I'm trying to figure out the guitar part in this song thats from the 60's. I'm just a beginner, but I love the guitar part in this song and I'm having trouble finding the chords on my guitar. The part comes in at 0:37.
Can someone help?
Guitarist: I need help?
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 632 posts since 1 Jul, 2007 from over there
Its Stevie Wonder's 'I Don't Know Why.' Thankspedrorf wrote:I'd be glad to give it a try, but I can't see the video ("This video is not available in your country."). What song is it?
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- KVRist
- 179 posts since 11 Feb, 2008
This is in Gb Major, which is an unusual key for guitar. It also sounds to me as if the guitar is tuned down - which means it could be in any tuning, and might be using a capo.Spin Boyz wrote:I'm trying to figure out the guitar part in this song thats from the 60's. I'm just a beginner, but I love the guitar part in this song and I'm having trouble finding the chords on my guitar. The part comes in at 0:37.
Can someone help?
In the 60s - especially in surf music, there were guitar designed to be tuned to A (baritone guitars) or C (tenor), or different keys. Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin uses a guitar tuned down to C (or built to be tuned in C).
But here are the chords "at pitch":
Bb - Ab - Gb
Db - Eb - Gb
(with little variations of these patterns throughout)
Really, usually, a song in this key would use Bbm instead of Bb Major, so there's a little trick there.
What you hear at :37 is a little hammer-on lick but with the same basic chords - this is what leads me to believe it's tuned down. If an E guitar is tuned down to C (or a Tenor guitar is used), then A D chord becomes a Bb. It's easy to do this hammer-on lick on the D chord, though other possibilities could be a C chord, an A chord, or a G chord (though A and G are getting too low for this tuning).
You might try to find some songs similar to this in other "more guitar-friendly" keys to start off with.
HTH,
Steve