4 Clapton Licks To Learn On Guitar!

There’s no better way to learn new scale shapes, new ways to use them, and new colours to play with than learning songs from guitar players we look up to. Let’s jump in!

Layla

We couldn’t leave this one out, this is such a guitar anthem that we all have to learn at some point in our journey! We’re going to focus on the main riff, but if you want to learn the full song, I invite you to look at Dion’s lesson on Layla. The riff is in the key of D minor, and we’re going to need shapes 1 and 2. The good news is that we’re not moving much as the whole riff is played only on the B and high E strings!

Because we’re also playing the 2nd in the riff (the note E), we’re actually using the D natural minor scale rather than just the pentatonic scale.

Take your time with this one and focus on the timing and the precision of your hammer-ons and pull-offs! Also, this lick is a great entry point into the natural minor scale that Clapton uses to add some beautiful colours to his melody.

Bad Love

This is one of Dan’s favourite Clapton riffs, and it’s still in the key of D minor! But this time, we’re over shapes 3 and 4, so much lower on the neck. In this riff, we start on shape 3 before jumping up to shape 4. This is a great way for you to see how these two shapes “plug together”.  The riff then moves down to the note E, which is the 2nd in the key. Again!

So, if you were to learn Layla and Bad Love, you’d build your confidence over shapes 1/2 and 3/4 in the same D minor key. You’d also start spotting where that extra 2nd note is, which would allow you to add some new colours to your solos.

Of course, if you own a Wah Wah pedal, this is the right time to use it! It’s definitely a big part of Clapton’s tone on this song. Have fun with it!

White Room

Let’s now dive into our third Clapton riff, “White Room”! In order to play this intro, we’re going to need 5 different chords: G minor, F, D minor, C and A min7.

Something worth noting is that this beautiful intro is in a 5/4 time signature, which means that instead of counting to 4 on each bar, you’ll actually count to 5!

The cool thing that you can do here is try to match the pulse of the timpani (the big orchestral drums that Ginger Baker plays on the intro). You can try and do that with your Wah Wah pedal if you own one, or maybe just by playing with the volume of your guitar with its volume pot if you like!

And of course, you could find more creative ways of matching this pulse by strumming or even playing with the tremolo of your guitar if you want to.

My Father’s Eyes

Let’s now look at our last lick, which is the intro to “My Father’s Eyes”! We’re in the key of C# minor (or its relative E major) and we’re going to play over shapes 3 and 4. This intro is quite colourful, with the use of the 2nd (again) and the flat 6th.

This is the perfect excuse to get familiar with where some of these notes are over shapes 3 and 4!

Clapton plays that beautiful melody with some very tasty tremolo, so feel free to use that if you can, or add some vibrato on these long notes. Make sure you let the notes ring out!

Conclusion

There you have it! 4 Clapton licks that we should all know, and remember that the full Layla lesson is available. If you’d like more song lessons like this, please let us know in the comments so we can add that to our list!

Remember that the goal here is to have fun playing songs you like, but also to use concepts that you’ve learnt such as scale shapes and chords in a musical context. So have fun with everything above, but try and make sure you understand where everything comes from!