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)