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Barre Chords

September Gurls by Big Star

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Learn to play Big Star’s 70s classic, which also happens to be one of my favourite songs…ever.

Despite a sizeable cult fanbase, Big Star are still quite an obscure band to many people. So if you don’t know this song, check out the original first:

Here’s the video lesson:

Music/tabs

The rhythm guitar part is fairly basic, so I’ve written that out in a chord/lyric sheet format. You wanna PDF?

The lead (mando-) guitar part is a bit more involved so I’ve written that out in full music and tab, including a few details which I skimmed over during the video. Get the PDF here.

Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright

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Here we have a 70s soul-funk classic. I love the soul rhythm guitar style: it’s all about perfectly formed, groovy parts rather than anything too technical. And this song is a great example of just that. According to my research, guitar on this song was performed by a certain Willie ‘Little Beaver’ Hale – not name I’d come across the name before, but what a player! He’s made a lot of great records as a session player, and I’ve just been checking out a couple of his solo albums from the 70s which are fantastic. (A nice Little Beaver interview here too.)

The original recording sounds like this:

And check out this TV performance with Little Beaver on guitar. Shame he has his back to the camera for the entire video, but you can see the position where he’s playing those chords for the main riff.

I’ve written the music out below. We have the three main riffs which are played simultaneously on the record (Little Beaver on all guitar parts? Not sure) and then we have the chords for the B-section. Download the tab here.

Get The Sound

I’m not sure what gear Little Beaver would have used on the original. And what guitar is he playing on the video above – any ideas? My first thoughts were to use my Tele for this kind of song, but that didn’t sound quite right as the tone on the original is quite warm and full sounding. So in the end I went for  my Vox Virage guitar which has flat wound strings on it. Also, a Wampler Tumulus overdrive pedal with the gain all the way off. And my 80s Fender Super Champ amp. My looper pedal is a basic TC Electronic Ditto.

Other Lessons You Might Like

Soul Man – a very similar triad-based main riff in this Sam & Dave masterpiece.

Get Lucky – a modern day funky classic.

Plastic Factory by Captain Beefheart

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In this video I’m showing you how to play a Beefheart classic from his debut album Safe as Milk.

The original recording sounds like this:

 
I’ve written it out below. The intro is made up of E string root barre chords followed by a main riff based around a simple E, D and A chords. Then for the the bridge section we switch to a 3/4 time signature. Listening to the original and feeling the shift rather than counting it out is probably the best way to go here. As I say in the video, there are lots of little fills and variations throughout the track, so get the gist of it from the tab but feel free to do it your own way.
 

 

Another Girl, Another Planet

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This 1978 track from the Only Ones has to be one of the greatest rock songs of the ’70s. It contains plenty of memorable guitar playing, from Peter Perrett and lead guitarist John Perry.

 

 
I’ve written out the first bit of the intro rhythm guitar and the intro guitar solo below. On the original recording the solo is double tracked with each guitar playing slightly differently. So my transcription is kind of an average of both parts. It’s all based on the E major pentatonic and E major scales.

If there’s overwhelming demand for it I’ll write out the main guitar solo too. Let me know if you’d find that helpful.

Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry

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Here’s my definitive, 3 part look at how to play the Chuck Berry classic Johnny B Goode.

Part 1

Part 2

Part3

So I’ve finally got round to looking at a bona fide guitar classic. It’s one of those songs that everybody seems to play slightly differently (that includes Chuck himself who in the live performances I’ve checked out never seems to play it the same way twice). So what I’ve done is gone back to the original recording, to try and get the definitive answer to how it should be played. As an exercise I think it’s fun to try and get as close as possible to how Chuck plays it here, but really it’s up to you how far you want to take it. Probably the most important thing is to play with a bit of style and attitude, and not to worry too much about every last detail of the original.

Notice how the original recording is made up of two different guitar performances. It sounds to me like there’s one continuous guitar part, probably laid down by Chuck live with the band, and then there’s another overdubbed layer of lead guitar which comes in and out at various points during the song. The intro is in fact made up of two different guitar tracks: the first four bars are the original live guitar take, then the overdubbed lead guitar takes over as the band kicks in, and the other guitar switches to playing rhythm. I’m combining both the lead guitar parts into one here.

In Part 2 I looking at all the rhythm guitar parts, together with a few of the lead guitar fills. As I mentioned in the first lesson, the original recording is made up of two separate guitar performances. There’s the continuous live guitar take which is made up of mainly rhythm chords, and then there are the lead guitar overdubs which you can hear in the second half of the intro, during the choruses and in the solo. If you’re playing with another guitarist you could split the two parts between the two you, but if you’re playing on your own why not try combing the two parts into one?

The basic rhythm guitar part is pretty straightforward: a blues in Bb played entirely using a bass note boogie type pattern. This just stays the same throughout the song. It’s just the introduction which is slightly different. For the choruses I’ve combined the lead and rhythm parts into one. Each of the three choruses has a slightly different lead guitar part.

For the 3rd and final lesson in my JBG series I looking at the guitar solo. As with the intro, the solo is made up of two different guitar tracks which I’ve combined into one. The first 4 bars of the solo are the main live guitar part, then the overdubbed lead guitar takes over until the end of the 12 bar chorus. And it’s the same pattern during the second half of the solo.

Putting it all together…

If you’ve come this far it would seem silly not to try and play the whole song from start to finish. It’s really just a matter of getting used to the structure and piecing together all the parts we’ve looked at so far. To help you with his I’ve put together a PDF with the music/tab for the entire song as you might play it as a single guitar performance.  Complete Song PDF.

You could practice this by playing along to the original recording, to a backing track or by playing with real human beings if you have any to hand.

 

Johnny-B-Goode-Complete-SongDownload

Gimme Danger by Iggy & The Stooges

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I’ve had a few requests for this one, and I’m very happy to be returning to The Stooges with this look at possibly my favourite track on the Raw Power album. 

 

I’ve written out some basic music/tab for all the main sections of the song below. With music like this it’s impossible and probably a bit pointless try and to transcribe everything note-for-note. So use my tab as a guide and, once you’ve got the basic idea, feel free to do things your own way. Want a high-quality PDF? Get it here.