Eric Clapton in Cream was a force to behold! "Clapton is God" was the general opinion amongst fans, and where he may not have been quite that good… He was certainly responsible in a large way for the blues explosion in the UK, and an unbelievable player.
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Dan Holton
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So, in this blog post, I want to potentially surprise you with a lick that I consider to be one of his absolute best. It's not super fast, it's not super fancy, BUT it is pure class. It's a perfect example of how the best blues players take something very little and make it sing. So, let's dive into it...
Clapton guitar lesson...
Please check out the video below to watch the lick in action! If you would like to use the backing track from the video then you can download it here.
The Clapton lick itself
Ok so let's start by looking at the lick face on. The bare and simple tab, as it is, without diving into what makes it really sing. The only thing to be aware of before you dive into the tab learning is that the whole lick is in the key of A minor, and we're using pentatonic box 4 for the whole thing. So, that pentatonic shape you need is:
As you work through the tab below try to make sure that you are visualising this pentatonic box at the same time. That will help make the lick completely transferrable for you, into any key. Here is the tab:
Want more Clapton?
Before we carry on diving into this it feels like a good time to let you know that we have an in-depth Eric Clapton player study that will help you truly understand and replicate how he plays. It's an awesome course, and you'll love it.
Why do we love this lick?
It's all about space and phrasing. Remember that you also had Jack Bruce & Ginger playing, racing through the backing track at one hundred miles an hour! They are playing very busy parts on drums and bass, so it falls to Eric Clapton to not only match that at times but also be able to find the space in the track and play a beautiful lick.
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The lick is a perfect little melody that you could go away and sing. It's perfectly executed and bang on time. This, for me, is Eric Clapton's real talent as a guitar player. He is one of the best at phrasing in the business.
Dan Holton
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So what makes it like this? Let's highlight a few points to help you here.
Using the root or 3rd to help phrase.
If you look at the lick, there are points where Clapton wants to feel as though the lick is finished, and therefore create a bit more space before coming back in for the next lick. To do this, he tends to end on the root note for completion, but then also hits the minor 3rd (with a cheeky quarter bend… more on that in a second) to signify there is more coming! We can see that here:
Quarter tone bends!
These are absolutely essential in the blues world, and really help to bring this lick alive. In fact, using a range of quarter tone, half step and whole tone bends adds to the sheer amount he's able to get from essentially 3 or 4 notes all together! The quarter bends are tough to achieve, as you want to just slightly bend the string, until you hear a slight change, and then stop the note immediately. Here are all the 1/4 note bends to look out for on the tab:
Want to get to grips with bends?
If you want to really get to grips we have two courses below that will work through them with you! The Beginners lead courses do it more gradually, amongst general lead playing, whilst the bend challenge really zones in on just bends!
Finally, that vibrato!
Clapton's vibrato is just heavenly. It's just wide enough to make a rock feel, but not overly wide to pull it away from the blues vibe. The way he gets this vibrato is by rotating the wrist in the same way you would when performing a bend. You are just simply bending the whole time, just very subtle little bends going up and down from the core note. Again, check the Beginners lead courses above to really get a feel for those!
And that's it, folks! Enjoy the lick and enjoy the jam track which you can download above the video. Best of luck and I look forward to chatting to you again for the next lick!