HANK WILLIAMS INTRO IN TWELVE KEYS

Here's Bob McNett's great guitar intro from Hank Williams's "Mind Your Own Business." I've transcribed the original (key of E) and written it out in all twelve keys, in the circle of fourths order. (E, A, D, G, C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B)

I've positioned it on the guitar to avoid open strings, although I think the original used some open strings. This was to make the fingerings transferable. The second half of the intro uses the same fingerings and string sets in each key, the first half I wrote out mostly coming off the G string, but once or twice I put it coming off the B string. This will give you two ways to do it, if you want. They sound slightly different.

Aside from the benefits of playing in the fifties country style, playing the same intro in twelve keys has numerous advantages. Playing through exercises like this is the best way to learn how to play in different keys, and how to transpose an idea to a different key without changing fingerings. I recommend playing them in the circle of fourths order, which helps you memorize how to find keys quickly. If you find yourself memorizing the fingerings (this should happen if you practice all the keys) make sure you always know what key you're playing in.

I talk a bit more about this intro in another post, on yet another blog that's even less developed than this one. here's the link.
karlstraubcountryguitar.blogspot.com/2008/12/hank-williams-lead-guitar.html
here's a website with info about Hank's great band the Drifting Cowboys.
www.angelfire.com/ny3/thedriftingcowboys/
(incidentally, that's where I picked up the fact that Bob McNett played this guitar intro. If anyone thinks it was played by someone else, they should comment here and I'll investigate.)