Happy Man Blues
is a fast fingerpickjing blues in the key of A. It was inspired by the playing of Big Bill Broonzy and Blind Lemon Jefferson and illustrates many of the sounds of the great Texas players such as Willie Reed and Funny Papa Smith. The tune starts on a D7th chord position and is characterized by a bouncy bass line with an intricate melody line played on top. The tune uses many ‘grace’ notes that give the effect of an even more of a bouncy and subtle rhythmic feeling. Grace notes are played as a quick pickup into the next note and can be a hammer-on (as in measure 3) and sometimes played as a slide note (also in measure 3). The trick is to add these notes right before the next downbeat. The bass line becomes the melody and rhythm, as in measures 9 & 10 and the tune shifts from the bass to the melody as in measure 12 & 13.