Soul/R&B/Motown Songs Lessons

In this lesson we will be studying the R&B style guitar work of Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour.  The song embodies the primary essence of old R&B guitar playing by accenting the upper register of the chords.  A great song to learn if you are interested in this style of playing.  Must be able to play barre chords. 

In this lesson we will learn a guitar version of Higher Ground. The original is mostly played on clavinet. This guitar adaptation provides an opportunity to work on the skill of string skipping.

Easy tune with just 4 chords and a simple bass line. The arrangement is the same throughout. Uses just A, F#m, D, and E

In this lesson we will be learning Hooked On a Feeling by Blue Swede.  The tune has an R&B/Soul style guitar part that uses higher voicings on the top 4 stings. Learn how to play the chords here!

A classic Soul tune using mostly open chords. The challenge in this song is getting the strumming pattern down. Chords used are G, B7, C, A, E, D, and F

In this lesson we are going to take a look at the guitar style used by the soul, r&b, and Motown players of the 60's.  Specifically the use of high register chord voicings.  This tune is a great example of this technique.

Learn the classic Motown tune by the Four Tops. In this tune we will study some different major and minor chord positions.

Lean on Me by Bill Withers is a piano tune in the Key of C. We are going to learn this on guitar as close to the piano part as possible. This will require some different and more challenging chord voicings. Sounds very nice if you can get it. We will also be going over an easier version as well using mostly open chords.

Love and Happiness by Al Green is a classic R&B/Soul tune written in Ab minor. Because of the key it will require several barre chords. We will cover all parts including the intro and the horn lines transcribed for guitar. The song offers the opportunity for some improvisational lead stuff using an Ab Pentatonic minor / Blues scale.

Mustang Sally is classic R&B/ Blues tune by Wilson Pickett. The song is a I-IV-V chord progression in the key of C. There are 2 guitar parts on the original recording, a lead and a rhythm part. We will be covering both of them.

In this lesson we will study the Bill Wither's tune Ain't No Sunshine

This lesson is a song study of My Girl by the Temptations. This tune embodies the essence of Motown guitar. Great tune with a nice, easy riff and chord progression.

In this lesson we will learn the classic I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James. The song is just 2 chords and follows the same form the entire tune. There are some tasty lead guitar parts worth learning as well.