I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Step 2 (Free Preview)

Verse
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I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Verse
Welcome back,
During the verse, the Ebm feels like the I chord of a blues. Sure, the order and length of the chords are different to a standard blues, but the overall feel is there. It’s just that the I chord is now a Im chord.
The rules for creating these parts were.
- Play two strings from a chord shape
- Whenever possible, play on beat 2 and 4
- Create licks using relevant pentatonic and chord notes
Here’s a loop to practice all these examples. Use this as well as the TAB loops in the playlist above.
And here’s what example 1 looks like in TAB.
The Ebm is a Dm shape, the Bb an A shape. The Ab is an E shape.
Here’s example 2.
Here we’ve moved up to an Am shape for the Ebm chord. The Bb is an E shape, the Ab uses first an E shape, then a D shape.
Over the Ab chord, I add both the Major Pentatonic and the b7 interval.
Here’s example 3.
In this example, stay with the Am shape for the Ebm chord, although we’re now on string 3 and 4 instead.
The Bb is still an E shape, the Ab is only in a D shape. The variation is an Ab7 the second time.
Here’s example 4.
In this example, the Ebm use a Gm shape. The Bb gets a C shape, so does the Ab chord.
Here’s example 5.
You could say this is still a Gm shape for the Ebm, although it’s probably easier to think of it as an Em shape.
The Bb and Ab both use D shapes and echo the Soul Man intro we played recently.
The last Ab7 uses an A shape.
Spend the recommended time practicing all examples. Modify them to taste.
Next time, we learn the bridge.
See you then!
Dan (your guitar guru)