I keep getting these random requests to tab out Rasputin, the heavy metal song that I wrote years ago. Its a goofy sounding song, but every one seems to dig it, so thanks guys for all your kind words.
Someone finally nudged me the other day and I decided to tab Rasputin out in its entirety. If you've never heard it before, here's basically what it sounds like:
The first part is strange and it doesn't exactly come easy at first, but if you just work with it a little bit, the main verse starts to click. Enjoy!
Most people would probably assume that this a metal only blog, and they have every right to, considering that I have been in a metal mood for the past couple of months. I think that I have stated many times before that I created GuitArticles in order to cover as many different styles of music and guitar playing as possible. In this lesson we're going to take a look at the famous jazz classic known as Autumn Leaves. If you are so metal that you cannot fathom this, then you can check out the Danish death metal band who went by the name Autumn Leaves here.
The story behind most jazz pieces is that they started out as simple standards and love songs before a lot of true-grit jazz musicians got their hands on them, but once they did, the results were absolutely magical. Autumn Leaves and a lot of other famous jazz standards were written by Johnny Mercer.
I was first introduced to Johnny Mercer after I watched the movie Midnight in the garden of good and evil, and then subsequently read the book. The movie is amazing and the book is even better. I went out and bought the sound track, and if you are looking for an amazing collection of music (all Johnny Mercer's work), I highly recommend the soundtrack. My favorite track off of it is Paula Cole's version of Autumn Leaves, which is also the song that appears at the haunting opening of the movie.
It took me a while but I completely transcribed the song and listed all of the chords. This way you can learn the piece and pick up some new chord structures along the way. Most of the chords are standard 7th chords, and so I thought that this would be a good one to start with. It melodically makes sense, but at the same time it is just challenging enough, to keep the process of learning going.
One more thing that I would like to add. The very last chord is normally supposed to be an Em chord, but I decided to slip in the ever conclusive E6sus2 chord, which is the same chord that concludes the James Bond theme ;)
In this post I'll show you how to play a really great song by the infamous band Pantera. I know, I know, many of you are probably vomiting right now, but this song fits nicely within some of the other lessons that I have posted. Also, before you click away, if you're that person who thinks metal is revolting, you should at least check out the opening passage, because if you ARE that guy, then chances are you like to sit by yourself, sipping on a good Tawney Port, listening to James Taylor, while crying.
Minus the James Taylor part, I can totally relate - ok, not really, but still, check this out.
It really is a well constructed song. The opening is clean and very warm, using a great chord progression that involves F#min7, Bsus4 and Bsus2add11.
After that, things pick up a bit and I'll explain in great detail in the video.
One more thing, find the song on youtube if you don't have a copy of it, listen to it to figure out how many times each part is played, since I can't very well express that in this post.
This is a blues standard, in terms of chord progression. A lot of people know this one, but it really is a good thing to know, because it is quite fun to jam over. If you have a buddy who plays guitar, the two of you can take turns soloing over this chord progression. Its a good way to get those improvising skills going.
In the next lesson, I'll show you some blues scales that you can use over top of this. If you have some basic way to record yourself, you can lay this down as a backing track and then solo over top of it for practice.
This version that I have tabbed out is the very simplest one that I could think of. Learn the chords, that's all that matters and then figure out some rhythms that you like. That's the great thing about this, is that it can be very experimental. There's a lot of room for exploration here, and believe me a lot can be done with this.
As promised, I have transcribed that blues lead for everyone and as I mentioned before you should definitely play around with the notes. In other words, you should make it your own. If you haven't checked out the first lesson, Savoy Brown Style Blues, you'll definitely want to take a look at that one first.
Below is a video of the lead and below that is the lead itself, transcribed. I told you that I would play the lead as it was written, but then improvise over top of those same notes.
Well, I did both of those things, but I had to laugh when I saw the video. Its definitely not my best work. It is really difficult to do your own camera work, cue up a track, try to come in perfectly and stay focused.
Also, the way that I learned to improvise was just by poppin' in some albums and jamming. I jammed to Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Santana, Celtic music, Hip Hop, Brian Setzer, anything Metal and a good mix of world music.
I wasn't attempting to pat myself on the back there, though I did feel something snap. I was just trying to point out a great way to develop your ear and reflexes. Anyways, hope you find this useful. Have a great day/evening/night!
When it comes to the Blues, there are those who love it and there are those who treat it as oxygen. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I wouldn't be able to live without it, but I certainly have played a lot of Blues and still use a lot of its important lessons in my playing today.
When I was a kid, my favorite blues group was a band called Savoy Brown, who are still active today. Their best music came out of the late 60's/early 70's and they had a sound that could not be duplicated.
This was partly because the front man, Kim Simmonds was a bit of a child, Blues prodigy and had an extremely unique style in an overly saturated genre of music.
At times their songs were really heavy, with a driving rhythm, classic distortion and bayou style piano work.
At other times their music was smooth, with strong undertones of Jazz. I really applaud Simmons for choosing to use different chord structures that you wouldn't normally hear in the Blues.
If I could recommend two songs they would be "She's got a ring in his nose and a ring on her hand" and "Stay while the night is young".
Try and find these if you can and attempt to locate the studio versions, since the sound has such a mood.
In the mean time, I'm going to give you a glimpse into this smooth, carefree sound. Below is not an actual Savoy Brown song. If I get any requests to transcribe one, I will most certainly do that, but I instead put together something similar.
Now, the chords and notes are of course accurate but I am not so sure that the timings come across as well as they should. So, I'm in the process of working on a video that will show you what it should sound like.
In an upcoming post I will show you the lead section with an accompanying video. Then a video that shows it all together with some parts improvised. Simmons improvised most of his solos, and I want to show you how to do this. It is very simple. It is simply a matter of you trying out different arrangements with the lead that I show you, but that's next time! so, work on this and have a blast!
