The last half of the intro features a steadily ascending lead guitar that adds some drama and tension building up to the verse. A second lead guitar chimes in with a harmony, building to an incredible climax that releases into the verse vocal. The first guitar plays a melodic motif using the A minor scale at the 5th position. For the second half, you start ascending up the B string at the 10th fret ending using the A minor scale in the 12th position. The 2nd guitar starts at the 13th fret (minor 3rd above the A root note) and ascends up the B string ending in the 15th...

Now that you know what chords we're working from, let's dive into the A section of "Don't Know Why" and hear what the guitars are playing. You will hear the same chord progression with some slight variation heard in all three verses, as well as during the piano solo section. Again, in the recording you will hear an acoustic and electric playing similar things with some slight variation. In this tutorial I am using an acoustic with a capo on the 6th fret as previously mentioned. Our A Section features some really cool uses of chromatic harmony, some slides, and ways to bene...

When listening to a harmonized lead it's usually quite easy to hear the top note of the two parts, as it usually forms the melodic part of the harmony. This would be the part you’d be whistling in the shower. So let's think about the upper part of the harmony. I played it beginning with the E note at the ninth fret of the third string with the second finger, using a two fret stretch between the first and second fingers then landing the third finger at the tenth fret of the fourth string for the C, then jumping the third finger over to the A note at the tenth fret o...

As I alluded to in the previous chapter, it can be easy to hear the top note of a harmonized lead. So it can be daunting to figure out the lower counterpoint notes of a harmony. In the case of the "Can't Get Enough" dual lead the lower note of the harmony lead starts with C C Bb C Bb A F F Eb, against the C-Bb-F chord structure of the verse. Then it does a root-V-b7 riff against the G chord, then landing on the root of the Bb chord. It then goes into the C-F progression on the chorus. In this part the lower harmony makes use of the phenomenon in blues harmony where i...

In this lesson we are going to take a look at how to play the chorus part of the song, which you will hear twice in the track. The first chorus is followed by a really cool dual guitar harmony part that utilizes our harmonic minor scale once again. The chorus features both guitars playing the same parts, doubling the power. Pay close attention to the harmony notes, and have fun.

This example showcases a chord progression that moves chromatically down the neck of the guitar from C to the open Low E string. While moving chromatically, the open High E string is left ringing to creative a rich blend of the chords being played down the guitar. This lesson showcases a way to write a chord progression that is well thought out, moving in half steps all the while creating a nice, Beatles like harmony. The rhythm employed is a mixture of latin style and R&B.

Now we build a chord (a triadic sequence) on every note of the scale using only notes of the scale in the same pattern. I informally call this the "Leapfrog Principle" because you start on a note (C) and "leap over" the next note (D) to use the following note in building the chord (E). Leap again over the (F) and use the (G). Hence, the first chord is built of the notes C-E-G. This is the basic principle known as Triadic Harmony. C - E - G = 1st scale degree - 3rd scale degree - 5th scale degree = the "one chord" of the C major scale. So, the chord bui...

In music theory we use Roman Numerals to number the chords - usually, upper case for Major chords, lower case for Minor (and diminished). We also refer to the chords by these names which relate to their function in a chord progression: I - "1 chord" is Tonic (or Root) ii -"2 chord" is Sub-Dominant iii - "3 chord" is Intermediate (or Mediant) IV - "4 chord" is Sub-Dominant V - "5 chord" is Dominant vi - "6 chord" is Intermediate (or Sub-Mediant) vii dim - "7 chord" is Dominant ...

After learning and playing a good number of songs, music students will notice that certain chord progressions keep being used over and again. Many times I've heard the question, "Why do we use these three chords - I, IV, V - as the standard chord progression?" In order to understand the answer to this we need an overview of Functional Harmony. Let's take a step back, start at the very beginning and check our premises. Why do we bother to change chords at all in a song? Why not simply use one chord all the way through? It's possible to do, after all; and...

Nothing says the seventies quite like a harmonized guitar solo. Here we have three simple parts that are put together to outline the chord changes. If you have more than one guitarist in your group you can distribute these three parts as you see fit. You can also teach these parts to other instruments (piano, horns, mandolin, etc.) if these players are available. If it's just you, we have a bonus. We will teach you a way to play all three parts at the same time at the end of the lesson.

The riff that we covered in the previous lesson is harmonized by another guitar throughout most of the song. This overdubbed part (add later)

Next up we have the "B" section of the song and this section features similar ideas we heard before in out "A" section along with some new ideas and tricks. The section is 14 bars long and does a great job of interacting with the vocals.

As you know from listening to this song, the melody is harmonized by the second guitar player, so in this lesson we'll break down his guitar part. This melody is extra easy to harmonize because it's so chord tone-based. All you have to do whenever you want to harmonize a melody is to start on a chord tone above or below the main melody and then follow the contour and use your ears.

Before we start breaking down the specific parts, let's go through the basic harmony of the song and the song form and also take a close look at bass line and the organ riff. It's always important to know what you're playing over, so that you an stay out of the way of it and interact with it instead. The bass riff uses the notes from the E7 arpeggio and the organ adds the minor 3rd creating the bluesy E7#9 sound.

Before we start breaking down any specific parts, let's go through the basic harmony of the song and talk about some of the voicings and techniques in his parts. This song is in the key of Eb, but it's performed in the key of E with his guitar tuned down a half step. In order to avoid having to re-tune for this tutorial, we will keep it in the key of E, and then you can tune down if you wanna play along with the record later.

Guitar 2 plays in unison with guitar 1 off the top of the tune, but switches to a minor 3rd harmony halfway through. This is the classic Thin Lizzy sound! The approach is exactly the same as guitar 1, just make sure you go back to unison for the final lick leading into the verse section.

Another guitar layer harmonizes with guitar 2 during the verses. We're just adding a low harmony to the last 4 notes of the riff. Note that you would normally play this harmony up one octave to make it a third higher (the Thin Lizzy trademark), but they played it an octave lower to thicken up the section.

The lick leading into the bridge features a harmony from guitar 2. Play this up at the 10th position using some cool full step bends, and some killer vibrato on that final sustained note! All of the notes here come from the E major scale.

Guitar 3 thickens the bridge lick with another harmony. This harmony is essentially a third up the E major scale from guitar 2's part. Again, dig into those full step bends, and put some nice wide vibrato on that final note!

A second lead guitar plays a harmony to the intro lick, using a third harmony above guitar 1's part. There's a nice understated E note that is sustained under a few notes that guitar 1 lays down. Some very nice support there, but still keeping things restrained.

Guitar 3 adds a 3rd harmony to the intro lick by playing a full step bend up to A under the whole lick! This is a very simple but effected thickening technique to make things sound majestic. Dig into this bend and add some tasty vibrato.

Guitar 5 plays in harmony with guitar 3 here, using the next chord tone from each chord's respective arpeggio. The effect is very cool, and really highlights the chord progression underneath.

Before we start breaking down the specific parts, let's go through the basic harmony of the song and talk about some overall concepts behind Hendrix' rhythm guitar style. The song is in the key of F, but the verse starts on the V chord (C) so don't let that confuse you.

The song starts out with a 4 bar drum intro, and after this the guitars come in with the classic harmonized talk box riff. But before I show you that, I'll show you the basic harmony of this section as well as the simple but effective rhythm part that happens behind it.

In this video, I removed the harmony track, so you can practice that part.