Further on up the Road. How to Play the Intro Guitar Solo - 1975 version from the album: EC Was Here

This is a sampler lesson from the Secret Guitar Teacher site: http://secretguitarteacher.com

Nick shows you, lick by lick, in great detail, how to play the opening verse of the intro guitar solo to Eric Clapton's amazing performance of the Bobby Bland classic.

Abridged transcript:

This is the first song I remember hearing Eric Clapton Play and hearing it back in 1975 was enough to make me trade my acoustic guitar in for an electric and start focussing more on Blues lead guitar.
In this lesson I’ll go through the first 12 bars – once you have cracked that, I think you’ll find the rest of the playing on the album track is relatively easy to copy off the record. Here’s the end result.
Now let’s zoom in on the detail lick by lick. The first lick comes in after the third main beat with a slide from frets 2 to 4 on the G string, followed by notes at frets 3 and 5 on the B string and a double stop played at fret three on the top two strings as we land on the first beat of the 12 bar in G. . This is then immediately followed by a single G note played on the top string at fret 3 and on. Then we repeat the double stop on the fourth beat of the bar like this.

We then count two beats into the next bar before starting the next lick. Notice the timing. A-three, A-four-a. 1&a2… a3 a4 a

The next lick was the hardest to work out as it is played so fast, but it actually starts on a slide from fret 5 to 6 and back on the G string on the first beat of the bar…followed by the same note with a slight bend and a barely heard G note at fret 5 on the D string before hammering on 3 to 4 on the G string and back to the key note at fret 5 on the D string.

Here’s the tab for all four of those licks. To help with the timing I have lined up each note with the 12-beat count shown beneath the tab.

The next line is easier to learn and to play. After counting 3 main beats we come in with a G at fret 8 on the B string on the fourth beat…and repeat this on main beats 1 and 2 in the next bar… using a bit of vibrato to hold on to the end phrase note. Then on beat four there is another barely heard tail to the lick which I am playing as a hammer on from 6 to 8 on the top string. Next, we move up to the 12th fret on the G string. I use my second finger here, then a bend at fret 13 on the B string followed by a hammer-on/ pull-off from 11 to 13 and back on the B string. Then repeat the bend and follow up with a hammer-on/pull-off on string 2 from 11 to 12 and back like this.

Now we move into the fast bit…I have split this into three licks to make it easier to learn and practice, but in fact there is a note on every single one of the 12 beats in this section.

First lick starts with a slide from 3 to 4 on the G string using the second finger, followed by picking strings 2 and 1 at the 3rd fret. Then pulling off from fret 6 to 3 on the B string …a pretty standard G chord lick.

The timing of the entry of this lick is critical. It comes in on the 6th beat of the bar. I find this easiest to count like this. One and a Two and…. …a three and a four and… Similarly, the entry into the next lick starts on the last beat of this bar. And you have to try to accent the note that is actually played as a pull-off – quite a tricky technique which I know some of you will have to practice a few times to get a 1 & a 2 &. And the last of these three licks takes us once again from the sixth beat of the bar. a 3 & a 4 & a.

Into the home stretch now. This starts with an unusual bend using the second finger at fret 4 on the G string followed by the note at fret 3 on the second string then pulling off from 5 to 3 on the G string twice followed by notes 5 to 3 on the D string before going back to fret 5 on the D string to end the lick on the first beat of the next bar. Again, notice the timing has changed to a nice regular swing beat for the whole of this lick … 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a 1
The final lick is another well-worn cliché played on beats 2, 3, 4 and 1.

Slide 3 to 4 on the G string fret 5 hit twice on the note at fret 5 on the same string; back to the notes at 3 to 4 but this time with a hammer- on. Note that the slide and hammer-on from fret 3 to 4 are played so fast they can hardly be heard as embellishments. They just serve to accent these notes nice and strongly.

So that’s the most difficult part of that song… once you have got that down, the rest should be easy enough to pick up off the record, I think. But if you are stuck on any of the rest of the song just contact me via the secret guitar teacher site and I’ll help you out. Also, the tab of this first verse of the intro solo can be downloaded by site members from the SGT site. See you again soon.

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