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Get Your Free Copy Here!Welcome to my “Wonderful Tonight” Electric Guitar Tutorial, by Eric Clapton. This epic solo happens throughout the song, and I want to show you 3 things we can learn from it and how to make our own awesome guitar licks using the same ideas. The Wonderful Tonight intro is probably one of the most recognizable melodies on lead guitar and can teach us so much! If you’d like a Wonderful Tonight Acoustic Guitar Tutorial, I covered that last week.
“Wonderful Tonight Melody” TAB can be found in the video lesson, scrolling along at the top of the screen.
“3 Things We Can Learn From Wonderful Tonight” pdf Worksheet available on my Patreon page
Click here“Wonderful Tonight Melody” TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 0:00 – INTRO
- 0:34 – WHY LEARN THIS ESSENTIAL SKILL?
- 2:04 – 1st THING + HOW TO PLAY THE LICK
- 5:17 – 2nd THING WE CAN LEARN
- 7:19 – 3rd THING WE CAN LEARN
- 9:45 – MAKING YOUR OWN LICKS LIKE THIS
- 13:24 – WORKSHEET + TAB AVAILABLE HERE
This legendary riff contains three essential things it can teach us that will make you a better lead guitar player. First of all, it’ll make sure that you know all the main embellishments on guitar, bends, slides, pull offs and hammer ons. It also combines a band with a pull off which is a great way to move into intermediate territory with lead guitar. With those in mind, we learn the lick, break it all down and figure out how to practice those embellishments.
The second thing it can teach us is how to make perfect bends. When we bend the string, we’re in charge of the pitch. Usually the frets take care of that. You’ll press a note and the fret will ensure that that note is in tune. When you’re bending, you’re going between the frets, and you’re in control of the pitch, just like a singer, or a violinist. You need to work on your technique in order to make sure you nail that tone. Clapton is a master of this and that’s one of the reasons why we’re analyzing his work – to figure out how to get this into our own playing!
The third thing you can learn is the elements of phrasing. It’s one thing to be able to play a cool lick but it’s another thing to take that small idea and expand it and fill out an entire 20 seconds of a song in a meaningful way that the listener can latch on to – something that they’re going to remember. A good hook isn’t just something that you find during the chorus of a song. It’s also going to be found throughout the song! In wonderful tonight, he starts it off, showing you why he’s one of the best guitar players of all time with this amazingly simple riff – and we’re gonna figure out how he makes it work.
Once we figure out how it works, I’ll show you how to use those 3 things to MAKE YOUR OWN LICK! Tons of fun and SUPER useful if you want to go beyond simply learning other people’s stuff.