Hermit’s Hermits Unique Guitar tone for some songs.

The Mid-60's music scene was dominated by British Acts; three of which became household names - The Beatles - The Rolling Stones and Herman's Hermits, who are one of the most successful groups throughout the world. From their beginning in Manchester, England, on April 1st 1964, the band has chalked up over 23 hit singles, 10 hit albums, 3 major movies and countless television shows and concert tours all over the world - up to date they have total record sales of over 75 million.

One of the biggest hits was Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter One of the keys to this song is getting the tone on the guitar. Listen to it and then see if you can come up with how they did it. Even though it was an electric guitar the tone can be had on an acoustic (classical would be a bit more difficult.

Chords While you could play the chords in 1 st position to get the right sound and feel you will need to use barre chords. The C, Am, Ab, Bb and G7 should both be E forms while the Dm, Em and Eb should be A forms.

E form Major Ab at 4 th fret, Bb at 6 th Fret and C at 8 th fret Am at 5 th fret (Em form) Eb at the 6 th fret (A form) Dm at 5 th Em at 7 th (Am form)

Start by working on the progression The main progressions are: –4/4 ||: C Em | Dm G7 : || –4/4 ||: Am | C : || –4/4 ||: Eb Gm | Ab Bb : ||

Work a bit on the vocal part of this. Get one person to do the echo and it will really sound good!

Now to get the tone There are 2 things to get the right tone on this. First play close to the bridge – use a heavy or very heavy pick. Next slightly mute the strings – I am not 100% but close to it sure that the guitar player used a mute on the guitar. The Fender Jaguar had a switch to engage a mute (other guitars at that time had the same thing). It imitates a palm mute.

Song key The song starts and ends in the key of C major. The bridge is in Eb Pivot chord is G7 which functions as a III7 in Eb and the V7 in the key of C. Next page – let’s play it again. Listen to the original for the rhythm pattern. One of the factors that plays heavily in the British Sound is the variety of tone that the guitar players used. This changed how the US bands played also. Pay attention when listening to the Beach Boys and how they changed over time and added more tonal variety.

Put it all together One way to get the tone right is to use a muting device – can even be a t-shirt rolled up under the strings. Wrist must remain loose. For vocal parts sing a bit through your nose.

There’s A Kind of Hush Ballad Interesting chords – F F6 FMaj7 F6 in bridge

A form of the 7th E7 at the 7 th fret root on the 5 th string C7 at 8 th fret (E7 form) F (E Major Form 3 4 F G7 at the 3 rd fret (note ok to mute the 5 th string) 1 st string muted on both chords F Major 7 (E form)

Common Progression In jazz and pop the major to major 6 to major 7 back to major 6 is a common progression. At the same time The Lovin’ Spoonful (John Sabaston) did You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice with the same progression in the bridge (but in Bb not F).