How to play Put The Hurt On Me by Midland

Thanks to YouTube, the lesson requests are starting to pour in, and today’s request was how to play Put The Hurt On Me. If you haven’t listened to Midland, I would highly recommend their Let It Roll Album or their self titled album. Both albums capture a 70’s country sound and maintain a modern feel. They’ve got a fantastic studio band on both records, so it’s a great listen. Total ear candy.

Put The Hurt On Me can be found on the album Let It Roll, and it adds to Midland’s many ballads. Their ballads make up most of my favorite Midland songs, so learning how to play Put The Hurt On Me was a lot of fun. We’re going to review the chords and then break down a lot of double-stop licks and simple single-note lines on our electric guitars. Since none of these licks are advanced, I decided to go the extra mile and cover every inch of this song.

Below you’ll find the tablatures for the electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and you’ll get chord diagrams to help you strum along. If you need to see a demonstration, fear not! I’ve got a YouTube video covering all of the licks! And if you need to have the tablatures, you can download a copy by becoming a Patreon supporter https://www.patreon.com/smellytele, or you can purchase a copy at SMP Press (https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/22199409)!

Gear Corner

To get an authentic guitar tone for this song, you’re going to need a Stratocaster. Plain and simple. Dialing in the neck pickup is going to give you a warm tone, but the secret here is to roll the tone knob off so you take the guitar’s natural bite out of the sound. This gives you a more round sound that will sit better in the mix. If you leave the tone knob at 100%, the tone will be bright and will jump out a little too much.

For amplification, I would recommend a Fender Deluxe Reverb or maybe a Princeton Reverb. Other Fender reverb series amps will work, and even some of the Hot Rod series amps (with Fromel modifications) will work too. This song not does need any distortion, so keep your tone clean. Try the volume at 4, MAYBE 5. Depending on your amp, 5 might drive the pre-amp a bit too hard, so use your ears. Let them tell you how to adjust the sound so you can get the “Put The Hurt On Me” sound.

Having Trouble With Your Tone?

If you’re struggling with guitar tones in general, I would recommend plugging into your amp and turning your guitar’s tone knob to 100%. Then select the brightest pickup (typically the bridge). Now that your guitar’s ready, turn all of the tone control settings on your amplifier to zero. That’s right! Zero! What this does is bring your amp down to what I call a “total reset.”

To dial in a sound begin to strum a chord on your guitar. It’s going to sound bad because all your amp settings are at zero. Then start with the treble knob and turn it up by 1. You want to strum again and hear what this change does. You’re not going to hear much, so turn the knob to 2. Then strum. Try turning it to 3, and then strum. You might think you’re going to keep strumming until you reach 10 (or if you’re in Spinal Tap, 11), but that’s not what we’re after. At some point as your increasing the tone control, you’re going to hear the treble side of the amp “open up” and become bright and crisp. STOP HERE! This is approximately the right setting for you!

It’s worth noting that I usually find this “sweet spot” between 4 and 7, but that is not a rule. Every amp is different, and every set of ears is different. Trust your ears.

All you have to do now is repeat this process for the bass knob. You’re going to hear the low end of the amp fatten up the sound at some point, and this is typically the bass setting you’re looking for. If you have a mid-control, repeat the process. It’s worth noting that the mid-control is going to have less impact on the overall tone. It fattens up the sound for sure, but the bass and treble are the most effective at shaping your sound.

If you’d like me to do a deep dive on tone and finding your guitar/amp’s best tone, let me know down in the comments! The hunt for the holy grail of tone is fun and something I’m passionate about!

Guitar Chords

Nashville Numbers

Now that we have the chords down, let’s dive into the Nashville numbers for Put The Hurt On Me! What’s great about this 6 chord song is it

Intro Numbers

Since we’re in the key of G, this is going to be the I (1) chord. When playing the intro, the band follows a familiar I-VI-II-V (1-6-2-5) pattern. How do we know which chords are the six, two, and 5 chords?

Simply play your major scale, and assign a number to each note in ascending order. Your first note is G, hence the song’s one chord is G. The second note in the G major scale is A, so the II (2) chord will be an Am. Typically your II (2) chords in a major key will be minor. You continue counting your scale to reach the third note, B, the fourth note, C, and the fifth note, D. Now we’ve reached our V (5) chord, which, as you might guess, is a D chord. Finally, we go one note higher to the 6th note of the scale, or the E. Typically your VI (6) chords will be minor, similar to the II (2) chord, so today’s VI (6) chord is an Em.

Verse Numbers

The intro’s Nashville Numbers are a bit of a mouthful, but don’t worry! The verse is much simpler. Here we alternate between the II (2) chord and III (3) chord. We’ve already counted up to the II (2) chord in the previous paragraph, and we also counted to the III (3) chord. Since the II (2) is an Am, we just need to learn a Bm chord. Viola! We have the verses to play Put The Hurt On Me!

Chorus Numbers

Our chorus today is an example of how easily the I-VI-II-V (1-6-2-5) chords can be mixed up, turned around, and reassembled in any order. The best part? Almost any order sounds good! We’ve already learned our numbers for the intro, but in the chorus, the order changes to VI-II-V-I-V-VI-II-V (6-2-5-1-5-6-2-5). After this, you will repeat the intro.

A cool feature of the chorus is a D base F# chord separating the first half of the chorus from the 2nd half. You hear it when the chords walk from the G chord (I, 1), to the Em (VI, 6). The D base F#, which is still a V (5) chord, jumps between your G and Em, and the bass note on your low E string will walk down from the 3rd fret of your G chord, to the 2nd fret of your D base F# chord, and finally to the open E string in your Em chord. So cool!

Bridge Numbers

The bridge is very simple, and while it might sound like it’s alternating between an Em chord and a D chord, it’s actually a Cmaj7. What I love about this blog is I keep learning new things about guitar and expanding my understanding of music theory. When learning how to play Put The Hurt On Me, I discovered that a Cmaj7 chord and an Em chord, are almost exactly the same in how they sound! Not sure what I mean? Ok, let me back up a little.

My first attempt in transcribing the chords resulted in a bridge where the chords alternate between an Em chord and a D chord. It was pretty close, but the record had an airy quality and unique sound separate from the rest of the song. I didn’t know the exact note I was hearing until later when I accidentally played a C chord (or the 4 chord), and I heard the airy note!

Turns out the C note on the A string combined with a maj7 gives this bridge a haunting sound that is lighter than a typical minor chord. What was more interesting is that a Cmaj7 and an Em chord share all of the same notes except for one! To change an Em chord to a Cmaj7 chord, just change the B note in the Em chord to a C note. All of a sudden you have the sound of an Em chord (VI, 6 chord) and the tension from C chord (IV, 4 chord)! This is easily my favorite discovery in recent months!

Why Do I Keep Reviewing Nashville Numbers?

If you’re planning on meeting up with some friends, the Nashville numbers give you a great way to communicate a song’s structure. If you and your mates can write down the numbers for each tune, it gives you the flexibility to change the key.

Why would you change the key? As a guitar player, it’s rare that you’ll make a request to change keys, but if you sing, you might request key changes regularly! Have you ever tried to sing a song on the radio and found it’s way too high or way too low? Well, if you understand the numbers, you can change the key higher or lower and instantly change the chords! The better your musical foundation and understanding, the better your ability to play with others!

OK, That’s Enough Theory – Electric Guitar Time!

Yeah, I guess I went off on a tangent there. Without further adieu, let’s start learning how to play Put The Hurt On Me’s great Stratocaster licks.

Intro

These are very simple and easy to apply licks. They are reminiscent of the early Maverick’s ballads, and you can take these licks and use them in any slower song.

First Verse

The first verse is very sparse and features no electric guitar. Womp womp.

Chorus 1

The chorus is very simple. You will strum the chords at the top of each bar. The aim here is to fill up the void and fatten up the overall sound. This is a very tasteful and mature way to accompany a band and a singer because it allows you to accentuate the chorus without muddying the sound with a bunch of fills. The listener hears the sound get bigger and brighter, and you allow the song to speak. Don’t worry, you’ll get your moment in the sun. Just lay back and listen to the music.

Here we revisit the song’s intro.

Second Verse

Finally! Some licks! If you’re an intermediate player and you know your scales, challenge yourself and try to find these notes! If the lick is over an Am chord, play your Am scale and start connecting the locations of the notes and scale with the location of the closest corresponding chord. This will help you find the chord and the licks as you progress on your guitar journey.

Chorus 2

The chorus comes back around as choruses will do, but for you, nothing changes!

Guitar Solo!

The first half of the guitar solo is done on a classical nylon string guitar, and it is a beautiful solo!

The second half of the solo features that incredible strat neck pickup sound!

Bridge

Here is where that cool Cmaj7 chord comes in! Most people will confuse this with an Em chord, but the C note and maj7 add more texture and complexity to the sonic landscape here. Great choice by the Midland boys. After the 3rd chorus, there aren’t any new parts of the song to learn other than more great guitar licks. I’ll put the tabs here and let you follow the song out!

That’s IT!

Now you know how to play Put The Hurt On Me!! If you’re looking for more country guitar riffs to rip on your electric, check out our lesson for Tennessee Whiskey (smellytele.com)! The main riff is based on R&B and country-style licks that a beginner can pick up; additionally, we cover the guitar solo and fills!

Or if you’re an avid Midland fan, check out our lesson on Runnin’ Wild (smellytele.com)!

Remember, if you would like to support this webpage, please become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/smellytele! A perk of being a patron? You’ll be able to download the tabs so you can follow along with the video lessons & our lesson posts!

Also, go and check out some of our other electric guitar lessons! We have lessons for All Night, Brothers Osborne (smellytele.com) and Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line (smellytele.com)

And if you liked the guitar we used in today’s video, check out our full review of the Martin Custom D Classic Rosewood (smellytele.com). A review of the Fender American Elite Stratocaster is coming soon!

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