- 3 months ago
From Yes to Zep to Steely Dan to Pink Floyd, Jimmy Brown — Guitar World magazine's longtime senior music editor — plays and discusses some of the now-classic guitar riffs that changed his life.
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00:12Hey there, Jimmy Brown from Guitar World here, and today I would like to share with you some of
00:17the riffs that really changed my life and had a big impact on me when I was growing up in
00:23the
00:2370s as a teenager playing a guitar. I had six older siblings who turned around a lot of great
00:28music in the 60s and 70s, and the things I really gravitated towards, not so much riffs per se,
00:35I did learn a lot of single note riffs and stuff early on, but the stuff with really interesting
00:39chord changes. Anybody who knows me musically knows I'm all about playing interesting chord
00:45changes and soloing over interesting chord changes. So I'd like to start out with one of my favorites
00:50of all time, Led Zeppelin, Since I've Been Loving You. Slow blues, super dramatic, I mean what they
00:57did with the dynamics in the song is amazing, but most amazingly is what they did on the chorus or
01:04when it goes to the turnaround or whatever. So let me just play it for context a little bit of
01:08the
01:08intro and I'll get to the part I'm talking about.
01:27That's not the part I'm talking about, that's just like Jimmy Page soloing over the intro,
01:33over C minor, then it goes to F minor. John Paul Jones is playing the organ and the bass and
01:40bottoms on the drums and back to C minor, and then this part.
01:58And then...
02:05Yeah, that move right there, that is so unlike any other minor blues I've ever encountered, where it goes to
02:11the...
02:12So it goes to D7...
02:17Page is actually playing...
02:19Okay, let me back up a little bit. So...
02:27It's C minor over E flat, then G over D, Jones is playing D in the bass, and then C
02:36minor, E flat.
02:38Then we have the 2 chord, like a 2 dominant 7, but Jimmy's not playing the root.
02:45He could be going...
02:50I know why he didn't do that, because if he bends up...
02:56That totally clashes, right? It's a minor 9 interval over...
03:00Doesn't work with a major 7 chord, but he plays...
03:04He plays the 5th of the chord on the bottom there. That's so cool.
03:09And he's doing it like as if he had a G string bender, like on a Telecaster you can get
03:14a G bender, almost like a pedal steel effect, where you can pretend to do it like this.
03:25So he's bending up from C to D, and that works amazingly.
03:34Who would think that bending up to the flat 9 would work, but...
03:51That's so unlike any other minor blues.
03:54Typically, you go to the 5 chord...
04:00Or the 4 chord minor, all minor...
04:04Turn around...
04:10Or, say, like the thrills gone, B.B. King, B minor.
04:15But if it were in C minor...
04:17You go to C minor...
04:19And then F minor...
04:20The thrills gone, baby...
04:22And then it goes to Ab major 7...
04:26G sus to G...
04:29And that's more like a jazz blues, where you would...
04:37Like a Coltrane minor blues or something.
04:40So, um...
04:41Doing that 2 chord...
04:43It's kind of...
04:43Actually that...
04:46A flat 7...
04:47The flat 6 dominant 7 chord...
04:50Or you can do...
04:50The 2...
04:51And then...
04:53It's kind of like...
04:56Sort of...
04:57But, uh...
04:58Every time I hear it, it just gives me goosebumps.
05:00You know?
05:01And what Jimmy played in the beginning of that, when he did that...
05:09In the background, you got...
05:15Instead of going to F minor, they go...
05:22Make like a nice melodic bass line out of it.
05:24And then...
05:25C minor over E flat...
05:28C minor over E flat...
05:29G over D...
05:30And then the bass plays C minor...
05:32E flat...
05:35The lick he plays in the beginning is really cool too.
05:37It's worth checking out because he does this...
05:40Big 2-step over bend...
05:53Now Jimmy Page plays with 8s...
05:56These are 10s...
05:57You gotta fight for it a little more...
05:58But, um...
05:59I used to think it was...
06:02Nope, nope, he's bending up...
06:07Then you have a whole step pre-bend...
06:18That sounds like BB King, right?
06:19You know, doing those big over bends...
06:21And then...
06:29Beautiful stuff...
06:30Next up, while we're on Zeppelin...
06:32The Rain Song...
06:33I tell you, I love Jimmy Page...
06:35All the things about his blues rock playing and riff writing...
06:38He's the king of the riff...
06:40But one of the things I love most about Jimmy's work is...
06:43His acoustic stuff...
06:44And his use of open tunings...
06:47You know, he used Dadgad, famously, on White Summer...
06:49And then Black Mountainside and Cashmere, most famously...
06:52And, uh...
06:53C6 tuning on Bron Uroar and Friends...
06:56Which recorded in the same session, interestingly, on different albums...
07:00But, the one I love the most is the Rain Song tuning...
07:03Which is...
07:04I don't know what you'd call it...
07:06It's a D-G-C...
07:07G-C-D...
07:09And, uh...
07:10They did a whole step higher...
07:12Live...
07:12On the song we're in the same...
07:13Which was...
07:14Interesting...
07:14Because Robert Plant had to sing it...
07:15Up a whole step...
07:17But, what's really cool is that...
07:19Jimmy just...
07:20Took these little...
07:21Simple two-note shapes...
07:22And moved them around...
07:23Started out with this...
07:25This is a G-5...
07:27And then a G-major-7...
07:29So he's octave doubling the melody here...
07:32On his second and fourth strings...
07:37Where's that chord come from?
07:38That doesn't live in the key of G-major...
07:41It lives in the parallel key of G-minor...
07:44So...
07:46And you have these open droning strings...
07:48Open unisons...
07:53Ah...
07:55Sublime...
07:57And this is the best part...
08:04Oh, so beautiful...
08:05G-major...
08:07G-sus-2...
08:08G-sus-4...
08:10G-major...
08:10G-6...
08:13Wow...
08:14E-flat...
08:16Major...
08:17Uh...
08:18E-flat...
08:19Flat-6...
08:20Over G...
08:21Or...
08:21Yeah...
08:22And then...
08:23The money chord...
08:25Ah...
08:26G-9...
08:27But it looks like an A-shape, right?
08:31C-sus-3...
08:31And then G-minor-9...
08:36And then C-sus...
08:38C-sus-4...
08:39C...
08:41B-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m-m...
09:01C-sus-4...
09:05C-sus-4...
09:06C-sus-4...
09:11That really perked my ears up...
09:11jazzy that really intrigued me and got me exploring more music that had that
09:16kind of harmonic depth and richness and ultimately made me want to go to music
09:20school and study and learn more about harmony.
09:24Again, the open strings in there, that's what makes it great.
09:27It's the timbre, the sparkly timbre.
09:36He does this line cliche thing where he walks up, go to the 5 to the flat 6, major 6,
09:50what's
09:56that?
09:56That's a dominant 7, 13 chord.
09:58I'm like, what?
10:05Major 7s and minor 7s.
10:09B minor 11, I think, and then a big majestic E9 sus4.
10:14But it's the timbre of all those open strings that combine with the sophisticated harmony
10:19that really got me thinking.
10:21And later in the song, he goes...
10:47Yeah, it's still one of the most beautiful songs, I think, ever written.
10:50Legend has it that was kind of done on a dare.
10:53George Harrison was hanging out with Jimmy Page one day and said, you guys need a song
10:57like something in your repertoire.
10:59So Page is like, hmm, okay.
11:01So he took the first two chords.
11:08And then it's completely different from that point on, but good stuff.
11:14Another one that inspired me early on from the early 70s is classic song Dream On by Aerosmith
11:20from their first album.
11:22Now, Steven Tyler wrote this on the piano, which is amazing because it's so beautiful
11:27and sophisticated.
11:27It's like these Chopin-esque type chord changes.
11:31And I've never really heard other stuff that he's done on the piano.
11:36And still to this day, these chord changes, it melts my heart in a good way.
11:41Joe Perry doubled the chords on the guitar.
11:43I guess Tyler showed him the chords and said, here, just play this.
11:46And then play this.
11:47And then maybe didn't even know what chords are called.
11:53It's F minor, F minor, C minor, and then D minor, D minor 7 flat 5, D flat major 7
12:09flat 5.
12:09Let me just play it through.
12:49What I like to do, I've been doing this for years, is I put a capo at the first fret.
12:53You may have noticed that.
12:55And I just think E minor, get to use some of these open strings.
12:59So check this out.
13:24And then I'm using my open fist string.
13:29And then.
13:39See how that works out?
13:40The open strings make it really nice.
13:41So I'm kind of thinking E minor.
13:43You know, when you play with a capo, when you're within the first five frets, you think
13:47as if this didn't exist, and that was a nut, and this was the first fret, second fret.
13:51But as soon as you get past five frets away from the capo, you revert back to thinking
13:56in terms of the absolute concert pitch.
13:57But let's stick with F minor.
13:59So F minor, and then C minor over F, which is really kind of like an F minor 9 sound.
14:06And then it's kind of like an F minor 6 sound.
14:10And then, wow, D flat, major 7, flat 5 over F.
14:16And these cluster voicings.
14:19It's so pretty.
14:45Perry would do that playing the song live.
14:47And one thing I do a little different than what Joe Perry plays.
14:49He strums with the pick.
14:51I do picking fingers.
14:53I use hybrid picking because it sounds more like the piano part.
14:56More of that pianistic type of note attack.
14:58And another thing that I put my own stamp on this song is in the interlude part, where it goes.
15:08Oh, I go.
15:11I do like a minor drop.
15:17Ah, that blissful A9 chord.
15:22It's actually B flat 9 in this key.
15:24So you have.
15:35And then this works out great with the capo.
15:40And then.
16:14That's how I like to play it.
16:15Still to this day, it's one of my favorite songs.
16:18Another song that really changed my life early on was
16:20Long Distance Runaround by Yes.
16:22Actually, the whole album, the Fragile album with Roundabout and Heart of the Sunrise,
16:26all these great songs.
16:27And the Yes album before that and Close to the Edge blew my mind.
16:31Steve Howe, my man, Steve Howe.
16:33I had the great honor and privilege of interviewing Steve a couple times for Guitar World over the years.
16:37But long before that, I, as a young guitar player,
16:41I heard the song and I'm like, what the heck is he doing?
16:44Playing these arpeggios across strings.
16:47I mean, I was just thinking like pentatonic at the time,
16:49you know, like power chords, pentatonic.
16:51So let me play a little bit of Long Distance Runaround for you.
16:54And I'll see you next time.
17:06Bye.
17:09Bye.
17:13Bye.
17:15Bye.
17:18Bye.
17:20Bye.
17:21Bye.
17:21Bye.
17:36Bye.
17:40Bye.
17:41Bye.
17:43Bye.
17:46Bye.
17:47Yeah, that part's great, too.
17:49But man, so amazing.
17:52Rick Wakeman's playing a harmony line on keyboard.
17:55And between the two of them, they're kind of outlining it like an E minor 7, flat 5.
18:03Out of context, that would be that.
18:05Or it could be C9, right?
18:09And then just like a Csus to see.
18:15so the underlying feeling is kind of like you know going
18:24like g minor over c to c and it's really hard to pick you know i guess you call it
18:32cross picking
18:32where there's only one note per string and you have to change strings every stroke
18:39a couple of pull-offs you know steve is very tasteful with combining a little legato with
18:43his picking stuff and then finger slides
18:54this is the hardest part you have a similar move here
18:59and then
19:03that taught me wow geez you can take arpeggios and do things like that like
19:13it got me into learning about chord scales you know harmonizing arpeggios and scales up and
19:19down strings and maybe want to study that but it was so intriguing
19:38so elegant right it's like classical
19:43yeah great stuff later on i started getting into stilly dance and my buddies of mine turned me on
19:48to this wonderful music written by donald fagan and walter becker i mean what they did they took
19:54jazz harmony and made it accessible in a pop way pop songs the only other person who i've ever really
20:01known to appreciate to do that stevie wonder right taking these great chords and making
20:06top 10 radio hits out of them so uh the song josie is one of my favorites and uh that
20:13features
20:13becker on guitar and that and also larry calton plays a great solo but that intro that hauntingly
20:19beautiful intro that's dean parks playing that and it's these interesting intervals
20:47and then the chords that come out to that are really cool
21:18we're gonna
21:28yeah so much going on there right but that beginning part you have
21:33minor seven interval i didn't know what that was until i learned the song and then it's parallel fifths
21:41you know you have a
21:45sounds very medieval right or very uh ancient you know like
21:52hail caesar right parallel fifths kind of like a primitive modern sound
21:59and it's hybrid picked too so that got me into hybrid picking
22:02i assume that you had to play everything with a pick before that
22:12then this really gets really interesting well it's already interesting but more interesting
22:21wow you have a minor second there a little cluster and then these chords
22:28what is that that's uh it's an f major seven without the third that would be a regular attain f
22:33major
22:34seven but then you have this and then this that that's that's f sharp seven sharp nine sharp five
22:44and then a uh g major seven note three you think that as d over g like a so-called
22:50slash chord and then
22:52a flat major seven six really intriguing stuff that really made my ears perk up
22:57and my brain want to learn more about those kind of interesting chord changes and then um in the verse
23:06this is an e minor seven and it goes
23:11those are major sevens without the third again it's like you think of it as a over d
23:17or d major nine note three t major nine note three g major nine note three or like a d
23:25chord over g i'm
23:26making this big stretch c over f or f major nine note three and uh you know those chords are
23:35so cool
23:35they're like fusiony chords but the way steeway dan made these chords work and and very catchy pop songs
23:42this is absolutely brilliant and it had a huge impact on me another song that changed my life
23:47is dogs by pink floyd that epic 20 plus minute piece from their 1977 album animals and it's a
23:55masterpiece i think of a songwriting composition david gilmore and roger waters at their finest
24:02collaborating with rick wright and nick mason that opening chord sequence is so intriguing to me
24:09now they were tuned down gilmore tuned his guitar down a whole step so he was in d standard i'm
24:14just
24:15in e standard here i'm gonna play it for you it's e minor nine which is really a nice voicing
24:21i mean
24:22you could play like that it's more of the jazz way to play but he's playing
24:42and it just it loops around for for the verses that is so cool e minor nine you know i
24:49mentioned
24:49earlier that the rain song i'm like oh what's this ninth chord dominant nine and then minor nine wow
24:54i want more of that i want to learn more songs that have that that's what really does it for
24:59me
25:00this chord changes interesting chord changes and voicings so then it goes to that that's like the
25:06steward and chord right so now we're going e minor nine to f major nine note three or think of
25:17it as c over f
25:24and this is pretty cool this looks like out of context you think okay what is that is that like
25:28a
25:29f sharp seven sus four because this would be f sharp seven right but when the bass comes in it
25:37actually
25:38plays b
25:41so that makes it i guess b sus two sus four you can call it b sus two four and
25:48then this chord same shape
25:52that's like a lydian sound by itself without the bass note you're thinking okay what is it f
25:58f major seven sus four which is something you never hear like
26:03usually you hear a
26:06on a major seven you hear a a sharp four or a sharp eleven so but when the bass goes
26:13from b i'm gonna try to skip that bass center
26:22now in full context you have b flat root fifth octave right nine sharp eleven or it's like a
26:33c7 over b flat really intriguing sound you know and with the open strings that adds the timbre the shimmer
26:40so
26:44by the way you could fret do the shared fingertip fretting technique where you hold down two
26:49strings with the tip of the finger it's not like you're barring
26:57and then if you want to do the f get the thumb over there
27:03i mean gilmore didn't do that i'm just doing it now you know and then this
27:14i guess you could trade fingers there's no easy way to do it or let the bass player do it
27:20but um
27:21boy what a spooky hauntingly beautiful chord progression you know that that taught me that
27:27you don't have to play by the rules all the time you know you learn your diatonic chords and
27:31the key of c g or major scales and your minor scales harmonic minor scales and melodic minor
27:38and then break the rules like learn all these guidelines and then just do whatever the hell
27:42you want you know you want to move chromatically and have a common tone
27:49if it sounds good it is good so those are a few of the riffs that really changed my life
27:54as a guitar
27:55player in my formative years as a late teenager early 20s totally got me thinking about new ways
28:02to look at music other than just your standard one four five progressions and whatnot and i hope
28:08you've enjoyed it my name is jimmy brown see you around
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