THE BLACK WIDOW
Link Wray
Great Guitar Hits by Link Wray - 1962
Tabbed by Dylan Ward
This song is written in a very straightforward 12 bar blues structure.
12 bar blues uses the root note, the perfect fifth and the perfect fourth to base riffs
and chords around.
Link Wray uses this structure a lot in his songs so it's a cool bit of knowledge to have.
This song is in the key of E, so it plays four bars on root note; E (i), before jumping
for two bars to the perfect fourth; A (iv).
It then returns to E (i) for two bars before moving to the perfect fifth; B (v) for one bar,
back to the A (iv) for one bar and finally returning to E (i) for two bars and
completing the 12 bar structure.
Standard Tuning
-p- = pull off
-h- = hammer on
(i)1 (i)2
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
A|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
E|--7-------7-----------7------|--7-------7-----------7------|
(i)3 (i)4
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
A|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
E|--7-------7-----------7------|--7-------7-----------7------|
(iv)5 (iv)6
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
A|--7-------7-----------7------|--7-------7-----------7------|
E|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
(i)7 (i)8
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
A|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
E|--7-------7-----------7------|--7-------7-----------7------|
(v)9 (iv)10
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|----9-9p7---7h9-7h9-7---7-9--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
A|--9-------9-----------9------|--7-------7-----------7------|
E|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
(i)11 (i)12
e|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
B|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
G|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
D|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
A|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|----7-7p5---5h7-5h7-5---5-7--|
E|--7-------7-----------7------|--7-------7-----------7------|
The song simply repeats this structure throughout.
There is also a little solo thing Link does but haven't
figures that out, this should provide a good base for
throwing licks around on top of however. Cheers