Cheap Tricks to Understanding Rock & Blues Guitar the decay-o-caster method for achieving minimal competence in as short a time as possible

Intro to the Class – what I can’t do I can’t make anyone into a great guitarist That requires an investment on the part of the candidate guitarist I can’t guarantee Some of it is about muscle memory and calluses too - they only come with time I’m not a great guitarist myself –I’m okay, but I know lots better than me and they don’t think they’re great guitarists either –Those who can’t do, teach

Intro to the Class – what I can do I can give someone the basic head start s/he needs to get to the place where s/he can begin to become a decent guitarist –I want to bring you to the starting line I hope to get you to the place where you can play with others and not be totally humiliated –But there’s ALWAYS someone better than you out there - dealing with that is part of playing It will take several weeks or a very few (short) months at the least - if you work at it

Some ideas and thoughts These are bits and pieces I’d had floating around in my head for most of my guitar-playing life that I never learned to connect in the right way (for me, that is) until surprisingly late in the game –I hope to help you connect them in the right way in the first few weeks This is based on blues, blues-rock, classic rock, and other kinds of music I listen to –It should be useful even if that’s not your kind of music –It ain’t jazz, and it ain’t bluegrass, and it ain’t metal… I’ll make lots of generalizations –Be smart enough not to repeat them out loud, since there’s always some jazz-hole nearby who will point out the exceptions to them

What’s up to YOU? The guitar repays the investment you make in it –10 minutes a week won’t pay off –1 hour a day will, but let’s be realistic - you won’t do that – minutes per day of reasonably focused practice will move you along surprisingly quickly I’ll give you ideas, but you have to look for your own songs and ideas too

How to learn and practice Play each page for a few days until you get reasonable smooth with the bits it, um, teaches? Go back and practice each prior page for a moment before getting to the page you’re working on - just run through the stuff, don’t make a fetish out of it If you play electric, do it with maximum clean tone, minimal compression and distortion –You’ll hear your mistakes much better that way

I think this is key… When making music, never be unmusical –Don’t play a chord randomly 10 times to get it in your head – music doesn’t come in 10s –Play it rhythmically 4 or 8 or 12 or 16 times –Play chords or notes that work together C – D – E – F – G – A – B is not how a song would likely be written, so it won’t sound like music when you practice it that way D – G – D – A is a common musical pattern – practice those chords together in rhythmic groups of 4 to learn those chords –Or A - D - A - E –Or G - C - G - D

Getting Started: The “Cowboy Chords”: C-A-G-E-D C MajorA MajorG Major E MajorD Major 1 X X X X These will turn out to be very useful later on, so learn them now to get started

What it means The neck is shown with the headstock at the top of the box The name of the chord is shown underneath the box The numbers represent your fingers - pointer (1) to pinky (4) An “X” (or null) on top means don’t sound that string An “0” on top means let the string sound but don’t fret it If there’s a number on the side, it means that fret is where the number is D Major D Major X 2 3 0X

“Hey Joe” by Jimi Hendrix C Major X G Major D Major 1 X 2 3 0X A Major X E Major Gun in your hand? …….HeyJoe!…Where yaGoing with that C - G - D - A - E - E - E - E –4 regular strums each –Over and over –For hours and hours –Sloppier and sloppier Actually, Jimi didn’t write it, but listen to his version anyway

The “Cowboy Seventh Chords”: C7-A7-G7-E7-D7 C7A7G7 E7D7 1 X X X X It won’t be obvious to you for a while, but these chords are just Major chords with 1 note down 2 frets 4 0 0

More “Cowboy Chords”: A minor - D minor - E minor A minor X D minor 1 X 2 3 0X E minor Compare these chords to their Major chords It might not be super obvious, but only one note is changing in each to go from “happy” sounding Major to “sad” sounding minor –We’ll discuss this later - right now I just want you to be aware of it –The C and G minor chords are too hard and no one uses them

More “Cowboy Chords”: F - F7 - F minor & B - B7 - B minor F Major X X F minor 1 XX B MajorB minor 3 F7 XX B These are shapes you know, only up one or two frets

“House of the Rising Sun” One you should know even if you never play it in public Uses many of the chords you’ve learned Am - C - D - F (there is a house in New Orleans) Am - C - E - E7 (they call the Rising Sun) Am - C - D - F (it’s been the ruin of many a poor boy) Am - E - Am - E7 (and god I know I’m one)

The D Major “Noodle” D Major D Noodle 1st Position (technically, Dsus4) D Noodle 2nd Position (technically, Dsus2) Keep your 1st and 3rd fingers in place - just add the 4th finger and/or lift the second finger There are many guitarists who cannot play a D chord without the noodles –D - DNoodle1 - D - DNoodle2 - D Pete Townsend has made a career out of it

“Comin’ into Los Angeles” Sort of a hipper “House of the Rising Sun”, and Arlo Guthrie’s coolest song Verse –Am - C - D - D Noodle 1 - D –F - C - E - E7 –Am - C - D - D Noodle 1 - D –F - E - Am - E7 Chorus –Am - C - D - D Noodle 1 - D (3 times) –Am - C - D - D - F - C - E - E7

“Little Wing” (also Hendrix) One of the finest songs ever written - just yummy Perfect for students because there’s so much you can do with it –You can spend a lifetime getting to the bottom of it We’ll use this song as our example for the rest of the, um, course? –So learn it and get it embedded in your head –Listen to the Hendrix, Cream, & Stevie-Say-Whut versions Easy to solo over it boringly, not too difficult to solo over it really well, but most people don’t

“Little Wing” Chords Lots of chords, but don’t be frightened Take it line by line, several days on each if need be Difficult to explain the strumming patterns long distance and on paper - listen to the recordings to get the feel Em - G - Am - Em –(“Well she’s walkin’ thru the clouds with a circus mime that’s going round”) Bm - Am - C - G - F - C - D –(“Butterflies and moonbeams and fairy tales - that’s all she thinks about”) D - D - D - Em - C - D –(“Ridin’ with the wind”) –This turnaround is from Cream’s version - listen to it to get the timing

To be continued…