KILLER BLUES GROOVE | Give Me One Reason Guitar Lesson

Give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn my back around.

Give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn my back around hey, guitar enthusiasts, we're going to be feeling the blues in this lesson. I'm going to teach you a very, very special groove that Tracy Chapman uses in her song Give Me One Reason. And we're do it step by step right here.

So let's go over the chords that we're going to use in this song first. These are bar chords. But don't worry if you can't play bar chords. You could always use power chords and it'll still sound pretty good. So the first chord we're going to be using is an F sharp chord. Okay. Or you could use an F sharp 5 power chord will also work well for this song. The other is going to be a B major chord. Or you can use a B5 power chord also works out well. And then our 5 chord is going to be a C sharp or a C sharp 5. All right, so we have 1, 4, 5. Okay? Those are going to be our chords. F sharp, B, C sharp. Okay. And you can use the power chords like I said, if you want to make it easier. So now we're going to show you how we're going to apply this to a 12 bar blues form to give you this song. So we're using somewhat of a standard 12 bar blues form with some variations. But first, let's talk about what a normal 12 bar blues is. So normal 12 bar blues usually would be 4 measures of the I chord. Okay. 2 measures of the 4 chord, back to 2 measures of the I chord. And then we would have the V chord on the end, the four chord, and then two measures of the I chord. Now, if you don't know what all those numbers are, don't worry. We're going to go through it step by step in this video right here. And Tracy follows this up almost exactly to the T, but in a couple spots she changes things up. So let's talk about what happens there. And then we'll get into the rhythm of how we're going to play the song. So Tracy does something that we call a quick four, but she's actually doing like a quick four five here. Let me explain. So we have typically in 12 bar blues, you would play four measures of F sharp. In this song, we don't do that. We play one measure of F sharp and then the second measure is actually a split measure. It's going to be the B and then C sharp and Then back to A or B back to F sharp minor. So the chord progression would be F sharp minor, half measure of B, half measure of C, then F sharp minor for two more measures. So it's still doing four measures. It's just that second measure is split between the B chord and the C sharp chord. She also does this on the second measure of the second line. So typically the sixth measure of a 12 bar blues would be the second measure of the first IV chord. In this case, Tracy doesn't do that. She does do half of the measure as the IV chord, but then she does half of the measure again as the C sharp chord. So once you understand those two simple variations, you have Tracy's complete 12 bar form. It's mostly the same except the second measure and the sixth measure are going to be that split measure of B and C sharp. So now that we have the form down, let's talk about the cool rhythm we can use for this. And I'm going to show you the way I like to play. I'm going to show you the way Tracy does it first. So I'm going to show you a little spice I like to do when I used to play this song live. So just to refresh your memory on this groove, let's hear what it sounds like again. So it's a.

So there's a little bit of a percussive element to it. But first let's break down the timing. Now this is a shuffle feel. I'm still going to talk about it it as 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. But just realize that this is a shuffle blues feel. So the rhythm is going 1, 2 and. And 4 and 1, 2 and. And 4and 1, 2 and. And 4&1, 2 and, and 4. And what we're doing is we're alternating between the bass note. So whether you're playing a full bar chord or you're just playing the power chord, the bass note would be this top string on the, on the F sharp here. So it'd be bass strum bass. Okay, so it's going to be bass strum bass. And then you would do it again, bass strum bass. So it's going to be 1, 2 and m4 and 1, 2 and m4, m1, 2 and m4, m 1, 2 and m4 and very, very popular groove. One of the grooves that I go over in my blues guitar course and what we're doing here again is just playing bass, strumming the chord back to the bass note. And you probably heard on my Examples a little more percussive. So I'm going to show you what we're going to do here to make that come to life. So we're going to do bass and when we strum, we're going to cut the chord off real quick. And this is where playing the full bar chords would be beneficial versus the power chord. You get a much more bigger canvas to do this on. But it's going to be bass, strum, mute. And how we're in muting, we're releasing the tension on this power chord or sorry, on the bar chord. So we're going. So as soon as you strum down, you're releasing the tension on the string and then putting it back on to get that bass note. So it'll be.

Hear that?

Okay, so you're just strumming real quick and then you're releasing the tension on the fretting hand to mute the strings. And that's how we get the rhythm. So it's.

Okay. So that's how we're getting this percussive style rhythm. And that's the rhythm you would use for most of the song, except on those half measures. So on those measures I kind of like going 1, 2 and 1, 2 and 3, 4. And so I'm still doing the alternating bass. So it's 1, 2 and 3, 4. And.

Okay, so that's what I do on those measures. So we've got 1, 2 and 4 and 1, 2 and M4 and 1, 2 and 3, 4, and 1, 2. And.

So I'm going to play through this entire progression so that you guys can have something to play along and practice with. But stick around because at the end going to show you how to add in this cool little spice to your strumming.

Little cool extra spice. And I want to show you guys how to do it right. So. So let's take this to the. From the top. Just as a note in the beginning, Tracy's just tapping that open E string.

Okay. She's just tapping that open bass string. 1, 2, 3, F.

Okay, so we're just going to take it at the top from the F. But I just want to let you know if you hear the song, that's what she's doing. She's doing three open E's. 1, 2, 3, and then F sharp, 1, 2. Ready? And Sam.

And as with any 12 bar blues, once you get to the end, you just go right back to the beginning and play through it. So I'm going to show you guys a couple little extra spices. The way I used to play this song live that you guys might find really interesting and will make you sound like a better guitar player. So here's the cool little extra spice. I want to show you guys what it's going to sound like. It's going to sound like this.

Okay, so I've got a little hammer on going here with my first finger. What am I doing? I'm playing an open string. So in the case of the F sharp, that's going to be the open E. And I'm just hammering down my first finger. And this will work with power chords, too.

Okay. Work with power chords or the full bar chord, whatever is easier for you. And I'm just going one E and then two.

So it's a really quick.

Okay, 1, E2. And now I'm not going back to the and after the two, because I think that little extra spice adds enough in the beginning. So I'm going 1, E, 2. And then I'm lifting my finger off again and 4. And so I'm bouncing and off that open string. So it's going to be E. F sharp, E. I am playing the full chord, though, when I put the finger down. Okay. So it's going to be.

So even when I play this on the first note, I'm not playing the whole chord, but this part, I am playing the full chord even when the string is open. I'm catching string five and four for sure. So we've got.

Okay, so that's how we would time that. Now for the B. It's the same thing. The open string would be the open A string.

Okay, now could you do this on the C sharp? Yeah. I don't particularly like the sound of it, so I would probably opt for the regular.

Okay. I don't particularly like the sound of going from the A to that C sharp. I like the A to the B. But I just wanted to show you that extra spice that you guys can add in. And there's one more thing. But wait, there's more. So on the 10th measure, there's one extra little spice you can do. I don't know if Tracy really does this in a song, but I like to do it sometimes. I think it sounds really, really cool, is we've got this C sharp chord, right? And then we're moving down to the B note. This is a very common thing that happens in blues anyway, so it's good for you guys to know it. We're going to move chromatically from C sharp to C to B. So it's going to sound like this 1-234-12 so the 3 is C sharp, the 4 is C and then we got B. It's a really nice progression, a really great way to get from that V chord into the four.

So let me do one more playthrough for you guys putting all of these elements together so that you can practice adding in these couple little spices. 12 ready M.

If you guys enjoyed this 12 bar blues lesson then make sure to go in the description below and check out my blues guitar course where we go over grooves like this. I show you how to move around a 12 bar blues progression in different ways. Major blues, minor blues, different chord variations you can use and even ways to start soloing over some of these 12 bar blues progressions. So if you're interested in taking your blues playing to the next level go to the link in the description below and I'll see you guys in another lesson.