Lightnin's Sky Hop Guitar Lesson by Johnny Burgin

I might be preaching to the choir when I talk about how devastating and exciting this song is.
A lot of you probably recognize this as a granddaddy to "Rude Mood" by SRV.
I broke this down into smaller pieces. It's a three part song with a boogie beginning (E position, pitchwise it's in F so I used a capo rather than retune the guitar). That part is doable even at Lightnin's breakneck tempo. This is a good thing to practice with the thumbpick and finger.
The second part is not exactly 16 bars, on one chord. It's like a jet runway! The first half is just based around the E shape chord, and then it takes off into some leads, either at the 13th fret or on the lower notes in a really ballsy way. Then the last half is like a buckdance or something, a danceable theme that Lightnin used again and again, to wrap it up. He goes through this set of three three times. Have fun!
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[@scarbroughmusicchannel722]

Omg my life may be complete!!! There’s actually a sky hop lesson!!!!! Just made my decade. Literally went in a liquor store to get a drink thinking “damn I wonder if anyone will do a sky hop lesson before I die?” The boom!!!

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Boo yah!! thanks a lot man! tough song!

[@DonDeering]

Go Johnny, go! This is beautiful! The Herald recordings are so fine!

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Hi thanks Don! Those are my favorites

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Thanks Don! Those are my favorites

[@jipes]

So cool et so energetic love it !!!! I just airplay several song of Lightnin tonight in my radio show, mainly songs where he plays acoustic

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Awesome!!! Thanks Jipes!

[@desmo999]

Faaantastic lesson! Thank you very much! Warm greetings from left/green filthy Germany!

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Thanks so much Marc! I'm gonna come back to some songs he did in D too

[@johnw4659]

"Try to make it bounce" sort of sums it up for me. Thank you as always for a wonderful lesson, Johnny. Take care and hope to see you in Ventura again soon.

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

yes that would be great, thanks John!

[@paultownsend6043]

Fantastic as always Johnny, The more i hear of Hopkins music, the more my mind gets blown, one hell of a player. Albert and Jimi get mentioned a lot as big influrances on SRV, but you hear so much of Lightning's music in him.

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

He was the muddy waters of Texas! In terms of influence. He's even better if that's possible in A! Thanks Paul

[@juantorano2426]

♥️♥️♥️ thanks Johnny

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Thanks a lot Juan!

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Thanks so much!

[@robinharvey6636]

Another great lesson!!

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

thank you very much Robin!

[@willowufgood261]

Wow this is going to be awesome

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

Right on thanks man!

[@CoyoteSlim]

Yeah! Obviously I'm a big fan of Lightnin, and I appreciate this lesson. I'll add that I think what a lot of people get confused with is they try to fit Lightnin stuff into 12 bar format (or 16 or whatever)-- when I think he played patterns, or sections as you say. Probably what messes people up who try and play with me as well, because I learned by imitating this stuff and just playing patterns. It's pretty reductionist for people to say "you can't play along with Lightnin because he doesn't change when he's supposed to" -- when he said "Lightnin changes when Lightnin changes" I think what he meant was not that his music had no structure but that his structure was different. That's my interpretation and opinion anyway. The same goes for a lot of John Lee Hooker material. If you stop counting and just feel those rhythm segments you'll do fine.

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

very good point. it's not rigidly 12 bar but isn't simply random. Yes same re JLH. Awesome. thanks CoyoteSlim!

[@ruthiesbbq]

You got in lightning head

[@JohnnyBurginBlues]

High praise! Good to hear from ya!