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Hey, how are you doing? Justin here.

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In this lesson today,

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we are checking out Eric Clapton's first solo,

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from his song Crossroads, with the Cream band.

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Awesome song all-round

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and some great solos later on as well.

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For these first two choruses of solo that he plays

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we've got some really interesting stuff.

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A lot of mixing up between the major and the minor pentatonic scale,

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loads and loads of great licks.

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So, what we're going to do...

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Go to a close-up, I'm going to play it once through,

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just kind of at a slow tempo.

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So any of you fast learners can just kind of watch

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where I'm putting my fingers and off you go.

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But then I'm going to try to break it down, lick by lick

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and explain kind of a little bit about what he's doing,

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where he might have gotten the idea from,

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so you can kind of chop it up yourself and steal the

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individual licks and improvise with them yourself.

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That's the plan.

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So, let's get to a close-up.

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Lick number one

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And lick number two

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Now both of these licks are quite similar.

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This is an A major pentatonic scale.

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Very common to use this second to fourth fret,

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Second to fourth fret,

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on the fourth string and the third string.

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So really, the big difference here,

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the first time it's a bend

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And the second time he slides up from

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the fourth fret to the sixth fret.

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Lick number three is staying with the

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major pentatonic.

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So it's really here, five to seven...

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We might let those two ring together a bit actually.

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Two five's.

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Playing both five's and hammering down the

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third finger on the seventh fret.

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Five, seven.

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Now here we've got that little kind of minor to major thing.

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Fifth fret to sixth fret.

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While holding down the fifth fret on the second string too.

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And lick number four...

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Straight up the minor pentatonic scale.

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So, now we've changed straight away from the

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major pentatonic to the minor.

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It's an important bit, to get that.

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So, these first few licks together.

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And all of that is of course played over the A chord.

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Now the band's moved to D and he plays this...

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Really like that lick, this is the great one.

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So...

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Nice bending, seventh fret.

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Up to the root note.

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Eighth fret, second string, bend.

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And then, leaping off to the fifth fret to seventh fret hammer-on.

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Love that lick, great.

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This is an interesting one as well, so we've got

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this little hammer-on and flick-off.

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To the A.

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It's a little bit muted on the record, you go...

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Now, I always thought it was...

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That he's bending and playing the E on the second string.

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But when I was doing this transcription, I could

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hear that the E note and the G note, which is the

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next one are ringing together.

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And you can only get that here.

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So, I sussed out that it was...

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So, it makes it a little trickier, but it's a lot nicer.

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And you get that nice kind of...

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Where you bend and then slide up to the same note,

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so you've got...

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That's the whole lick.

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Really like that one.

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Then we've got...

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Now I suspect, to be honest, this was actually just

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meant to be...

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And a straight jump which is pretty common in a lot

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of the guys that influenced Eric Clapton.

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But he gets a little...

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Where he's gone from the ninth fret to the tenth fret.

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I suspect he's just kind of missed it a bit.

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There's a little step up there.

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Then we've got a little eight, ten.

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And that's a ten.

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Then we're going to get back down.

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We've got here a little eight to ten hammer-on...

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With an eighth fret on the thinnest string.

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And then a nice little run-down.

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Yeah and I always used to play that slightly wrong,

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but...

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A little bit awkward how, 'cause we've got this little

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five-six hammer-on. Two notes on the note E, the

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fifth fret of the second string...

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And we've definitely got a pretty strong curl...

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It's not a proper bend, it's just a curl with the first finger.

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To the root, and then the same finger has to jump off

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the A and slide down to the D, the fifth fret of the fifth string...

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And he's playing the root note twice.

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And we're finishing that off with a very classic little

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Clapton lick...

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It's a real, proper Clapton ending.

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Mostly minor pentatonic of course, but we're adding

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in the little...

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bit of major there.

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Forming just an A-triad.

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Okay, let's have a look at that whole first section,

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the whole first twelve bars. Here we go...

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Okay and then after that, he kind of jumps up

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the neck a little bit.

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So, he's got quite a leap on and he's jumping up to

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I think it's here, right? So, the thirteenth fret of the second string.

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To the fourteenth fret of the third string.

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He could be going...

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Or...

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So, I'm not one hundred percent convinced it's up here.

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It's just to me, my gut-instinct, says it's this part of the neck. So...

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Thirteenth fret with a curl.

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Fourteenth fret, then...

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So, thirteenth fret curl.

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Fifteen.

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Twelve.

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Curl.

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Fourteenth fret twice.

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Then to the thirteenth fret.

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So...

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Very nice little lick again, nice.

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Using the A minor pentatonic scale. That one...

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Now he gets into using this, very very, again very Clapton-esque kind of..

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Now again, I'm not one hundred percent sure

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what fingers he might use for that.

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I think he uses his first and second finger quite a lot

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for this riff from videos and stuff I've watched.

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And then, 'cause he's using first and second finger,

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when the third comes down, to get that little slide

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back to the fifth fret, it's a real kind of a strong slide...

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So...

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Sliding up to the ninth fret from the seventh fret.

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Eight, nine. Eight, nine. And then third finger

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is going to overtake it and slide down to the seventh fret.

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Fifth fret.

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Then we've got the same.

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But with a hammer-on from eight to ten.

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Then eighth fret with a curl.

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Then we're right up the dusty end again.

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So we're holding the twelfth fret, and bending the fifteenth.

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Sometimes I'm convinced that it's just a single bend.

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Other times I swear I can hear the two notes together.

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So, you have a listen and decide which one.

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I think it's the two notes together, I think, on...

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More of that minor pentatonic.

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Then...

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Really nice sort of slow release from the fifteenth fret.

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And then we've got, our little Clapton-esque, little run

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with the first and second fingers again.

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But with a slightly different ending this time...

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Also I think this time he goes...

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He's kind of separating the notes. So, I think

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he's going seven slide nine, eight, nine, eight, eight.

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I think.

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And here...

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A nice little slide up there to follow the chord changes.

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Then we've got another nice bit.

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A little, short slide up to the eleventh fret.

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Ten.

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Then eleventh fret again.

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This is now, for kind of a D. The chord has moved to D.

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So, he's playing off of this D-7.

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Arpeggio.

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And then we're back to the root.

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Now this one, here we're back to A major pentatonic.

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This note here is B bending to C sharp.

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Which is incidentally the same as that one at the beginning...

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Is the B note bending to a C sharp.

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C sharp being the major third.

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That's of course saying "Hey, we're back on the A."

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So just to clarify this a little bit more,

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the lick before...

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This is a D lick. Right? D-7 arpeggio.

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And we're using those notes from the D triad.

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Then to say "Hey we're back in A." He's going...

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Bending the B to the C sharp. Which is

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saying "Hey, we're back on our A chord here at this point."

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So, it's important to see that's kind of how those licks

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are working. You know? He's following the chord changes.

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Now after that, he's got a little run-down there with his finger.

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And he finishes with a little...

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Starting with the open D.

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Hammering second finger on.

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Open G.

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Hammer-on and flick-off at the second fret.

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Second fret, flick off on the D string.

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Third finger, third fret.

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And we're back into the riff.

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Okay that whole second part of the solo...

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I really hope you've enjoyed checking out Crossroads.

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And I hope I didn't go too fast, I'm a little bit worried that

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I kind of skipped over bits too fast. But I think

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if I go through every single note and every finger

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and every fret that it should be on, it's going to make

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it a really long and tedious lesson for both of us.

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So, I'm hoping that that was kind of a good tempo

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for you. Please let me know in the comments and I'll

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try to fix it for future videos. It's a really important

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thing to understand what was going on as well, so

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if there are bits where I didn't explain whether it was

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a major pentatonic or a minor pentatonic, have a

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think about it. See if you can look at the notes that

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I'm playing and go

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"Okay, does that fit with the major pentatonic shape?

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Or does that fit with the minor pentatonic shape?

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Okay, what chord is that being played over?"

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Because I didn't get into doing that too much. I think

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that's a really important thing for you to do. It would

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be difficult for me to do it as well actually, verbally.

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By far the easiest thing is to kind of write it out and

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then put your bar lines in.

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If you can put rhythms in that's a great, great skill.

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Can't emphasise what a useful skill it is, to be able

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to read and write rhythms. If you struggle with that

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I've got a book on that [wink]. 'Understanding Rhythmic Notation'. Hint, hint.

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You can go and buy that from the website.

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But, that will definitely help you when you're kind of

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writing a transcription of something. You know?

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To write down the tab and then to be able to write

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the rhythms above it. It will help you sort out where

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your bar-lines are, so you know where the

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chord changes are. It will help you slow it down as well.

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So that's a really good little tip for you. Is making

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sure that you write the rhythms down. I do it with all

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of my tabs, when I'm tabbing out a tune,

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or transcribing it, I write down the tab first. And then

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I make sure I write the rhythm as well, because that

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means that I can learn a lot quicker, you know?

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And I'm sure that'd be helpful for you guys too.

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So yeah, do a little bit of your 'harmonic analysis'

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and make sure that you know where the notes are

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from, where they're major pentatonic or minor pentatonic,

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or something completely different. Which they're not

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in this tune mostly. And make sure you listen

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to it a lot. Make sure you get yourself a half-speed

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kind of player. That's a really, really, really important

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thing when you're learning lead guitar stuff.

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You used to be able to play along with the original

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solo at like fifty percent or seventy percent or

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whatever you could handle. Because it kind of helps

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you get the feel right 'cause you're playing along

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with them and you know, I really think that's an

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important kind of thing. And lastly the other really

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important thing of course, is to make sure you learn

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them as licks. So learning the whole solo is great

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and a really good thing to do. But probably the most

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valuable thing you could do, is break it down into

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little licks and then you can actually use them in your

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own improvisations. And I think that's kind of the

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point of learning other people's solos.

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For me at least, you know, I've taken that solo,

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learned it, stolen all of the licks that I really, really like

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and I try to use them in my own playing and I'd

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recommend you do the same thing.

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'Cause that's what it's all about!

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Have fun with that and I'll see you for another

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lick solo song thing lesson stuff, sometime very soon.

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Take care of yourselves, bye.