The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

Does anyone have a good The thrill is gone tab, or know where one is on the web. The ones I have seen don't seem just right and I cant do it all by ear. I got the chords and think the right scales but cant break down the notes well enough.


Also when you work on a song do you try to hit every note the same as the original, or do you take a jazz approach and play in the right key and play the melody and chord progression and improv the solo's and make it your own?

I haven't seen any tab for it, but I don't think there's any need to learn it note for note to perform it. If you want to learn every note to study BB's style, though, that would probably be very useful. And you'll learn a bunch of cool licks.

Blackhorse wrote:I don't think there's any need to learn it note for note

That is what I was thinking I know the chord progression and i'm in the right key with the solo's still working on timing in some places, but I was leaning toward recording some backing tracks and giving it a whirl of my own instead of note for note

I never try to learn or play a song note for note. I may try to get some of the feel of the artist I am covering, or maybe not. I do learn licks and phrases, but then I use them in different songs, transpose them to different keys, change timing on them... I work pretty hard at NOT sounding like someone else.
The only songs that I ever learned note for note were; Stairway to Heaven, (you had to, way back when I was learning electric guitar) which I have never ever performed, and SRV's Tin Pan Alley, which I promptly forgot, except for a bunch of licks that I still use and are now unrecognizable.

oldskoolchop wrote:

Blackhorse wrote:I don't think there's any need to learn it note for note

That is what I was thinking I know the chord progression and i'm in the right key with the solo's still working on timing in some places, but I was leaning toward recording some backing tracks and giving it a whirl of my own instead of note for note

Blindboy wrote:I never try to learn or play a song note for note. I may try to get some of the feel of the artist I am covering, or maybe not. I do learn licks and phrases, but then I use them in different songs, transpose them to different keys, change timing on them... I work pretty hard at NOT sounding like someone else.

There's great freedom in playing your own interpretation.

Though if I know the piece well enough I'll find that a lot of my notes will be similar to the original. When you're playing notes based on what you're hearing in your head that's inevitable - get me to try and improv over a House of the Rising Sun based BT and phrases from the versions I know well will keep popping up however hard I try not to let them.

There are a couple of good reasons I have too that makes me disinclined to copy solos - (1) at best it will be just a substandard attempt compared to the original (although I'll admit my version will be a million miles from iconic but at least it will be mine) and (2) maybe more importantly it won't fall naturally under my fingers and therefore won't flow well and will sound stilted and awkward. Not good when combined with slow playing - my lack of speed will usually make a lot of the original players solos out of my reach anyway.

Getting ideas for patterns and licks from another player and incorporating hem into your own style and progressions is a preferable option ... though with my memory trying to remember new licks is not as easy option.

Since I've accidentally developed the ability to play what I hear in my head over the last year or so i find it impossible not to start playing notes that are my own version anyway - or to accidentally rip off bits of melody I've heard someone else play months before.

As far as listening to other players - I think I'd rather hear a new interpretation of a song with a few surprises than to hear an exact copy.

I agree, it can be fun to watch a perfect "imitation" of like say "Crossroads", because you understand the hard work of nailing it note by note. But at the same time it seems a bit odd. For practise yes, but in performance? Do they have a personal problem? "I am EC" or what? To borrow licks and add parts of your "mentors" in order to build your own stylistic voice should be the ultimate goal. We all know that EC loves Robert Johnson, but what if EC only had played RJ songs note for note as in the 1938 recordings, then we wouldn't have had all the wonderful notes, riffs and melodies EC has created HIMSELF with the "help" from Johnson and many others.

Try if that's any help:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/bb_king_tabs.htm

http://12bar.de/bluesgreats.php

12bar wrote:http://12bar.de/bluesgreats.php

Hih, hih wayyyyyy too close, I'll go

I think the original poster is on the right track by learning the chord structure and the arrangement and improvising the solo. I agree with the other folks on here when they say it's a good thhing to try and learn the solo note for note but only as a means of learning the licks and most importantly the feel of the solo. Eventually you will start to see the results of this practice and be able to place certain licks you have learned into other songs. You will soon notice that BB King has many standard licks he uses in almost every tune. Most of all have fun with playing along with a backing track trying out the different licks and note combinations.

thanks guy for the info I think I might try to stay pretty close with the intro but as for the rest just try to stay somewhere close with his timing, if that makes sense