Hey Hey Guitar Lesson – Eric Clapton

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Difficulty:
Length: 14:12

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Artist website
Music video

• 12 bar blues
• Blues chords
• Hammer-ons
• Palm muting
• Pull-offs

Eric Clapton is one of the best guitarists of all time (and he can sing as well :-)), and his lessons are always welcomed by my students.

Hey Hey is an acoustic blues tune from his Unplugged album (a great album by the way), which is actually a cover of the original Big Bill Broonzy version. I personally like Eric Clapton's version just a bit more, but you be the judge 🙂 Here is Big Bill's version.

It is a great song to learn, as you'll really advance your fingerpicking technique and your timing, and not forgetting the fact that your friends will be amazed that you can play this song.

Hey Hey is an acoustic blues tune, but you can play it on the electric guitar as well, in which case you'll want to make sure you turn your distortion off, so you're playing through your amp's clean channel.

Our video guitar lesson on Hey Hey will teach you everything you'll need to be able to play along with the original recording. First, you'll be learning the main riffs of the song, which are divided into 6 parts in this tutorial.

Take your time with each, and watch the rhythm, it's a bit difficult to play at first (but will become second nature with enough practice).

Also, learning when to apply palm muting to just the right strings might take some time to get used to as well. Once you learn the main riffs to Hey Hey with our guitar tutorial, your fingerpicking technique will have improved by at least 10 fold. It is a tough one, but as you know, practice makes perfect.

Once you learn the main riffs to Hey Hey, you'll learn the chord progression Eric Clapton plays during the verse. It is a classic 12 bar blues progression in the key of E, which you will learn rather quickly. As you know, the 12 bar blues is always made up of just 3 chords played in a specific progression, which you'll learn in the lesson.

You'll be able to apply the new techniques you learn to other blues songs as well, so make sure you learn this song well.

Now I teach Hey Hey on an acoustic guitar, but if you have an electric, no problem. It will sound better on the acoustic, but perfectly playable and nice on the electric as well, so you have no excuse. You must learn this song 😉

Hey Hey song details

Hey Hey was originally recorded by Big Bill Broonzy, an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist who shaped early blues music during the first half of the 20th century. Early blues had a large influence on Eric Clapton as well, hence his cover of Hey Hey.

This guitar lesson is on Eric Clapton's version, but make sure you listen to the original Broonzy version as well.

If you want to refine the skills you learned in Hey Hey, check out these lessons on songs by clicking these links:
12 bar blues / Blues chords / Hammer-ons / Palm muting / Pull-offs

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