worried life blues unplugged

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udi091
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:45 pm

worried life blues unplugged

Post by udi091 »

hi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVydPqmohgs
I recently came across this video from the famous unplugged concert that is off the dvd.
It is really catchy.
The intro is brilliant. I am asking for help with tabs for it.
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12bar
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Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: worried life blues unplugged

Post by 12bar »

It's a simple Blues in C, minor pent 8th fret. If you narrow a time range down to about 10 sec, I'll see what I can do - still not much time to play....
GibsonBlues
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Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 9:11 pm

Re: worried life blues unplugged

Post by GibsonBlues »

Hope it's alright if I bump this, but I'm going to take on the task of tabbing this out.

I've been coming to this site for many years, taking the blues knowledge it has to offer; I look forward to giving back to the site! I've had the Unplugged Clapton album since I was like 12. Now I've recently stumbled upon the deluxe version with this gem of a song. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for me to train my ear and provide a tab (hopefully) in the process. I'd like to solicit any input others might have to share.

Well, as 12bar said, it's definitely in C, and from what I can tell all the phrasing is in C minor pentatonic scale in the first position (8th fret). To give it that jazz/swing feel, it looks and sounds like Clapton is using C9, F9, G9 chords, or Cmin9, Fmin9, Gmin9, whatever notation you are more familiar with. These are chords with a Minor7th and Minor9th. This is actually an exceedingly easy chord to play (C9):

e---3-----
b---3-----
g---3----
d---2----
a---3----
e--------

Anyways, it appears Clapton uses this same chord structure (root on the A strong) and slides up to the 8th fret and 10th frets for F9 and G9, respectively.

To further add to the jazz/swing feel, while playing the C9 measures, Clapton moves down a half step (B9) for a strum and up a half step for a strum (C#9), sometimes walking from the B9 to the C9 to the C#9 and back to the C9 in 4 sequential strums - it gives a staggering sort of feel. Occasionally, while playing the F9 (4th) measures, it sounds like he slides up the G9 (5th) and back quick. Like many 12 bars, he descends from the 5th to the 4th (watch the video/listen to the song): Sounds like he transitions half-steps down from the 5th to the 4th with this song: G9-F#9-F9, before returning to the root and playing a turnaround.

Okay, so that's my long-winded first impression of the song. I'm now going to proceed to tab it out: chords, phrases, and all. Feel free to add or critique what I'm putting out there as I go.
MichaelRobinson
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Joined: Mon Oct 03, 2011 10:20 pm

Re: worried life blues unplugged

Post by MichaelRobinson »

Oh, Jesus Christ .............. Do you have perfect pitch because you seem to be able to put up the chords and tab without any effort?

It is far above my ability, I can say, but I wish I had perfect pitch.
GibsonBlues
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Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 9:11 pm

Re: worried life blues unplugged

Post by GibsonBlues »

MichaelRobinson wrote:Oh, Jesus Christ .............. Do you have perfect pitch because you seem to be able to put up the chords and tab without any effort?

It is far above my ability, I can say, but I wish I had perfect pitch.
Hardly pitch perfect, my friend. I have dabbled in the blues for enough years to be able to scrounge notes with a bit of effort though.

As I hope I've illustrated in my intro post, it's quite easy to pull the chord progressions from the song. The real task lies in tabbing the phrasing. It'll be a pleasurable task to determine them, and I suspect it'll be quite easy as it is almost entirely in the first position of a min. pent. scale with a handful of maj. notes added.

Hope you'll be around to critique me as I dive in!
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