Orville Johnson - Come Back Baby Guitar Lesson
Come Back Baby
Orville Johnson teaches his version of the classic blues song "Come Back Baby."
Taught by Orville Johnson in Songs with Orville Johnson seriesLength: 29:43Difficulty: 2.5 of 5
Orville introduces the tune Come Back Baby. It's a traditional blues lyric. The earliest recording of the song is probably Walter Davis' cut that was recorded in 1940 but the song itself is certainly older than that. This version is available on Orville's CD with the great harmonica player/songwriter Mark Graham. Their group is called the Kings of Mongrel Folk and the album is entitled "Still Goin' Strong." Two other notable guitar versions of the tune were recorded in the 1960s by Dave Van Ronk and Bert Jansch. Check them out for some variations in the guitar arrangements.
Scene 2
Orville plays the song and sings a verse. He then outlines the chords we need to know to play this song. There are three types of A chord, the basic version, one with your pinky extended to reach the A note on the 5th fret of string 1, and an A7 chord with the 1st string fretted at fret 3. The D7 chord has the 3rd (F#) in the bass on the 6th string. If you play the open 1st string (E) in this chord its name becomes D9. Orville plays the F chord by bringing his thumb over the top to catch the bass note. He demonstrates an alternate fingering for this later in the lesson. The last chord to know is E7.
Scene 3
Now we go through the tune from the top. Orville goes through the whole song one phrase at a time describing the left and right hand fingerings. He leaves out the bass line to begin with, concentrating on what you need to do with your fingers. There's one misspoken fingering at 2:17 where Orville says to fret a note with the ring finger when it is really fretted with the middle finger. Please forgive him for this mistake and play it with the correct finger.
He talks about the style of bass that your thumb will be playing and calls it the "dead thumb" or "monotonic bass" style. This is a manner of playing where you thump a note over and over on the same string, keeping the pulse of the tune going, as opposed to the alternating bass style described in one of Orville's Genre Teaching lessons.
The rest of this scene takes us up to the F chord. Orville demonstrates two different ways to play this chord and phrase and talks about the advantages and disadvantages of each way.
Scene 4
Now we play a single note run leading back to the A chord. After that, we go to the E7 and play a passage that brings us back again to the A chord. Time now for the "turnaround" that gets us back to the beginning of the song.
Scene 5
A turnaround is a phrase, usually one or two bars long, that occurs at the end of a blues chord progression to set you up to start the whole thing over again. There are endless variations for doing this that Orville explores in another lesson devoted to turnarounds. The one he uses in this piece is a classic that is often referred to as the "Robert Johnson turnaround." The influential bluesman Robert Johnson used variations of this phrase in several of his 1930s recordings that are linchpins of the modern blues repertoire.
Scene 6
Orville describes a variation you can use for the opening phrase. This variation is higher up the neck but uses the same rhythmic phrasing that you've already learned. So it sounds the same rhythmically but uses different melodic notes.
Scene 7
Orville plays the whole piece one more time including the variation on the first phrase. When you've mastered the guitar part go back to the beginning and watch what Orville does when singing the tune. Notice how he plays certain of the melodic phrases right along with his sung melodies but in other spots he leaves out the guitar melody while he sings, just keeping a rhythm, and then uses the melodic phrase on the guitar as a "fill-in lick" displacing it so it fits into the space between the singing lines. You can experiment with this and decide for yourself where you want to match the guitar notes with the singing and where you leave out the guitar melodies to make room for the singing. Have fun with this classic blues composition!
Supplemental Learning Material
Songs with Orville Johnson
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsOrville Johnson teaches a select group of his favorite songs, including a few originals.
Lesson 1
Come Back Baby
Orville Johnson teaches his version of the classic blues song "Come Back Baby."
Length: 29:43 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Depot Blues
Orville Johnson teaches a classic blues song entitled "Depot Blues." This lesson was inspired by the blues great Son House.
Length: 35:31 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Railroad Bill
Orville Johnson teaches the traditional blues song "Railroad Bill."
Length: 16:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Bye Bye Baby Blues
Orville teaches the classic blues song "Bye Bye Baby Blues" by Little Hat Jones.
Length: 21:48 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Spanish Fandango
Orville Johnson teaches the classic "Spanish Fandango."
Length: 32:50 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
A Bicycle Built for Two
Orville Johnson teaches a classic song entitled "A Bicycle Built for Two." This song is also known as "Daisy Bell."
Length: 23:54 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
About Orville Johnson
View Full Biography
Orville Johnson was born in 1953 in Edwardsville, Illinois and came up on the St. Louis, Missouri music scene, where he was exposed to and participated in a variety of blues, bluegrass and American roots music. He began singing in his Pentecostal church as a young boy, in rock bands in middle school, then took up the guitar at 17,with early influences from Doc Watson, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Chuck Berry. In the early 1970's, Orville spent several seasons playing bluegrass on the SS Julia Belle Swain, a period-piece Mississippi river steamboat plying the inland waterways, with his group the Steamboat Ramblers.
Orville moved to Seattle, Washington in 1978, where he was a founding member of the much-loved and well-remembered folk/rock group, the Dynamic Logs. Other musical associates include Laura Love, Ranch Romance, File' Gumbo Zydeco Band, Scott Law, and the Twirling Mickeys. Johnson, known for his dobro and slide guitar stylings and vocal acrobatics, has played on over 100 albums. He has appeared on Garrison Keilor's Prairie Home Companion, Jay Leno's Tonight Show and was featured in the 1997 film Georgia with Mare Winningham. His musical expertise can also be heard on the Microsoft CD-ROMs, Musical Instruments of the World and the Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball. He teaches as well at the International Guitar Seminar, Pt. Townsend Country Blues Week and Puget Sound Guitar Workshop.
Orville released 4 recordings in the 1990's: The World According to Orville (1990) Blueprint for the Blues (1998) Slide & Joy (1999) an all-instrumental dobro tour de force and Kings of Mongrel Folk (1997) with Mark Graham. He also appeared on 4 discs with the File' Gumbo Zydeco Band and produced Whose World Is This (1997) for Jim Page and Inner Life (1999) for Mark Graham. In the 21st century, he has released Freehand, a new Kings of Mongrel Folk disc, Still Goin' Strong, and been featured in the soundtracks of PBS' Frontier House and the Peter Fonda flick The Wooly Boys as well as the compilation cd Legends of the Incredible Lap Steel Guitar.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.After listening countless times to the lesson, I did finally hear how to fit the song into the guitar tab - it actually follows the guitar tab fairly closely. For example, the first 'well come back baby fits into the first and second measure, "please don't go" fits into the 2nd and 3rd bar and the second "well come back baby" fits into the 5th and 6th measures.
I love this song and Orville's interpretation of it. The instruction for playing the guitar solo section is so clear. So far, however, I'm quite lost in terms of how to play along with singing the lyrics. (Orville, I'm sorry but your Dec. 2009 comments did not help me, at all. What would help would be something like fit this phrase into measure X and this phrase into measure Y, but perhaps emphaize the bass in some measures and melody notes in others.) I have ordered a song book, Soul Hits, that includes Come Back, aby. I'm hoping it will be similar enough to Orville's version to help.
Hi Orville. I cannot pick up on the first few (4?) notes leading into the song. They are the notes you use before you analyze the "First Phrase" of the song in Scene 3. Thanks!! Rick
Not sure what you're asking about. I looked at the beginning of scene 3 and I'm explaining all the notes I'm playing. are you referring to the pickup notes I play leading to the downbeat of the A chord? It seems I explained those notes (G on the 1st string and B on the 3rd string) and showed how to slide up to the A and C#. Are those the notes you refer to?
When you first play the song it looks like you are playing a few quick notes beginning at the first fret . . . .. before you begin the song at the third fret. Also, your last three notes at the end of your song seem to be the "A" chord played on frets 4 then 3 then 2. Am I correct? I really enjoy your lesson. I first picked up a guitar one month ago at the age of 59. My rendition of Come Back Baby sounds nothing like yours . . . LOL . .. but I will work on it. Thanks in advance for your reply and have a great Labor Day!!
I looked at scene 2 and noticed that I am sliding into the first notes at the 3rd fret. That must be what you're referring to. So I am actually playing only the notes I've described but I'm sliding up to the 3rd fret, the same way I slide from the 3rd up to the 5th to reach the A chord.
Love your lesson, however, it seems you're doing a little lick leading into the main tune. Am I right? If so, could you please share it. Thanks.
Hi Orville. I cannot pick up on the first few (4?) notes leading into the song. They are the notes you use before you analyze the "First Phrase" of the song in Scene 3. Thanks!! Rick
I'm hung up trying to work the singing into the picking.....
I like the song and the lesson but I'll have to come back to it later.
Great song and arrangement and very clear instruction on how to play it by Orville.
Loved it, I'm working hard to get it perfect! It's stuck in my head!
hello Orville! Great lesson. I was wondering, is that an L.R. Baggs M1A pick up? I was thinking about buying one but they are a bit pricey. How is it?
I use it in conjunction with the Takamine undersaddle pick-up thru the Cool Tube onboard preamp and get a pretty nice sound.
Excellent teaching as far as it went . would have been nice to have finished it off with a bit of guidance about the change to the playing when singing Don't get me wrong though , a good piece of instruction . I especially appreciated the alternative f shape which suits me better
Mostly what happens when I sing the tune is that I leave out the melody notes on guitar to make room for the vocal melody. I lean on the bass riff to keep the rhythm strong while I sing and I displace some of the melody lines to make them into fills that come in between the vocal phrases. And once in a while I play the melody lines along with the vocal lines and try to match them closely which creates and interesting sound. hope these ideas are helpful...oj
I really enjoyed both of your lessons. Please continue. Thanks
Yeah, instruction on finger picking without a thumb pick! Welcome Orville! Your first lesson in wonderful. Can't wait for more!
Man, I need to pay attention a little better... so many new and awesome teachers. Hi Orville!
Thanks for the kind welcome. I'll have a bunch more lessons rolling out as time goes on. Jeff and his crew do a great job on the filming and editing. More supplemental material is on the way too so keep coming by to see what's new. see you soon!...oj
easily my favorite song on this site
sweet, more blues stuff. man I really need to do some research and learn about more blues guys, since I only know the more famous ones.
Nice lesson Orville,and welcome to Jamplay
more amazing blues, I'm so glad I joined Jamplay, great to have you here Orville, fantastic lesson, looking forward to where you'll be taking us :)
Welcome Orville! Great to have you on JamPlay!
Beautiful!!!!!
not seeing chords in suppledment
Welcome to Jamplay!
Welcome Orville! Looking forward to your lesson series.
Welcome, Orville. :)