John Mayer: Who Did You Think I Was

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Summary: Trio John Mayer

This is the title track for the album Trio, which is three of the best blues rock musicians of the day, jamming some outrageous blues rock! John Mayer really comes alive in this album with the raw guitar sound and some amazing guitar licks. It's perfect for learning how to get that chunky sound on the guitar.

The Theory: A Blues & CAGED Chords

For the two parts that we are looking at in this lesson, we need to understand a little bit of basic guitar theory. Firstly, the main riff is based around an A7 chord. This allows us to combine the dominant chord with minor pentatonic riffing. As you can see from the diagram below, the b7th element within the A7 chord really allows us to bring in that minor pentatonic sound. The chord and pentatonic shape are the basis of the entire riff.

When we get to the chorus (or B section) we move through an F# minor chord and G major chord. We utilise the pentatonic shapes that are found underneath these particular chord shapes, in a very Hendrix-esque way. If you'd like to learn more about this, check out this course for free. Below you can see the chords we are using, next to the scale shapes used to playthrough. Try to get these memorised as they always apply!


    Keep Learning: John Mayer Player Study

    Many thanks for watching this video and visiting the website. If you love John Mayer and want to learn more about his style and how to play like him, check out our John Mayer player study here: How To Play Like John Mayer. We'll show you how to play in his acoustic, electric and trio style... Giving you a complete understanding of his playing.

Ready to move on? Remember to check out every lesson in this unit first – then try the next unit...

Not Myself

This is a great track for beginners looking to get a little bot of the John Mayer bug! As we have come to expect from John Mayer, even the 'easy' tracks have got some complicated bits, so watch out for a couple of fancy chord shapes!