Lick #22: Chuck's Thirds - Blues (Guitar Lesson LK-022)

♪

Hi, how you doing?
Justin here.

In this lesson today, we're checking out
a lick that I call Chuck's Thirds.

Mainly cos I kinda copped this
idea off Chuck Berry.

I'm sure there were people
doing it before him,

but that's where I got it from,

and I'm pretty sure that Chuck Berry
influenced a lot of important people

like Keith Richards, who went to
influence even more people.

Now with this Thirds playing,
it's used an awful lot,

even in heavy rock, ACDC or whatever.

It's a cool little trick.

Really this lick is a vehicle for you
to learn how to use Thirds.

Let's get to a close-up, and I'll explain
a little bit about what's going on,

and how to play it.

♪

Okay, we're starting off here
with a little dyad, 2 note chord.

It's really kind of an A chord,
this is an A7 lick.

And you can think of it like this is
a C shape barre chord,

or a D shape barre chord.
Both are chord A.

That's the way to think of it.
This is the root note here.

So we're starting off with a chord grip,
and then we move to the next 2 notes,

in the key, and the key is really A7
or A Mixolydian.

So the scale of D Major scale,
would be the parent scale,

so C# will go to B,
and our A will go to G.

Now you can either think of the notes,
or you can just think of the shapes.

Most of the time with this sort of
playing, I just think of the shapes.

I've got these 2 notes,
I call them 'together'.

Together, a tone back.

And now we've got a kind of a split one.
So we've gone to an A and an F#.

Back a tone,

to a G and an E.

Now all of these notes...

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are a third apart, meaning 3 scale steps
apart from each other.

So if we have A, B, C#.

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Just down on 1 string,
so you can clearly see it.

But it's there.

And same with the next one.

♪

So that's the idea when
you're moving in thirds.

Now these particular 2 notes,
the G and the E,

also very commonly played here.

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That one's used a lot in Blues.

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That little particular one, but it's cool
to play it here too.

At least know it's there.

Then we've got another third of a chord,
this time they're in the same fret.

You can either use 1 finger
or 3rd finger there, or 3rd and 4th,

doesn't really matter.

Gone for a Blues thing here, of a third,
it's kind of out of the key, I guess,

but only cos we're about to add in
that other note.

Now there's lots of different ways
of ending it, I ended it with...

It's not very Chuck Berry to be honest,

but it's nice and it gets us back to
where we started,

based around this C shape A chord.

And you can get nice...

little other movements from
this shape, as well.

So the actual lick slowly.

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1,
2 and 3 and 4 and.

Now there are lots of different
fingering options for these things,

so I just wanna talk quickly
about that.

In this particular case,

I've chosen a fingering that
keeps the 3rd finger on the string.

All the way going down that way.

You could do it here with the 1st and 2nd,

and then swap to 1st and 3rd, that way.

I prefer...

keeping the 3rd finger on in
this particular lick,

but there are other licks where I prefer
doing it the other way,

with the 1st and 2nd.

It's just a choice. You have to decide
which one kinda works for you, you know?

Same here, you might wanna
use 2 different fingers.

Then...

I guess that's probably the most logical
way, but then again,

you could finish with that if you want.

It doesn't really matter.

Pick a fingering you like and stick to it,
but it doesn't have to be set in stone.

Feel free to change it.

I've mentioned each note
is a third apart, right?

So long as you stay in the key, there's
all sorts of thirds you can keep on,

i've said that's the same as this one.

That's the same as that one.

♪

There's lots of different options there,
and you don't even have to play...

like this, what i've done here
with this lick...

is just showing you some ones
that work together,

but moving them chromatically also works
great when you've got the same shape,

a tone apart. So here's is the first one,
there's the second.

Feel free to move them by a semitone.

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By adding those anytime you've
got the same shape,

you can move it a semitone
to get between them.

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There's a new lick virtually
out of this first one.

So be aware of that, don't feel that
you have to make it that whole lick.

You might just use...

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You don't have to go crazy
with the thirds once you're there.

They're there to be used, but don't feel
like once you start using them,

you have to keep on going through this
whole big lick or whatever, you know?

Use just, you know...

♪

That's a really common...
a real common Blues phrase.

I love that as well, going from the A
by semitones.

Then this one...shouldn't really
even work,

cos you're doing 2 chromatic steps up.

But it sounds cool.

And we all know if it sounds good,
it IS good.

So it's um...

It's a really fun thing to
play around with.

This is the other really common one here.

Starting on the same 2 notes that
we're starting this lick on.

And moving up, first of all, to 10 and 12,

and moving up by a step then.

♪

Having a little bit of theory knowledge
goes a long way in this kind of lick.

You don't have to, you can think
of them visually.

And I was playing these things for
10 years before I understood the theory.

For me, they started out just as shapes
that I'd copped off records,

transcribing Chuck Berry songs and
realizing those notes go together,

and sound cool over an A.

Later on, when I got an understanding
of how modes work,

it became a different thing, cos I
understood how I could use them

all over the guitar neck and it made
a bit more theoretical sense.

So if you wanna do the
understanding thing,

you go and check out the lesson on
the Mixolydian mode on the website,

make sure you get that we're playing
an A7 chord,

but we're using the notes from
the D Major scale.

That gives us an A7 or
an A Mixolydian tonality.

If you don't wanna do the theory,
just check out the shapes,

you have to learn to see them either as
part of the pentatonic scale,

or where they fit over the
particular chords,

which I think is a better one
knowing different A7s,

and seeing how those little shapes
fit over the chord shape, you know?

Hope that makes sense, and you can have a
good time exploring your thirds playing,

and I'll see you for another lick
or lesson or song, or something very soon.

Take care of yourselves,
bye-bye.