Welcome to this Tutti Frutti guitar lesson! We'll be taking you through a guitar version of the track, which includes two main parts to master. Firstly there is the walking guitar part, which uses the major 6th arpeggio to get that cool rock & roll walking bass line sound. We then check out the horn section stabs, to add the real root of the rhythm back into the track.
This is the main theme of the song. It's an absolute classic 12 bar blues bass line, and definitely worth learning, because you'll hear it in hundreds (if not thousands!) of songs. In theory terms the intervals are Root, 3rd, 5th and 6th.
Remember, this is a fast riff, so take it slow to begin with and make sure you're playing in time before gradually increasing the tempo!
The riff follows the chords throughout the song, so it needs to be memorised in 3 positions on the neck. You can see the 3 positions on the neck on the fretboard diagrams below:
We've also got our awesome moving tab in the Materials Section, where you can change the tempo. Once you're happy with the riff try playing along with the backing track!
While the riff is the main hook of the song, it's all held together by a slightly modified 12 bar blues chord progression. The chords are F, Bb and C. The guitar part we're playing is emulating the horn section stabs on each chord, and we're playing partial barre chords throughout. It's the same shape that you move up and down the neck. Make sure your index finger is pressing hard enough to allow the strings to ring out and, since these are trying to sound like horn stabs, remember to play staccato, so do a quick hit on the chord then release the pressure so it doesn't ring out. Here are the chord shapes:
The majority of the song has a cool up beat sounding rhythm. The key here is to make sure you're getting the strumming direction right. Here's the strumming pattern:
This track has an A Section and a B section, that follow a 12 bar blues progression with a few tweaks.
A Section
| F | F | F | F |
| Bb | Bb | F | F |
| C | Bb | F |Rest|
B Section
| F | F | F | F |
| Bb | Bb | F | F |
| F | F | F |Rest|
The track we're working with follows an A B A structure, so play the A section, followed by the B section then back into the A section. Once you're happy with the chord progression go to the materials section below to try the song with the backing tracks, or with the moving tab.
Below are the materials for this lesson. Click on the tab icon to open our super cool interactive tab player (this will allow you to slow down the tab and play along with the track). Alternatively, jump straight in with the backing tracks below. Good luck!
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All done?
Congratulations
You've now completed Song Jukebox: Little Richard and taken a huge step forwards in your guitar playing journey.
Feel free to bask in glory for a while, or go ahead and try another course if you're hungry for more.