Boom Boom Boom

A short lesson on how to play a version of this John Lee Hooker classic

Howdy folks!

I hope this finds you well.

Here is a quick lesson on how to play Boom Boom by: John Lee Hooker. This is a version I picked up from my father some years ago when just starting out. It is a great way to practice not only a stop and go style blues but also combining some pentatonic licks with chords, essentially the building blocks of playing rhythm and lead.

You’ll hear me refer to the I the IV and the V - this is commonly known as the Nashville number system (more on that later) which are scale degrees pulled from the major or minor mode, usually. The scale degrees are used as the root note for every chord. So for example the IV chord in the key of E Blues is “A”. The E major scale being:

E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E = I-II-III-IV-V-VI-VII-VIII

You can use this system in any given key but the standard for a blues tune is: I-IV-V.