This is my first ever Bebop Deluxe lesson. This one contains some fantastic guitar work from the great unsung British guitar hero Bill Nelson. A masterclass in inventive, melodic rhythm playing and soloing.
Triads
Shake Some Action by Flamin’ Groovies
If you don’t know the song, check out the original recording:
Good, huh? Now learn to play it. Plenty of tasty rhythm guitar and a nice, easy-ish solo to boot.
Music/tab
For a nice, downloadable PDF of all the parts click here.
Intro
The intro looks like this. Experiment with a bit of palm muting for the first section, and remember that 8th note delay.
Verse/Pre-chorus
This is the basic gist of what’s going on. On the recording there seem to be several different layers of guitar all doing slightly different variations on this part. so you don’t need to be too fussy about the details here.
Chorus
The choruses are pretty much the same as the intro, with the addition of some simple rhythm chords underneath.
Solo
And finally, here’s the solo. There are a couple of places where it’s impossible to hear exactly what’s going on, but I think this is pretty close. At the end of the solo, just go back into the same rhythm part found in the intro and at the end of the chorus.
Soul Man by Steve Cropper
Not much more to say about this lesson. A masterclass in tasteful, groovy rhythm guitar. This is the kind of playing that will make people want to listen to you, make people want to play with you, get you gigs and earn you money. Not all that widdly soloing and shredding. I’ve transcribed the song below. Because I’m a bit of a nerd, I’ve written out all three choruses because they’re slightly different on the record. It’s your choice whether you want to nail the song exactly as it’s played on the record or if you want to just capture the overall vibe and improvise a bit with the way you approach it. The structure is simple – just listen to the original recording. PDF.
