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Happy Birthday Robert Johnson
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 TO COMMEMORATE THE 100TH
anniversary of the birth of Robert Johnson (give
or take—do we really know when this guy was
born?), we’re giving you this refresher course on
how he tuned and capoed when tracking his classics.
Here, Jesse Gress demystifies the various ways
Johnson got his blues across and distills it all into
this handy reference guide. Now go get some!
Robert Johnson has been documented
using seven different tunings—standard, plus
six alternates—and he had numerous signature
moves in each one, but exploring these
in tandem with his recordings isn’t quite as
simple as it might seem. Apparently, when
the original 78 rpm discs were referenced
from Steve LaVere’s collection for The New
Transcriptions, considerable pitch and key discrepancies
were discovered between these
and many of the remastered CD tracks on
1990’s The Complete Sessions. It was also determined
that R.J. often tuned down a half-step,
which (along with capoing) made song keys
difficult to decipher. And to further complicate
matters, the 1998 Sony/Columbia reissue
of King of the Delta Blues Singers features a
selection of songs that reflect their original
78 rpm pitch. Yikes! This clusterf**k makes
playing along with Johnson’s recordings confusing
and transcribing them a nightmare!
So how do you deal?
Fortunately, The New Transcriptions puts
the whole mess in perspective by providing
state-of-the-art tuning and capo info
for at least one take of every song from each
source. (Fact: Johnson was known to switch
tunings for different takes of the same song,
as on “Phonograph Blues.”) I’ve condensed
this info into the handy chart shown here,
which lists the tuning and capoing for every
track from The Complete Sessions in accordance
with TNT. (Tip: You can find the song
titles at Amazon.com.) To play along with
the TCS tracks, you’ll have to move your
capo one fret higher than indicated (opento-
first, first-to-second, etc.), except for
tracks 9-11 and 13-15 on disc 1, and tracks
2-6, and 18-21 on disc 2, which are played
as indicated. Finally, tune 1/4 step sharp
for tracks 7 and 8 on disc 2. (Of course,
you could always varispeed the source, but
it just ain’t the same.) Whew!
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