robert johnsons

Intermediate

Intermediate

  • Focus on Clapton’s continuously inventive rhythms.
  • Add slides, bends, and grace notes to otherwise ordinary phrases.
  • Understand how most guitar licks can be modular by playing the same notes over different chords.
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Recorded live in concert, March 10, 1968 (first show) at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, Cream’s version of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” still, 56 years later, stands as a high point of blues/rock soloing. While numerous magazine articles, book chapters, and album liner notes have been dedicated to this one solo of Eric Clapton’s–which is actually five different choruses/solos of 12-bar blues–the one aspect that could use even more attention is Clapton’s use of rhythm. Long story short, over the course of 60 measures, Clapton never once plays the same rhythm twice!

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