Western Swing Soloing Hacks - Ask Zac 161

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
0:34
Zac hope you're doing well today today
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we're going to talk about
0:39
kind of how to you know kind of an intro
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to Western swing guitar or kind of how
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to fake it at Western swing guitar if
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you will uh and and that's said with all
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respect I I love Western swing and so
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the reason I'm doing this is actually
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one of my uh you know patreon members
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asked me he said hey I'm playing in a
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country band and I we're gonna do a
1:03
western swing number and I really don't
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know how to play over that and I thought
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it was such a great question because you
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do
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when you're playing Western swing you
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need to think in a different mindset and
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from what you might do with you know
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playing over you know a straight ahead
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you know Bakersfield or a shuffle tune
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or things like that and so today is just
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kind of a
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an intro and some hacks some cheats you
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know to help you uh you know with your
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playing and your tone and just Concepts
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and so these will uh and these are very
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transferable these also can be used in
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like blues and junk blues and all sorts
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of stuff so don't think this is just for
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Western swing but this is something that
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will really help you in that area
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so of course while you're thinking about
1:55
it uh if you haven't done it already and
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if you've been enjoying the show please
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hit subscribe if you've already done
2:01
that then I appreciate you supporting
2:03
the show there's uh multiple ways but
2:05
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2:07
more at the link in the description
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store or there's good old tip jar
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information and if you want to do uh you
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know a PayPal or venmo or what have you
2:21
and it is much appreciated I do need to
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say uh thank you so much for the
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wonderful responses I got on last week's
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episode about uh you know the arthritis
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diagnosis that I got
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um I actually played last weekend played
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two you know four hour sets and down in
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Tulsa
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had a had a great time played well I was
2:45
just sore you know at the at the end of
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the second night and but I was I've been
2:49
okay since and just kind of uh dealing
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with it and doing you know trying to do
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a better job with taking care of my
2:57
hands and taking care of my health
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all right so let's uh let's Dive In
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so first off
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your best friend when you're playing
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Western swing
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are sixth and Ninth chords
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they really give you a tonality that
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says
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I know what I'm doing
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so let's just you know we're going to
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start in the key of G
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and I'm going to play some inversions of
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six and nine chords and sometimes doing
3:32
it chromatically I'm going to do it slow
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and then you know you can slow it down
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and watch watch it again later so you
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can kind of understand it better and
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then you need to move these you know you
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need to transpose these into all the
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different keys
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so we're going to just do it in G first
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um
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so first off you have this one
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then the next one
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again this is
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here's the next one
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[Music]
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and uh you know I'm just going to climb
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up you know way above you know on the on
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the 15th fret so you can go
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and that's basically just different
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inversions of that same chordal change
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over and over again so starting up on
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the 15th fret
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foreign
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[Music]
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starts with your first finger you're on
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the seventh fret and you've got your you
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know your your your second finger on the
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eighth fret and you've got your third
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finger on the ninth fret you have this
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one
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and then back to this first one again
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so slow that down learn that and then
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move it into other keys and that will be
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extremely helpful for you so this is the
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one we're going to concentrate on right
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now so starting on the uh so I've got
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the first finger on the seventh fret
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I've got the second finger on the eighth
5:23
fret of this on the B string and I've
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got the third finger on the ninth fret
5:28
of the G string foreign
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[Music]
5:48
okay so what I did there
5:51
was I took that simple you know G6 to G9
5:56
move right well I did it chromatically
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I went down a half step and then back up
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you know
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[Music]
6:06
[Applause]
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so that's me taking it up to C
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that was that was up on the up on the
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12th fret the first finger is on the
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12th fret and then you move down to the
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uh the first form again of G6
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and then you can take it all the way
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down to that that G9 and then I played a
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a single note Line run because
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doing this
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um it's nice to have a motif and it's
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nice to and it's nice to repeat the
6:45
motif over the one chord and the four
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chord but when you get to the five chord
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let's do something different
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and uh
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so I always think a good you know single
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note line you know will sound good there
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so here I'm
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[Music]
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thank you
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oh let's see here's another one based on
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this chord shape this this G6
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[Music]
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we can we can kind of ramp it up into
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kind of a double stop lick like this
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[Music]
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foreign
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so there I took uh you know part of this
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I took just you know the the on the high
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e and B strings I'm playing of course
8:02
the first fingers on the seventh fret
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second fingers on the eighth fret on the
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B string and then of course your uh
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you're kind of playing this back and
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forth thing on the G string where you're
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playing on the uh the ninth fret and the
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seventh fret too
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[Music]
8:20
and then you flat the third which of
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course go which means that first finger
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is going to go from the seventh fret
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down to the sixth fret then you have
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[Music]
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and what that gives you is it gives you
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a g sorry a C7
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tonality or actually
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and uh
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yeah and that's a that's a nice little
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double stop move so again
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[Music]
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foreign
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that works really well
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again this is all just using an over the
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five chord I used again this this you
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know this times it's a D6 to a D9
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[Music]
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and that's your first fingers on the
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10th fret your second finger is on the
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uh the 11th fret of the G string and
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your third finger is on the 12th fret of
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the B string and then you're just moving
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it down chromatically
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[Music]
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all right uh one more thing with this
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shape and this is a a really good
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descending lick
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[Music]
9:59
so this was me just taking this shape
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and I'm playing it
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you know down then up down then up down
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then just ending with kind of a curly q
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kind of lick so
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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of course you have that six nine chord
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that I I love and probably overuse at
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times
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[Music]
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um here's a uh
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here's a good chromatic lick that works
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really well that you can go forward or
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backwards on again we're staying in the
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key of G
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um
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[Music]
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so that's going forward and then you can
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go backwards with it
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[Music]
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so that you can get a lot of mileage out
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of uh also just always thinking about
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the minor third to Major third move
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[Music]
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that always works well
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ah half step below moves work really
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well and that's kind of a jazz swing you
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know kind of move regardless
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um but let's just take a G chord so this
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is just a g bar chord well if I approach
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it from a half step below then I can get
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a really interesting sound so I'm just
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going to outline outline this shape so
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I'm going to
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[Music]
11:52
yeah again
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[Music]
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now I can I can kind of kind of come
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back some I can kind of go forward and
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backwards
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[Music]
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great move
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uh here's one that I learned from John
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Jorgensen uh actually I think he was
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playing like some gypsy jazz and I
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really liked this thing it's just a
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little section that I that I stole from
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something where he was playing
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and it's perfect because it's uh I think
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of it as is over uh you know again we're
12:36
in the key of G so we're thinking about
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this over the IV chord over the C which
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you know would be
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or just
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so that's just
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so think over a C9
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[Music]
12:54
okay so it's uh
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[Music]
13:05
so it's so starting on the G string on
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the fifth fret
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and then going down to the third fret
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then I'll go to the B string on the
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fifth fret B string third fret E string
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fifth fret
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E string third fret
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[Music]
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and then back down
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but on the G string I did a chromatic
13:33
move
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and then hit that D string on the fifth
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fret and then I did the major you know
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the minor third to Major third move
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[Music]
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it's a third fret to Fourth fret on the
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G string and then hit that uh
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that low uh that low G on the uh on the
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D string on the fifth fret
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uh uh again in the kind of uh half step
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below
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um I think the flatted the flatted fifth
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is always a fun thing to to start with
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uh so so in the key of G you know it's
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this uh you know D note and I'm just
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going to use this one here on the on the
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B string on the third fret and so I
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start one fret below that
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[Music]
14:30
so it just it just has a nice
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um you know kind of ear catching uh you
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know quality to it so
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[Music]
14:45
and there I was you know kind of
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bouncing back and forth on the D string
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between the you know Fifth and Third
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frets
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[Music]
15:03
yeah and again always the you know major
15:06
third minor third uh kind of uh move
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that uh always always works well
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all right now let's talk about some kind
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of do's and don'ts so
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if you noticed in the way I was playing
15:24
uh actually let's let's back up and I
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want to talk about One More Concept that
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I I really love and that's octaves and I
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don't mean that in the West Montgomery
15:34
you know Style
15:35
[Music]
15:37
I mean it in uh playing a kind of
15:41
soprano note and then playing an octave
15:43
below that it it really works well in
15:47
this kind of thing so anything again
15:50
always in the key of G for this you can
15:53
go up to you know the 15th fret and you
15:56
go
15:57
[Music]
16:03
so that's you know playing that 15th
16:05
fret with your pinky and then on the E
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string and then playing the 12th fret on
16:09
the G string
16:11
that works well and then you can
16:14
slightly Bend
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[Music]
16:18
on the uh on the 14th fret for the G
16:22
you know for going over the one chord
16:23
the G and then when you get to the C
16:25
chord you can play it again
16:30
but then play the you know the 15th fret
16:33
on the on the G string to give it that
16:38
uh C7 tonality
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[Music]
16:44
uh also I really like to use this kind
16:47
of octave Motif for uh descending licks
16:51
like uh if I'm if I'm again always in
16:54
the key of G for this episode
16:56
when I'm going from the V chord which is
16:58
of course your D and I'm getting back to
17:01
the one chord uh because you know
17:04
there's so many moves that are one six
17:07
two five or maybe it's just a simple one
17:09
two five kind of move but you end up a
17:11
lot so many times going from the five
17:13
from the D chord back to the G
17:16
and so many times I like to do this move
17:19
which I'm starting on the on the 10th
17:21
fret with my pinky on the high E string
17:25
and then I'm playing the octave which is
17:28
on the seventh fret on the G string with
17:30
my first finger so you get this
17:34
together
17:35
let's see
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[Music]
17:44
so again and we're moving chromatically
17:46
down
17:47
[Music]
17:57
ah yeah that really works well
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[Music]
18:06
all right now let's get back to uh kind
18:09
of do's and don'ts and tone and and
18:12
things like that so one thing that I
18:14
would say that I wouldn't do is I
18:16
wouldn't do bending unless it was uh you
18:19
know like a half step or more it just
18:21
doesn't sound legit when you start doing
18:23
Pedal Steel type bins because
18:27
true Western swing
18:30
you know when it was really at its at
18:33
its height
18:34
you know there were no there you know
18:36
people weren't using pedals on a steel
18:39
guitar so you don't have that bending
18:42
string sound and of course people were
18:43
using heavy gauge strings you know with
18:46
a wound third and so you don't hear
18:49
string bending really unless it's you
18:51
hear slurs and you hear half step bends
18:54
and you but you don't hear whole step
18:57
bends or Blues bins so I would kind of
19:01
steer away from those
19:04
um double stops of course are are really
19:08
great that's that's dues stay with those
19:10
sixth nine 13 You Know chords and things
19:13
like that uh also tone wise
19:18
uh
19:19
again Western swing was at its height in
19:23
the 1930s and 40s which means that most
19:26
of those recordings don't have any type
19:29
of effects on them at all no Reverb no
19:31
Echo no anything like that and so many
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times
19:36
I will try to go for a drier sound now
19:40
sometimes it might just not work and I
19:42
will you know turn the Reverb on or
19:44
might use a little slapback delay but
19:46
most the time I try to go for a drier
19:49
sound like right now I have my the
19:50
Reverb off on my little uh
19:52
headstrong a little King and uh
19:56
you know but the only effect I am using
19:59
is I'm using uh one of the J rocket
20:02
Archer pedals they're they're the icon
20:04
the gold Archer and uh and what I'm
20:08
using that for is just for a boost so
20:12
that I play a little lighter and also to
20:14
add just a touch of hair so I only have
20:16
the you know the gain at like nine
20:18
o'clock which means that you're not
20:20
getting you know you're getting some of
20:23
that mid-range YouTube screamer thing
20:25
but not you know a a too big of a dollop
20:28
of it and I just really want to add a
20:30
touch of hair I don't really want it to
20:33
sound distorted now at times I will use
20:35
an overdrive pedal set really low also
20:38
to kind of get this and the reason I do
20:40
this
20:41
is that most the time these recordings
20:43
you know the amps the guitar amps were
20:45
were really underpowered and so many
20:48
times they were running them at the top
20:50
end of their uh volume capability and so
20:54
many times you've got a touch of uh of
20:57
distortion you know or overdrive you
21:00
know in the in the sound that was used
21:03
by these players in the 1940s and the
21:05
1930s and so I like to replicate that
21:08
because I think it sounds fun and I
21:10
think it sounds more legit more legit
21:12
than a crystal clear clean tone I think
21:15
a Crystal Clear Tone just doesn't I
21:18
don't like it in western swing I mean
21:20
the other other guys do it and they do
21:21
it great but I'm more influenced by
21:24
Junior Bernard who had a pretty dirty
21:26
tone and so uh yeah so that's what I use
21:30
it my uh one other note I have to say
21:32
about this Archer pedal was uh
21:35
I'm not really a big pedal modder but
21:38
one of my patreon fellows named Chad
21:41
kindly sent me a set of New Old Stock
21:44
diodes the kind that were actually used
21:46
in the old clones and changed that out
21:48
and it actually did make a noticeable
21:51
difference especially in the high end it
21:53
made The Trebles the treble notes became
21:56
less cloudy so anyway so there's a uh
22:00
you know one of one of the rare mods
22:03
that I've I've done to a pedal and was
22:05
actually felt like it did something okay
22:06
back to to tone the other thing I do is
22:11
I tend to stay away from the bridge
22:14
pickup on my Telly and so because I'm
22:17
trying to get more of an arch top sound
22:19
which is what you know this you know
22:21
Western swing you know originally was
22:23
not cut with solid body guitars so much
22:25
of it was done before Leo started making
22:28
the Telly and the Strat now of course
22:30
later on Eldon shamblin got a strat and
22:33
of course you have Jimmy Bryant and
22:34
things like that but that was really
22:36
at the tail end of Western swing's
22:39
popularity
22:41
um you know
22:43
what western swing was was really you
22:46
know getting killed off by things like
22:48
television and uh you know Honky Tonk
22:52
music shuffles rock and roll uh all
22:55
those things kind of ended the reign of
22:58
Western swing and so so much of Western
23:00
swing was done with big hollow body
23:02
guitars with single coil pickups and uh
23:06
so the closest I'm going to get to that
23:08
with the Telly because I'm not going to
23:09
bring another guitar just to play
23:10
Western swing on is I'm going to go to
23:13
the neck pickup and uh and again I'm
23:15
going to use this you know Archer pedal
23:17
and
23:18
[Music]
23:31
oh
23:35
[Music]
23:42
so and sometimes I will get it you know
23:44
because that's not really hairy sounding
23:46
but there's just a touch of hair on the
23:48
note and sometimes I'll get it hairier
23:50
than that depending on how much I want
23:52
to go you know Junior Bernard the you
23:55
know
23:56
[Music]
24:12
thank you
24:14
all right
24:16
well guys I appreciate you uh watching
24:19
today and I hope hope you've enjoyed it
24:22
hope this is a good little taste of a
24:25
western swing and I have some really
24:29
good playlists that and I'll put the
24:31
link like to the junior Bernard one
24:33
because that's one of my you know
24:34
favorites and of course I have an
24:36
episode on Junior and such that you can
24:38
watch and uh yeah learn your Sixth and
24:42
nine chord uh inversions especially up
24:45
here on the high three strings and learn
24:48
them in all the different keys and
24:51
you'll go far
24:53
all right guys thank you so much we'll
24:55
see you next time bye-bye