Today we will have a look a bluessong by Magic Sam “All You Love” It is one of his signatureriffs he uses for several songs, each time he plays this idea slightly different.
Before we break this song down make sure to listen to the version of the song at the bottom of this lesson.
Listen to the bass and the feel [rhythm] of the song. See if you can work out the song by EAR by listening to the bass, play the bassline, then the chords, make sure you understand the structure of the song. Do not worry about the solo’s and the embelishments, because they cannot carry the song. Once you understand the structure of the song create you own variations of the riff, make sure you become free with the chords and the riff [postions and fingerings etc.]
About Magic Sam: Magic Sam had his own sound, he played often with the vibratosound on his amp, this gave him a somewhat unique sound for the time being. He used a few signatureriffs which he used in different songs, this song uses one of his main riffs.
Here is a breakdown of the chords for the song:
Bm Bm Bm Bm
E7 E7 Bm Bm
F#7 E7 Bm F#7
As you can see, it is a twelve bar blues, but does not sound like a “traditional” twelve bar song.
The main riff is played over the Bm chord. Here is a bassline which works well with the main riff:
E ———————————–
B ———————————–
G ———————————–
D —————————2—0–
A ———-0—-2—2–2———-
E–0–2—————————–
The voicings for the other chords are:
E7 F#7
x x
x x
7 9
6 8
7 9
x x
Play the chords with a swing feel, 4 beats to the bar.
Here is the main riff with some added notes of me, I left out the solosection parts he puts in from time to time as we will discuss them later for now just play this:
E ——————————–
B ——————————–
G ——————7——9–7-
D ————7–9—–9—9–7-
A ——-9———————–
E ——————————–
I use a slide from 7 to 9 on the A string to start the riff, works well with the feel of the song.
This riff is played over the Bm chord, or you could just play the riff and go from there to the chords.
At some point Sam adds some accents into the riff, they read like:
E ——————————-
B ——————————-
G ——————11—9—7–
D ——————11—9—7–
A ——————————–
E ——————————–
For the first part of these accents you can still play the first notes of the main riff and then play the accented notes.
For the Solos Sam uses mainly two positions of the Bm Pentatonic Scale:
E ————————————————–7—10—
B——————————————-7—10————-
G———————————-7—9————————
D————————7—9———————————-
A————-7—9———————————————
E—7—10——————————————————
E ———————————————————10–12
B————————————————10—12———
G————————————9—-11——————–
D————————9—-12——————————–
A————-9—-12——————————————-
E–10—12—————————————————–
Listen to how Sam moves between these two postions of the Bm Pentatonic Scale, listen to his phrasing and timing of the notes.
Playing Ideas:
@ Play your own solos in between the main riff.
@ Vary between the two postions for your solos.
@ Experiment with putting your own “Turn Around” in the song.
@ Play the song using main riff and play chordtones [no chords this time!!] for the E7 and F#7, play in such a way that the chordtones will fit in your solo. It will sound like a long solo but you will still hear the harmony coming through as you play the chordtones.
Once you feel you are comfortable with these ideas then play the song in different postions of the Bm Pentatonic Scale. Experiment also with using different keys as it will make you freer and you will start to hear which keys work really well for which song.
In Futureblogs I will go more into detail about scales, scalepostions, phrasing, solos and turnarounds.
See you next time,
Eddie