Eric Clapton Lesson - A Tribute by Andy Aledort
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- For tabs of this lesson, go to: www.guitarworld...
The eternally great Eric Clapton-sometimes known as “God” in certain circles-turned 70 this year, and is set to celebrate this milestone with a pair of spring concerts at New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden.
What better time than to examine his effortlessly beautiful and seamlessly flowing soloing technique, first heard in full bloom on his timeless recordings with Cream, featuring the late, great Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums.
When it comes to spontaneous, improvised phrasing, there is perhaps no better blues-rock guitarist than Eric, especially when heard within the context of the many extended jams he performed with Cream and Blind Faith.
He has the innate ability to move smoothly from one great, imminently melodic phrase into the next while also both riding the groove and pushing it along. When improvising, Clapton will subtly mix up the rhythms of his lines to create clearly defined syncopations that serve to strengthen the melodic quality of his solos.
FIGURE 1 presents an extended solo that moves through an entire 12-bar blues progression in the key of D, the three chords being D7, G7 and A7. The tempo is a fairly slow 80 beats per minute, which allows for the steady articulation of 16th-note rhythms that employ subtle phrasing variations. In bars 1-3, I stick with the notes from the D minor pentatonic scale (D F G A C). At the end of bar 3, I transition to sliding sixth intervals by sounding pairs of notes that are six scale degrees apart within the D Mixolydian mode (D E F# G A B C), with all of the notes played on the D and B strings.
This sets up the move to the four chord, G7, in bar 5, and here I play a simple melody based on G minor pentatonic (G Bb C D F), returning to D minor pentatonic in bar 6 to anticipate the change back to the one chord, D7, in bar 7.
On beat three of bar 7, I make very brief reference to the parallel D major pentatonic scale (D E F# A B), used to add some brightness and warmth to the melody and also as a transition to get back into D minor pentatonic in 10th position. Alternating between parallel minor and major pentatonic scales is a standard technique used by all blues guitar greats, such as T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and many others, and Clapton learned this technique from his intense study of the recordings of all of these masters and made it one of the hallmarks of his unique style.
Bar 9 moves to the five chord, A7, and bar 10 shifts to the four chord, G7, and for each of these chords I base my lines on the associated minor pentatonic scales (A minor pentatonic: A C D E G). At the return to the tonic in bars 11 and 12, I revert to D minor pentatonic and move freely between third and fifth positions.
When playing these melodic shapes and ideas, strive for smooth articulation and, as always, listen closely to the many great live recordings of Cream-and the studio recordings of Blind Faith-to hear priceless examples of Clapton’s stellar soloing. FIGURES 2 and 3 illustrate extended patterns for D minor pentatonic and D major pentatonic, so be sure to study these too.
Super cool. This guy is what rock 'n roll is all about.
The older I get the better some of these old blues guys sound. I don't think I truly appreciated how great they were back in the day.
I agree John. I didn’t get it when I you get I was all about heavy metal but now I really get it now.
I've followed Andy since the Guitar for the Practicing Musician days, he's a wealth of knowledge. His article the other year on the Mixolydian scale was masterful.
fantastic stuff!...Andy's recent Gary Moore tribute lesson is Gold too!...bloody nice Les Paul! 👏
This video is from 2015, we're in 2021 and Andy's master's degree to teaching guitar is the same one he has shown since 1992 in Guitar For The Practicing Musician, Guitar School, and Guitar Word magazines. Congratulations Andy!
Andy I have followed for a Long time A Fantastic teacher and Guitar player
geez, thanks! this lesson is awesome ,andy. probably not even clapton was fully aware theoretically wise of all this info you just gave when he first came up with this.
Probably not... The music always comes first. Music either works or it doesn't. That's all the "proof" it ever really needs. When it does, people all come up with the music theory to backwards rationalize what the artist did. There's nothing wrong with having a solid grasp of theory. Putting music theory into practice is something else entirely though. THAT's the magic most teachers don't even try to teach... because they know they haven't got it.
I just came here to look at that LP. A beauty
Clapton is one of my all time fave players, real tasty chops!!!🤘
Andy is a great guitarist
Andy has “ The Gift “ If he were on stage with Eric Clapton he would be able to keep up with Slow Hand . They would have a great deal of Jamming to do and lots to talk about.
Love that tone! Nice warm fuzzy feeling.
That’s the riddle, weaving around and landing down at the right place, on a downbeat. Thank you, Andy Aledort. One of the greatest quotes ever on Clapton’s innovative soloing on Live Cream. Politician, Sitting On Top of The World, Sleepy Time Time to mention a few. Jack Bruce playing the changes in Politician or Crossroads would hit one on the downbeat then take off again. Politician though is extremely structured for the Riddle. Leslie West and Jack Bruce would do a riveting version of Politician in live West, Bruce & Laing. Andy Aledort gets to the meat of the matter in this excellent video. BTW there is a Clapton quote of Eric explaining the frustration of missing one on the downbeat in those long Cream live solos. Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce not the most pedestrian of rhythm sections challenged him yet excited him but that time was relatively brief.
That is a great fat tone man. Nice licks and phrases. I feel compelled to learn this!
I've been practicing with you for about 7 years. thanks brotha!
Man, Andy is so chill...
Have followed his teachings since the beginning of GFTPM magazine in 83 or so...his transcription were right on the money. Excellent teacher and player...extremely knowledgeable. What a marvelous cherry Les Paul he's playing there and a very cool sound too...I wonder what amp setup etc ?? Good stuff !! 💘 🎸🎧🎼🎵🎶🎭🗿
Dude, fantastic stuff!! We need more Andy!!
💡 💡 💡 💡 💡 💡 💡 💡
All the lights just came on!
what an amazing video !!
Thx, Andy. I have the live Politician Cream (Guitar magazine which escapes me right now) transcription from Goodbye Cream and it’s just great to hear you nail Eric’s attack and phrasing.
Devraj Goswami Good question but it is certainly out of print and unavailable. I made several photocopies when the magazine came out as I knew at the time very little of any Live Cream had ever been accurately transcribed and published. Except for Crossroads and Andy beat out the early Hal Leonard books on Crossroads with his meticulous detail. If I find out the source of Live Politician from the Goodbye Cream album I will update here. On my previous searches there were no copies of the magazine archived online or in reissues. So much of live Cream from their recordings should be transcribed even if it takes an army of musicologists to do so.
Have all Andy's tab books,he is the best
where did u get them from
@@samcuratolo3885 amazon
Andy loved it. Thanks. I love torture - guitar torture that is (building up finger strength) so i copied some of your riffs onto acoustic. So that's how I just killed a pleasant 40 minutes!
Just a wonderful lesson. Wouldn't you agree Eric lost 'something,' when he primarily switched to Fenders?
Thanks! It looks like my 78 standard!
Great Lesson
Great lesson, I heard a little Johnny Winter in there as well ;)
Les Paul Heritage Cherry Sunburst. My guitar!
What year is that Les Paul? Very nice! Great lesson too!!
Bruce Wayne It's very likely a 1958 reissue, as it not a flamed top. Wildwood sells a bunch of gorgeous custom '58 cherry sunbursts under the name "Wildwood burst" for the color. Check out sometime.
Fantastic, what kind of humbuckers are on that Les Paul?
Exactly the question I was gonna ask. Looking to beef up my Lester too
Looks lollars
Love how kids these days automatically think that getting those pickups (which are probably stock Gibson LP pickups) is going to get them that sound.
Love how you assume how I think and what I want from a simple question. Quite the detective huh, a naive one, that is.
Mitch Farkas You kinda seem like a jerk...
Is Andy playing through a EVH ?
Wonder what amp he's using, anyone know?
Hi andy great video could you do one on terry kath no one mentions him for some unknown reason he was great.
1% of guitar players can play like terry kath.
@@green323turbo I read in Guitar Player mag once that Terry Kath was one of the few players who truly worried Hendrix... much like how Rory Gallagher scared the bejeebers out of one Eric P. Clapton.
Woooow
could we get one for Slash?
IGarrettI Lol why would anyone make a tribute for him
Nash Burges Cause he's cool, duh...
Buddy Ollie Lol he sucks balls. P.S. I've seen your comments on alot of videos lately. Small world.
Nash Burges
Because hes a Rock God thats why!!!
@@nashburges76 Dude, you just don't get it, do you?
nice
Clapton's best solos are on Blues Breakers ("Beano album') and Fresh Cream IMO. There are good ones on the live stuff too.
Yes, I tend to agree with that, although the period in the 90s around From the Cradle to the early 2000s, especially the live shows, is some of his finest playing.
Is That a 59 Les Paul ?
Politician,really. Crossroads,white room, even Badge from that album.
I believe many musicians from that era came to this place by playing. I know one of the greatest ever Pail McCarty didn’t read mudic and I wonder if Clapton vould
Darkwell0071 whu velly knouss whit thay ded
hey Andy! Why the pickguard?
cause LPs don't look right without one.
I always keep the pick guards on my guitars.
Why not? It traditionally comes with a pickguard. It looks great either way.
✨🍃💫
How can I adopted by Andy so I can be bequeathed that Les Paul?
Just wish he’d slow it down a little
could you comment on how you duplicate "the Woman Sound" on the guitar and amp? Thanks
Set your amp to be rather bright and roll off the tone to "1 or 0" or something similar, the sweet spot will be different depending on your guitar/amp pairing. I usually like between 1&2
Rolling off that treble gets rid of the irritating highs and gives you a mellow sound. Just like firing off a dube.
The basic formula I got straight from a studio player who knows Clapton is you select the Neck Pickup only and roll off the highs according to your ear. Then you set your amp for mild to medium overdrive with a little extra treble dialed in... all according to your ear. Each Guitar & Amp rig responds differently so you may need to make adjustments such as adding in some Bridge Pickup (maybe) but that IS basically it. The Woman Tone can actually trace its roots back to Jazz combos with which Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker were both familiar. The early jazz players like Charlie Christian only had a Neck Pickup to work with.
When you have a serious technical question, it's better to ask it in a forum exclusively for Guitar Players. Around here you'll always have to sort through the "bycatch" from wannabees who rarely play, random online drunks, and grandiose stoners blathering their drug-addled nonsense. Who wants to work that hard?
Eric is melodic
dear Andy I wish you spoke language of the masses I. e. the underdogs and the highly-paid-teacher-less beginner/intermediate guitar players..... spread a little bit of your goodness for free like justinguitar brother
Theory is great to talk to other musician or learning concepts like Andy shows us but you can get here by just playing. Your ear leads you in the right direction. If your ear doesn’t lead maybe another hobby would be of interest.
The standard terminology of Music Theory is how serious professional musicians communicate with one another. Only a certain kind of amateur is too good to humble himself to the process of learning what more disciplined and accomplished musicians have to know to communicate musical ideas to players of other instruments... To put it another way, a college drunk could go on a road trip from Chicago to Panama City, Florida just by driving South and get there "eventually." A professional commercial driver pulling out of Chicago, though, would use a map, a GPS, and the qualified advice of other professional drivers... and be cleaning Florida bugs off his windshield by sunset... C'YA
Yoinks! Still think the Blues suxx?
Sounds like Andy Aledort to me not Eric Clapton.
Because no one can truly play and sound like another player. Do a search for "Journeyman: A Tribute to Eric Clapton" -- this guy performs as EC and while as steeped in Clapton as you can get, no Clapton aficionado would mistake him for the real thing.
What I found distracting... in a cool way... was how the tone and occasionally the phrasing and note choices remind me of the late great Mr. Johnny Winter. Johnny was one of the first to popularize the melding of Major and Minor Pentatonics before arguably making it a defining requirement to be a competitive Blues Rock guitar slinger.
OK, enough with the Musicology lecture. It's better to take Frank Zappa's advice...
"SHUT UP an' play yer Guitar!"
I was thinking the same...Andy is a big Johnny Winter fan , so your probably right. JW especially loved sliding rock and roll style double stops
Here is one of his JW lessons, ruclips.net/video/ZYP38wJcPCU/видео.html
Nice lesson, but you are rushing! Why don´t you play without a click? Would be better. Cheers
because its nice to actually play in time.
Marc send us a link to you playin like the boss without a click
good playing but nothing like clapton.
Look who missed the entire point!... Aledort is DEconstructing Clapton's method for the benefit of serious guitarists, not REconstructing anything for anyone's entertainment... or idle sniping.
This is an ADVANCED LESSON by a master teacher who records and tours with national name acts, not some wannabe reciting someone else's music to babysit the local party drunks.
You took your cheap shot. Now finish your beer and move along.