Life Is Hard

 'Life Is Hard' is a minor Blues in the key of Eb. Johnny Winter along with bass playerJeff Ganz tuned down to D, playing as if in ‘concert D minor’. So there are some low Eb's in the original bass line which I have written an octave higher. If you have a 5-string then you can play them low.

The song follows a 12-bar progression in a minor key and has an extra bVI - V (b6 -5) turnaround in bars 2 and 10 of the progression.  It also has a great hook line in bar 11 that the whole band plays.

This is the chord progression:

| Cm7        | Fm7    Ab7 G7  | Cm7        | Cm7       | 

| Fm7         |Ab7         G7       | Cm7        | Cm7      | 

| Gm7        | Fm7    Ab7 G7  | Cm7        | G7        ||  

The time signature is 12/8 which means there are 4 strong beats in each bar which you can divide further into 3 8th notes.  To help you play the bass line, you can count:
 1 - 2 - 3, 2 - 2 - 3, 3 - 2 - 3, 4 - 2 - 3 

Pay attention to the articulation, especially the short notes (with a dot above them) and the slides.