. I'm Kelly Francis Corrado. I also teach at a Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Seattle. So check them out as well. And if you're interested in learning more about blues music, please check out Sister Rosetta Tharp and Johnny Lee Hooker, and many, many more artists. Thanks again.