I wish I was at the stage where I can work out tabs from the music but i'm not quite there yet and a song is driving me crazy. It's the main riff/lick (horrible expressions) from John Hammond's version of Gin soaked boy (by Tom Waits) from the CD Ready for love. Now it should be fairly simple, it seems like it should be made up of the first box pattern(E minor pent) on the top three frets, but I seem to be getting further away from it.
I've tried searching for the tab and if you have a copy I'd really appreciate it, but more importantly can anyone give me some pointers as how to start working out simple riffs like this one.
As always this forum never ceases to be enjoyable and informative, so thanks in advance for any help!
I have recently started picking this off by ear - no wait, I mean I have recently started being able to pick things off by ear. I use to struggle just to get three notes. The more songs you learn, the more you will be able to hear something and identify basically what is going on in the song. You'll also find so many songs follow the same patterns.
Pointers I have for picking off songs are: identify what note the musical passages, chord changes, or even the sung melody resolves too - this is most likely the key of the song. Then try to get some idea is it major or minor or some other mode - this is a blues song so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Rock and blues focus a lot around I IV V patterns and the pentatonic so their is your jumping off point. I then identify chord changes and what is the root note of each chord. From there, what kind of chord is each chord (maj minor, 7th so on). For the lead part, non chord strumming, I basically just identify the main notes - don't know how to say this properly. A lot of times their are fills and runs, I try to figure out each prominent note and then fill those in. Usually those prominent notes are the roots to the chords or other notes in the chord. I use the scale - pentatonic or major - to fill in the rest of notes. EDIT: Another question to ask is if it might be in a different tuning or capoed which is something you don't have to worry about with this song.
Some songs are simple enough that you can just listen and pull them off note by note. I took a listen to a sample of your song at amazon so I would say try A pentatonic instead of E. I could be wrong and don't know if the part I heard was maybe just part of a 12 bar blues E A B pattern.
Hoped this help
It's not easy being green.... good thing I'm purple.
I wasn't familiar with this song, but I found a short clip here. I like it.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Ready%20for%20Love:1921948663
If my guitar is in tune, this is just a Blues in E. The main riff goes something like this.
i= index finger
m= middle finger
r= ring finger
p= pulled note
This fingering is just a suggestion.
E
Play freestyle Fret E chord here
e-----------------------------------------
b--------3i-------------------------------
g—2m/-4------4-2p-0--------1i------------
d---------------------2rp-0-----2----0--2-
a----------------------------------2------
e-----------------------------------------
Edit: After listening to the clip several more times, and especially the slide off the last note, I believe this riff was played in the E Minor Pentatonic 3rd and 4th positions. To me, this sounds better.
E Minor Pentatonic 3rd and 4th positions
Slight bend
e------------------------------------------
b------------------------------------------
g-------7----------------------------------
d—7/-9-----9-7p--5---------5^-------------
a--------------------7p--5------7----5—-7-
e----------------------------------7-------
As for pointers figuring stuff out, you are doing good. I too thought this was played on the higher strings because of the brightness of the notes. But that long slide at the end got me. No way you could do that long slide from the 2nd fret. So, I tried it up the guitar a string lower. I am almost positive this is how he is doing it. When he goes to the A chord he just changes the last notes and ends on an A. He plays it with a little variation each time, so don't worry about getting it perfect, he probably never plays it exactly the same way twice. You kinda have to let go when you play and just do what occurs to you. If you always play it the same it gets a little stiff sounding. But listen for little sounds. I also noticed the note at the 1st fret on the G string didn't sound quite right. There was a little hint of a bend there. So this also sounded good up the neck. This is how you do it, you just keep going over it until it sounds right. This is pretty much the way I learned to play guitar, not too many tabs back then. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Wow! a million thanks for those replies.
The song's a simple blues call and response, but John Hammonds playing is something else, never overstated but nicely felt.
I'm just getting to the stage where I can start to dismantle songs and help like this is invaluable. I feel that if I'd started guitar twenty years ago i'd have given up because of the lack of immediate help and no tabs! Now I can't put the guitar down because of forums like this one!
I'm loving this riff at the moment.
Despite being part of a Neil Young and Crazy Horse song, I like to use it as an improv-ish intro to Hey Joe (as Jimi would wholly endorse :) ).
Greybeard, you seemed to say this was a standard Blues riff or something similar... Any reason you say this? Is there a list or something of these standard blues riffs? :D
"Today is what it means to be young..."
(Radiohead, RHCP, Jimi Hendrix - the big 3)
