Level: 3
Tuning: Crossnote

Skip James was perhaps the most stylistically original of the blues performers from the Mississippi River Delta region, with his unusual cross-note (open D minor) tuning, haunting falsetto vocals, and an intense, variable marriage of music and lyrics. Countless artists have come under his spell, including Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore, Dion Dimucci, Buddy Guy, and even Beck, among many others. Skip James made 18 released recordings for the Paramount Record Company before the Depression carried him into obscurity. In this lesson we study two of Skip's best-known compositions. Both are played in the Crossnote tuning. Your guitar is tuned to an open Em chord (E B E G B E) or you can tune down to an Open Dm tuning (D A D F A D).

"Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" has the melody played on the bass strings with a recurring lick on the third string. "I'm So Glad", made famous by the rock group Cream, is a tour de force of fingerpicking in the Crossnote tuning.