Johnny B Goode for one guitar???

Rocker

I play electric guitar at our family singalongs.  One of the songs is Johnny B Goode.  Other than my wife's niece playing Ukulele and my brother-in-law on drums, it is up to me to provide backing for the singing.

I have spent some time trying to come up with mainly chord based sounds that hint at 1960's guitar shuffle.  I am still a long way off what I want so if anyone can suggest a website that covers this kind of music or can write tab to make me sound a bit like Chuck Berry, I would be very grateful.  A few websites I found show typical 1950s/1960s 'two string' shuffle patterns.  These are a great help but I need a little more, more variation.

It is not the end of the world if I 'have' to stick to a simple shuffle for this song but I hope to go one better.  Thanks in advance.

HAL9000

Assuming you’re playing in A (the original is in Bb IIRC) then barred A7 at the fifth fret and use the pinky to hit the F# on the fifth string for the shuffle. That way you can do chord stabs as appropriate. Then move up to the tenth and twelfth frets for the D7 and E7 chords. Also, JBG doesn’t quite follow the standard twelve-bar format in that bars nine and ten are both on the E7 (rather than one bar of E7 followed by one of D7). Hope that helps.

Rocker

Thanks @Hal9000, I am working along those lines while trying to incorporate bits of the main riff.  I play it in A as you thought, adding walk up and walk down lines make it sound less strumming and more guitar playing.  Every time I try to play it, it ends up slightly different than the last time - sometimes better, often worse and a bit boring.  JBG sounds 'simple' but playing it shows it to be otherwise.  Especially when you are out there on your own playing guitar.

Blueingreen

I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you're looking for but there's a link below for a guy who's done a playalong with tabs for the Chuck Berry version.

HAL9000

Just been down the man cave to analyse JBG a bit more and realised I use a lot of palm muting to give things a more staccato feel in places. Also, sometimes play the D7 and E7 at the fifth and seventh frets using the open A7 shape and using the pinky on the fourth string for the shuffle bits. IMHO it’s useful to hold the chord shape underneath things for the occasional chord stab (as used in plenty of 50s R’n’R).

CaseOfAce

I've always just played this using the boogie shuffle 6ths and 7ths. You can add a bit more meat to the sausage by hitting
the octaves on the 4th strings (for the Bb) and 3rd strings(for the Eb and F chords) when "flicking upwards" on the shuffle...(I saw Ronnie Wood doing this rhythm trick and have appropriated it myself when doing this sort of groove).

Other than that if you're feeling brave I guess you could have a stab at doing the Johnnie Johnson piano parts on guitar...

but personally I think this is one of those songs where you have to "play it like Chuck" and concentrate on the swing first and foremost.

EricTheWeary

I think some palm muting ^  can be key with those two string ‘shuffle’ figures (JBG isn’t a shuffle a such, IIRC) otherwise it can be a lot of ringing out mess. Using it to give variation/ dynamics. 

Another thing that can be worth a try ( I’m saying this without guitar to hand) is putting in a chromatic run when changing from the A to the D. So, probably hitting the 2,3,4 frets on the A string. So keeping that 8 to the bar feel as 
00223344 

HAL9000

EricTheWeary said:

JBG isn’t a shuffle a such, IIRC

Agreed. It’s a straight four rather than a 12/8 shuffle.

EricTheWeary said:

Another thing that can be worth a try ( I’m saying this without guitar to hand) is putting in a chromatic run when changing from the A to the D. So, probably hitting the 2,3,4 frets on the A string.

^ I do almost this but as triplets ((One,two,three, Two, two, three) over a straight four.

Roland

Let’s assume you’re playing in A. 

There’s the shuffle in the open position: open A chord and alternating between E and F# on the D string. I wouldn’t stretch as far as the G (5th fret on the D string). It’s used in many blues songs, but I don’t think Johnny B Goode calls for it. 

There’s the same shuffle with the A7 (E shape barred at the 5th fret) alternating E and F# on the A string. Then you can progress to the D and E chords of the song, played in several positions using barred A and E chord shapes. If your pinkie is agile enough you can even use it to alternate on the G string when playing D as x x 0 2 3 2.

There’s stabs anywhere on the fretboard. Stabs are great because they keep the energy of the song going without stomping all over the melody, and they give you a breather from the faster notes. Over two bars that’s stabs on beats 1&, 3, 1, 2&. You feel this rather than count it. To keep things going you can play a muted bass note on the bass string on beat 1. When playing stabs you can use different chord shapes and positions to get different effects. Open A has a lot of low down volume. A played with a D shape x x x 9 10 9 is a light chink. Use all the chord shapes you know.

Taking stab further you can drop out, and just out line the changes by stabbing the chord at the start of the bar. So play A at the start of bars 1 and 3 (miss bars 2 and 4 completely), D in 5 and so on. This will encourage your niece and brother in law to play in the gaps. Often what you don’t play is more important than what you play.

Then there’s motifs. The obvious one is the first four notes which Chuck Berry uses on the song intro, right at the start of the video. Once you’ve learned the fingering you can use the same sequence as a lead in to D (E shape barred at 10th fret) and E chords (E shape barred at 12th). 

Lastly you can mix up the different ideas, for example playing a motif into a stab.

I hope this helps. I think you can work it out without the need for TABs. The hard part is getting the rhythm and feel right, and TAB doesn’t show that.

HAL9000

Roland said:
The hard part is getting the rhythm and feel right, and TAB doesn’t show that.

So true. I know several people who IMHO are far better players than i’ll ever be but really don’t appreciate how much different twelve-bars have their own feel. It’s very much ‘Oh, it’s just a twelve-bar isn’t it?’ without appreciating that everything has its own feel or nuances. Wis’d for that sentence alone.