Going Down Guitar Lesson

This song is such a great, driving blues rock song. We're in the key of D minor throughout and Freddie King demonstrates just how much you can get out of a single pentatonic shape when you really work on your phrasing, feel and bends! Jed breaks down the song masterfully, so let's have a look:

Intro solo

We're not messing about here - the song kicks off with a high energy intro solo that starts with a tone bend on beat 4 of the pickup bar. We're in the key of D blues for this one, and when the verse starts we follow that progression closely, but for the intro solo we stay on the D5 for 8 bars. We're in D minor Pentatonic, using shape 1 for this tune. Here it is:

We're in this box for the whole intro solo, but as you can hear from the record, that doesn't stop Freddie King from getting an incredible amount out of it! A large part of this comes from the way he attacks the notes, the bends, prebends, hammer ons, dynamics and phrasing! As Jed says, you really have to actively listen to the song, and keep in your mind that you're listening out for the way he's playing the notes as much as the notes themselves!

Overbends

There's a particularly tricky overbend in this solo too. We're starting on the b7 and bending all the way up to the 9th (or 2nd) - giving us a major 3rd bend (or 2 tones). This is a big bend so make sure you're fretting with your third finger and using your middle and index fingers to help push up the string too. That's immediately followed by a release to the unbent note straight into a tone bend. If you're new to bending this is definitely something to spend some serious time on, with very careful listening to your pitch to make sure you're getting the right note.

The riff

This song is based around a really rocking riff, that, although not played by Freddie King, really gives the song its energy and gives a great foundation for playing lead over. That means it's definitely one we need to learn to play on guitar too. It's a riff based around D minor blues, but using a C5 to a D5 power chord slide, and some palm-muted downstrokes. Here are the shapes you need for those power chords:

And from there we 'go down' the D minor blues scale on the A and E strings here:

And then we go into a G5 chord, then play the run down again, followed by an A5 chord. This essentially follows a 12 bar blues progression, with the riff in between the chords. The whole thing looks like this as a chord chart:

| D5 | Riff | D5 | D5 |

| G5 | Riff | D5 | D5 |

| A5 | Riff | D5 | D5 |

Bear in mind that for the intro we're just playing over the D5 line, twice around, which Jed analyses for us perfectly in the video!

And there we have it. While there aren't too many sections in this lesson, that doesn't mean it won't take long to master! The subtle phrasing, timing, bends etc are all key to getting an authentic sound so remember to take you time with it. There's a lot here you can take for your own playing! A huge thank you to Jed for tackling this tricky number and explaining it so clearly!