Contemporary Slide Guitarists - Ry Cooder Slide style

Michael Johnson >> Contemporary Slide Guitarists >>


Teacher: Welcome class to the lesson on Contemorary Slide Blues players. This lesson features the slide style of guitar legend Ry Cooder. We covered Ry's rhythm guitar style in an earlier lesson series called Contemporary Blues Guitarists, in fact we will be using the rhythm guitar tracks from that lesson. Ry Cooder's fame comes from his slide guitar work, which has landed him sessions with some of the top musicians in the world and also many movie sound tracks. Here's a sample of the licks you will learn: Lesson Sample - Lowband - 1.2 Meg Lesson Sample - Highband - 4.2 Meg Teacher: Our first set of slide licks play over a blues ballad type rhythm in G. The rhythm pattern starts with G and D. Here's the jam track to get you started: Looping Jam Track 1 - Lowband Teacher: This progression goes from G D, G and then C, D and ending on Em. The following slide licks will follow this pattern. Here's the first lick that plays over the G and D chords. Part 1 - Slide Lick 1 Part 1 - Slide Lick 1 Teacher: Notice how the first part of the slide lick starts on the 5th fret to 8th fret and then jumps to the 12th fret. You then play licks in the upper 12th scale position and back to the open position of the guitar neck. Teacher: Here is the G Major scale to illustrate how the licks are related to the scale pattern. Notice how you can play most of the notes on the 2nd string (B). Playing scale on a single string allows you to slide into the notes easier. Part 1 - G Major Scale Teacher: The next lick changes positions to adjust to the progression while you play over the C, D and Em. Notice the chords in the notation: Part 1 - Slide Lick 2 Part 1 - Slide Lick 2 Teacher: The last lick is pretty easy, but effective, the C and D portion of the lick is identical, only you shift up one whole-step. Now the progression shifts to Am, C, G, Em, Am, C, ... we're going to apply more licks over this part of the progression as well, first here's the jam track: Looping Jam Track 2 - Lowband Teacher: In this next lick you can see how each portion of the lick plays over the chord progression: Part 1 - Slide Lick 3 Part 1 - Slide Lick 3 Teacher: This lick stays mostly within the 1st 5 frets of the guitar neck until the end of the phrase. Notice you basically playing the same lick in the beginning while the chords change. Teacher: This brings us to the next part of the lesson where you play over a funky E blues progression. Here's the jam track: Looping Jam Track 3 - Lowband Teacher: In the next few licks you will use various positions of the E blues, here's the first lick: Part 2 - Slide Lick 1 Part 2 - Slide Lick 1 Teacher: Here's the E Minor Blues scale to help give you an idea of the positions that are used to play this lick, notice how the pattern includes posrtions of all the box patterns: E Minor Blues Teacher: The lick starts in the upper notes of the scale and works into the middle strings of the scale pattern. You then play the later part of the phrase using the open neck position of the E Minor Blues scale pattern, here's the pattern: E Minor Blues - Open Position Teacher: Notice how the double stop notes at the end of the last lick use this scale pattern. Our next lick follows the VI (A) of the scale pattern and jumps back into the I (E). The chords are illustrated in the notation. Part 2 - Slide Lick 2 Part 2 - Slide Lick 2 Teacher: Notice how you play in the lower position of the scale pattern while playing over the IV (A), you then play a chromatic run that leads you into the 12th fret which eventutally brings you to play over the I (E) of the progression. Teacher: The next lick plays over the V (B) , VI (A) and back to the I (E). This next lick sounds nice when playing over the jam track. Part 2 - Slide Lick 3 Part 2 - Slide Lick 3 Teacher: Notice the A Major arpeggio that is played over the IV (A), it gives the lick a melodic ascending sound that leads into the I (E). Teacher: Our last lick resolves the progression back to the I (E). Part 2 - Slide Lick 4 Part 2 - Slide Lick 4 Teacher: The beginning of this lick actually uses a E Major arpeggio, here's the arpeggio and then the slide version. Part 2 - Slide Lick 4 - E Maj Arpeggio Teacher: Well this concludes the lesson, I hope this lesson will give you a better understanding of how Ry Cooder creates his melodic slide guitar sound. Bye!	<< load notation from left
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