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Tips for learning how to play rockabilly...


voneville

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I've been playing punk for 15 years and am trying to broaden my horizens a bit. I've been messing around with rock instrumentals lately. But I want to learn some of that early rockabilly stuff like Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup etc... Any tips (for playing, not for gear)...

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I highly recommend the following DVD:

Rockabilly Electric Guitar with Paul Pigat

I bought my copy from learnrootsmusic.com or something like that. It's an excellent production with lessons that make sense and all fit together in order.

~Blackbelt

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  • 6 months later...
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Setzers use of blues,bebop swing and jazz are awesome.Take almost any jazz chord and wiggle your bigsby and its awesome. Brian could make heavy metal sound like rockabilly.He makes it more authentic sounding than the real stuff from the fifties{i dont no how but he does it}But paul pigats dvd is really awesome!Check out all the chat about it on the gretch pages

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Learn to finger pick and spend some time listening to and learning country blues and early traditional country/bluegrass as Rockabilly is drawn from a mix of these styles.Listen to early Sun records ,Elvis,Cash,Carl Perkins as well as other folks like the Rock and Roll Trio and Wanda Jackson, Gene Vincent,Billy C.Riley,Jack Scott.For more recent offerings the Stray Cats,Lee Rocker and Robert Gordon with Link Wray or Gatton to really blow your mind.Learn to Travis pick...check out Merle Travis and yes Chet Atkins and even early Bakersfield country,Joe Maphis etc.

Must be plenty of instructional material out there...check out Arlen Roth's offerings.Also Dave Rubin and any Billy Zoom instructional stuff.

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Originally posted by mc5nrg

Learn to finger pick and spend some time listening to and learning country blues and early traditional country/bluegrass as Rockabilly is drawn from a mix of these styles.Listen to early Sun records ,Elvis,Cash,Carl Perkins as well as other folks like the Rock and Roll Trio and Wanda Jackson, Gene Vincent,Billy C.Riley,Jack Scott.For more recent offerings the Stray Cats,Lee Rocker and Robert Gordon with Link Wray or Gatton to really blow your mind.Learn to Travis pick...check out Merle Travis and yes Chet Atkins and even early Bakersfield country,Joe Maphis etc.


Must be plenty of instructional material out there...check out Arlen Roth's offerings.Also Dave Rubin and any Billy Zoom instructional stuff.

 

 

I agree with the above post.

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Hey I've been playing rockabilly for a long time and in order to learn the how to solo in this style you have to think like a country/jazz player. By that I mean you have to think about playing over each chord as compared to trying to pick a scale and playing it.

So if you know your chord tones you should think like this:

A chord usually voiced like a Dom 7
A - C#- E - G

Use of the C or flat 3 as a passing tone is very common in rockabilly. So you can play a run like A - C - C# - E - G - A over an A chord and go from there.

Then you add your tensions to that where the 9 and 6 are most common

B and F# in this example

The use of thirds and sixths is big as well usually done out of the Mixolydian or Ionion mode of the chord being played

Mixo Mode of A Chord
A C#
G B
F# A
E G
D F3
C# E
B D

Ionion Mode of A Chord
A C#
B D
C# E
D F#
E G#
F# A
G# B

Of course this is just a sample of things that make the style of the playing

Also start thinking about doing 3 octave runs using the major pentatonic of the chord being played. Over A you can start on the low E and play

E - G - A - C# - D - E - G - A etc. etc. until you reach the E on the 12th fret of the high E

Of course this is just a sampling of the style gut some ideas for you to think about that will allow you to come up with some of your own ideas.

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Originally posted by brunog

Hey I've been playing rockabilly for a long time and in order to learn the how to solo in this style you have to think like a country/jazz player. By that I mean you have to think about playing over each chord as compared to trying to pick a scale and playing it.


So if you know your chord tones you should think like this:


A chord usually voiced like a Dom 7

A - C#- E - G


Use of the C or flat 3 as a passing tone is very common in rockabilly. So you can play a run like A - C - C# - E - G - A over an A chord and go from there.


Then you add your tensions to that where the 9 and 6 are most common


B and F# in this example


The use of thirds and sixths is big as well usually done out of the Mixolydian or Ionion mode of the chord being played


Mixo Mode of A Chord

A C#

G B

F# A

E G

D F3

C# E

B D


Ionion Mode of A Chord

A C#

B D

C# E

D F#

E G#

F# A

G# B


Of course this is just a sample of things that make the style of the playing


Also start thinking about doing 3 octave runs using the major pentatonic of the chord being played. Over A you can start on the low E and play


E - G - A - C# - D - E - G - A etc. etc. until you reach the E on the 12th fret of the high E


Of course this is just a sampling of the style gut some ideas for you to think about that will allow you to come up with some of your own ideas.


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