Sweet Home Alabama

Chords:Open chord fun!

The really cool thing about this song is that is just mainly based around 3 basic open chord shapes, D, Cadd9 and G. As you hit the chorus you take these open chords and play them as power chords with a blues shuffle vibe, just as Ollie explains int he video. There is also an F and a C major later on in the song to watch out for (Ollie shows you in the video). All the chords are shown here

The fills: G Major pentatonic

The fills throughout the track are all based on the G major pentatonic scale, and most use the open position as well, to really highlight how much fun open string playing can be! Also, when you play the cool riff that goes across the neck, all you are doing is playing the blues scale in shape 1 in D major (to link up to the D major chord), then in C major, then G major. This perfectly matches the chords! Here are all those shapes:

The scales: G Major Blues Scale!

This solo is a great example of how to use your blues scales in a major key rather than a minor key. In theory, the G major blues scale is simply the E blues scale (E minor being the relative minor to G), but the way you approach the licks is the different. The solo is focused in shape 1 and shape 4, but for your reference, here are all 5 shapes of the G major blues scale.

The scales: G Major Blues Scale!

Just as with the first solo, we are using the G major pentatonic and blues scale to put this awesome solo together. This solo is a great example of how to use your blues scales in a major key rather than a minor key. In theory, the G major blues scale is simply the E blues scale (E minor being the relative minor to G), but the way you approach the licks is the different. The solo is focused in shape 1 and shape 4, but for your reference, here are all 5 shapes of the G major blues scale.