Baby Please was recorded by many legendary blues guitar players, including Big Bill, Big Joe Williams, Brownie McGhee and others. Hopkins gives it a great twist here. He follows the basic blues in E structure, but adds some unique techniques, such as a syncopated thumb beat in the instrumental break. Although it looks a piece of cake on paper, getting that guitar rhythm down takes some practice, if we want it to hit the mark.

Hopkins might hit one string and let it ring while moving on to the treble strings. Perhaps he would damp the string with the palm of his picking hand now and again to change the mood, or double up on the tempo delivering two beats instead of one. He called this his 'heartbeat' sound, which had a powerful appeal directly to the emotions.

Often there's not a lot happening but the feeling is solid blues guitar and difficult to copy. This kind of feeling is exactly what guitar players mean when they say that what you leave out is just as important as what you put in!

Listening to blues guitar, we can feel that it's very closely related to modern rock. If you want to start playing the blues in E, just form that basic E chord and experiment. Don't forget to have fun and practice some guitar every single day.