Eric Clapton - Reconsider Baby

HAL9000

i hadn’t seen this until a couple of days ago...

https://youtu.be/Gm2jzcbiEtg

Good that you can see EC’s left hand for quite a bit of this. I thought it it was interesting just how much of his solos and fills are essentially first position (G) minor pentatonic (plus a few extra notes). Also just how many of his licks finish on the flattened seventh or flattened third (I usually aim to finish licks on the root or fifth to get a sense of resolution) but I guess flattened thirds and sevenths give that sense of tension which is at the heart of the blues. His first four notes (G F, C Bb) I think set this up for the listener so it’s ‘expected’ when it recurs later.

I’m sure others will explain things better than I ever could, but I certainly found it worthwhile in terms of adding ideas to my repetoire.

tone1

Reconsider baby has been one of my favourites to play, due to being able to ‘nail’ a few of the licks & tone pretty easily…..and From the cradle is my favourite EC album too

Lewy

Be sure to listen to the original too. Interesting to hear how Clapton puts the opening riff in a different place in relation to the beat. The original also doesn’t have the weird extra beat Clapton puts in, which I suspect is a mistake that stuck (it’s on the record too).

Fulson’s soloing is a bit more spasmodic than Claptons…

https://youtu.be/hyEmfP3o_T8

guitars4you

How long as EC been playing with fingers/thumb - No pick - Talking about this with regards to his electric playing and not 'unplugged' work

BillDL

I haven't noticed him using a thumbpick before, but he probably has from time to time.  He's probably just using it in this particular song with the semi-acoustic to get as much of the snap of Lowell Fulson's thumbpick and fingers style into the sound as possible.

breezytele

Freddie King influence I reckon

CaseOfAce

The trouble these days with seeing this is it's like knowing how the magic trick is performed since blues pentatonics and the like and that style of playing have been so EXHAUSTIVELY strip mined in terms of educational material being made available to everyone, everywhere at any time.
I was watching that and thinking oh..he's doing the 6th and 8th fret top strings box thing in G minor pentatonic...

You can begin to understand just why Marty Friedman feels the way he does about Hendrix ...

This in no way diminishes the brilliance of Clapton's playing - his phrasing, feel, note choice (putting aside for one moment his vocal / performance prowess and songwriting).

If you are an upcoming "blues" guitarist it must be incredibly hard to stand out by your sheer playing ability and technique alone. I've heard Eric Gales and Gary Clark Jr... and ..yeah - it's good...but...
You really do have to fall back on songs and vocals...

rze99

This is a great performance I've enjoyed a few times

Back when had a great tone and I reckon the 335 and snappin' finger style especially are part of that.

guitars4you

Maybe the influence from my dad who was a sax player - Maybe as I like so playing so much 50's style music when it was that blend of swing, jazz, blues, rock'n' roll etc - But without getting into screaming harmonics, a tenor sax has a 2 1/2 octave range - I find the phrasing/melody of many sax players so influential - That 2 1/2 octave range effectively equates to position 1 in G - So 3rd fret Low E to C on high E - So add the minor + major pentatonic plus the odd passing note and the notes in that box 1 is what most sax players work with - So only a slight shift up a 'box' for the GBA strings at times - I tend to try and adopt this policy these days 

You can argue day in day out about not using the additional notes available to you - And I can't defend my policy - But I like working with the above thought plan

CaseOfAce

guitars4you said:

Maybe the influence from my dad who was a sax player - Maybe as I like so playing so much 50's style music when it was that blend of swing, jazz, blues, rock'n' roll etc - But without getting into screaming harmonics, a tenor sax has a 2 1/2 octave range - I find the phrasing/melody of many sax players so influential - That 2 1/2 octave range effectively equates to position 1 in G - So 3rd fret Low E to C on high E - So add the minor + major pentatonic plus the odd passing note and the notes in that box 1 is what most sax players work with - So only a slight shift up a 'box' for the GBA strings at times - I tend to try and adopt this policy these days 

You can argue day in day out about not using the additional notes available to you - And I can't defend my policy - But I like working with the above thought plan

You make a valid point guitars4you.

At the end of the day there is only 12 notes - it's what you do with 'em that counts as Eddie Van Halen used to say.

Angus Young has crafted iconic solos using position 1 pentatonics throughout his career...

guitars4you

CaseOfAce said:

guitars4you said:

Maybe the influence from my dad who was a sax player - Maybe as I like so playing so much 50's style music when it was that blend of swing, jazz, blues, rock'n' roll etc - But without getting into screaming harmonics, a tenor sax has a 2 1/2 octave range - I find the phrasing/melody of many sax players so influential - That 2 1/2 octave range effectively equates to position 1 in G - So 3rd fret Low E to C on high E - So add the minor + major pentatonic plus the odd passing note and the notes in that box 1 is what most sax players work with - So only a slight shift up a 'box' for the GBA strings at times - I tend to try and adopt this policy these days 

You can argue day in day out about not using the additional notes available to you - And I can't defend my policy - But I like working with the above thought plan

You make a valid point guitars4you.

At the end of the day there is only 12 notes - it's what you do with 'em that counts as Eddie Van Halen used to say.

Angus Young has crafted iconic solos using position 1 pentatonics throughout his career...

That's what my dad always said - Asked him about how he'd take on a solo - modes, minor/major pentatonic etc - And he always said just there was only 12 notes to pick from - even the ones that don't work can be part of a chromatic run to the right note 

roberty

Alan Holdsworth used scale patterns that extended more than one octave which blows my mind a bit

It's hard to conceive of a time now where the blues scale was new and exciting. I think most guitarists in the world could tell you exactly what is happening in the box position without looking

HAL9000

When using minor pentatonics I’m always worried about being rumbled by someone who actually knows about how music works.

Sharky77

Clapton's version is great but I prefer the groove and playing on this one.

The band are sitting in that greasy New Orleans pocket and it feels so good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbSWNDGotQs

koneguitarist

I only knew the Elvis version. 

Lewy

CaseOfAce said:

If you are an upcoming "blues" guitarist it must be incredibly hard to stand out by your sheer playing ability and technique alone. I've heard Eric Gales and Gary Clark Jr... and ..yeah - it's good...but...
You really do have to fall back on songs and vocals...

It’s not a case of having to ‘fall back’ on songs and vocals - those are the fundamental pillars of what the blues is. Of course there are some great blues instrumentals but they were either created by people who also sang and wrote songs (a la Freddie King and Albert Collins) or they were created by people who played much more than just blues (e.g. Gatemouth Brown, Tiny Grimes).

Stuckfast

BillDL said:

I haven't noticed him using a thumbpick before, but he probably has from time to time.  He's probably just using it in this particular song with the semi-acoustic to get as much of the snap of Lowell Fulson's thumbpick and fingers style into the sound as possible.

I can't see a thumbpick in the video, looks like just fingers and thumb to me.

roberty

Really enjoyed listening to this again on a second occasion. I must be in the right mood for it. The mind is a funny thing

BillDL

Stuckfast said:

BillDL said:

I haven't noticed him using a thumbpick before, but he probably has from time to time.  He's probably just using it in this particular song with the semi-acoustic to get as much of the snap of Lowell Fulson's thumbpick and fingers style into the sound as possible.

I can't see a thumbpick in the video, looks like just fingers and thumb to me.

You had me thinking about that again and I had to look carefully once again.  The thing that drew me to it at first was the way he has his thumb aligned parallel with the strings, which differs with his thumb angle when playing acoustic blues fingerstyle with his thumbnail.  If you look at the video starting at 1:09 you will see him raise his right hand up to his head level and down a bit lower while appearing to move a thumbpick with his other fingers.  He twiddles with his thumb a lot in between the lead licks and I don't think it's just him snapping his thumb and finger to the beat.

Lewy

Doesn’t appear to be wearing a thumb pick to me. Firstly it looks like you can see his whole thumb with no sign of one. Then as you watch him play, his thumb isn’t making any noticeable movement away from the guitar which you might expect to see as the blade of the pick needs to clear the strings. Add to that the fact that he doesn't even use one when he's playing Robert Johnson songs on an acoustic which you'd think he would if he ever used one. It makes sense that his thumb would or could be at a different angle to when he's playing acoustic because he's only having to tickle the bass strings on the 335....it's turned up loud.

Lowell Fulson did use a thumb pick  though. So if it turns out Clapton was using one on this track that would explain the out-of-character approach.

There's no shortage of reasons why that guy might be doing some weird fidgety thing with his hands, too.....