Papa Ain't Salty Guitar Lesson

Learn how to play like T-Bone Walker!

Like so many Texans before him, T-Bone moved to California to record and it was here that Walker first got his hands on one of the first electric guitars, a Gibson ES.

Around 1939, T-Bone Walker made his mark in musical history by making the first blues recording with an electric guitar.

T-Bone could have stopped right there and still been a legend!

Luckily, he didn't and most famous Blues Guitarist after him cites T-Bone as one of their main influences.

Papa Ain't Salty Video Guitar Lesson

The sliding chords are a horn influenced jazz/blues chord lick that involves some nice extensions.

On the original recording you can hear it after the solo from 1:45.

The first chord (the higher of the two) should be seen as a G6, using the notes G (1), B (3) and E (6) we get a jazzy sounding chord.

As we slide the same shape down a tone (two frets) we get another extensions of the G chord, namely a G9.

The notes are F (b7), A (9th) and D (5th). Notice how this second chord cluster doesn’t have a G, we leave that to the bass player.

Apply chord lick to chord IV and V as well to complete the concept.

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