Chords for Cream - Crossroads Acoustic Guitar lesson
Tempo:
116.35 bpm
Chords used:
A
E
G
D
F
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[E]
[A]
[D] [Em]
[A]
[E] [D]
[E]
[D] Blues.
It's all the same.
[N] Or is it?
If it's all the same, you probably knew what song that was.
It didn't sound like every other blues tune.
Well, it kind of did.
It sounded [F] familiar.
Of course, that was Crossroads, similar to the way that Cream and Eric Clapton did it
back in the early days, in the late 60s.
[E] And it really is just a typical 12-bar blues tune with a
[G] bass [Eb] riff, kind of, that happens.
A lot of other Cream tunes are even based on [D] stuff like this, Sunshine of Your Love.
Really nothing [G] but 12-bar [D] blues with [Bb] a little more complicated riff than Eric and Jack put together
for [D] their version of Crossroads.
And so in Crossroads, what's happening, to get the sound that they did,
you're going to play it in the key of A, and play your A chord [F] as a power chord,
basically as a power chord, but with your first finger flattened out across the second, third, fourth strings.
[D] But we're really only playing the fifth, fourth, and [A] maybe third strings.
But the riff, the little [Db] melodic hook that you hear in this song,
is gotten by, on the very first beat of the measure, you hear the note C.
[A] [C] C to A, [N] and those are all downs.
So I'm reaching that C with my second finger at the third fret of the fifth [A] string.
[A] [F] Five consecutive downs [C] on [A] C, A, [G] A, G, reaching down to the sixth string, to the A again,
then, basically sixteenth notes,
[G] [N] except the down of those sixteenths is [G] very [Eb] barely hit.
So what you [C] really hear is this.
[A] [G] [A]
[G] [Bb] There's essentially [C] a missing down right [E] there.
[C] So it's really [F] important that you get that one stroke as an up.
No way is it going to work like [E] this, [C] [A]
[G] [F] doing it as two downs.
So it's really important that you get that technique of keeping the down-ups going.
Other than that, it's just [E] standard 12-bar blues.
After four measures of A, it [Gm] goes to D, play the D as a power chord up at the fifth fret,
[Dbm] back to the A for [F] the two measures that are at the end of,
that are measures seven and eight in the 12 [E]-bar blues,
to an E chord for measure nine, [D] measure ten, back to D, [G] measure [E] eleven,
back to our A [A] riff,
[Em] which you could just pound [A] on the A,
and [E] then chord five, E, [F] for the twelfth measure.
If you want to learn more about 12-bar blues,
I've got all kinds of lessons at Totally Guitars on this,
and if you want to learn more specifically about what's happening in Crossroads,
be sure to come over there and hit the Recommend a Lesson button,
because that kind of helps me decide what songs we're going to take a look at
and what songs we're not going to take a look at.
I'm trying to do everything, but there are thousands and thousands of great songs out there.
We have hundreds and hundreds of them at the site already,
but we're working on getting to thousands.
And Crossroads, a [Cm] lot of Eric Clapton tunes, a lot of Korean [Bb] tunes,
George Harrison, Beatles, all [N] that kind of stuff.
And a great little community, well, a [E] great big community, actually,
of people that check in every day and help each other out
with questions and problems related to guitar playing.
People upload videos of them practicing songs,
and there's just a lot [F] of stuff to do,
but if you'd like to see a lesson on Crossroads,
be sure to come check
[A]
[D] [Em]
[A]
[E] [D]
[E]
[D] Blues.
It's all the same.
[N] Or is it?
If it's all the same, you probably knew what song that was.
It didn't sound like every other blues tune.
Well, it kind of did.
It sounded [F] familiar.
Of course, that was Crossroads, similar to the way that Cream and Eric Clapton did it
back in the early days, in the late 60s.
[E] And it really is just a typical 12-bar blues tune with a
[G] bass [Eb] riff, kind of, that happens.
A lot of other Cream tunes are even based on [D] stuff like this, Sunshine of Your Love.
Really nothing [G] but 12-bar [D] blues with [Bb] a little more complicated riff than Eric and Jack put together
for [D] their version of Crossroads.
And so in Crossroads, what's happening, to get the sound that they did,
you're going to play it in the key of A, and play your A chord [F] as a power chord,
basically as a power chord, but with your first finger flattened out across the second, third, fourth strings.
[D] But we're really only playing the fifth, fourth, and [A] maybe third strings.
But the riff, the little [Db] melodic hook that you hear in this song,
is gotten by, on the very first beat of the measure, you hear the note C.
[A] [C] C to A, [N] and those are all downs.
So I'm reaching that C with my second finger at the third fret of the fifth [A] string.
[A] [F] Five consecutive downs [C] on [A] C, A, [G] A, G, reaching down to the sixth string, to the A again,
then, basically sixteenth notes,
[G] [N] except the down of those sixteenths is [G] very [Eb] barely hit.
So what you [C] really hear is this.
[A] [G] [A]
[G] [Bb] There's essentially [C] a missing down right [E] there.
[C] So it's really [F] important that you get that one stroke as an up.
No way is it going to work like [E] this, [C] [A]
[G] [F] doing it as two downs.
So it's really important that you get that technique of keeping the down-ups going.
Other than that, it's just [E] standard 12-bar blues.
After four measures of A, it [Gm] goes to D, play the D as a power chord up at the fifth fret,
[Dbm] back to the A for [F] the two measures that are at the end of,
that are measures seven and eight in the 12 [E]-bar blues,
to an E chord for measure nine, [D] measure ten, back to D, [G] measure [E] eleven,
back to our A [A] riff,
[Em] which you could just pound [A] on the A,
and [E] then chord five, E, [F] for the twelfth measure.
If you want to learn more about 12-bar blues,
I've got all kinds of lessons at Totally Guitars on this,
and if you want to learn more specifically about what's happening in Crossroads,
be sure to come over there and hit the Recommend a Lesson button,
because that kind of helps me decide what songs we're going to take a look at
and what songs we're not going to take a look at.
I'm trying to do everything, but there are thousands and thousands of great songs out there.
We have hundreds and hundreds of them at the site already,
but we're working on getting to thousands.
And Crossroads, a [Cm] lot of Eric Clapton tunes, a lot of Korean [Bb] tunes,
George Harrison, Beatles, all [N] that kind of stuff.
And a great little community, well, a [E] great big community, actually,
of people that check in every day and help each other out
with questions and problems related to guitar playing.
People upload videos of them practicing songs,
and there's just a lot [F] of stuff to do,
but if you'd like to see a lesson on Crossroads,
be sure to come check
Key:
A
E
G
D
F
A
E
G
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] Blues.
It's all the same.
_ [N] Or is it?
_ If it's all the same, you probably knew what song that was.
It didn't sound like every other blues tune.
Well, it kind of did.
It sounded [F] familiar.
Of course, that was Crossroads, similar to the way that Cream and Eric Clapton did it
back in the early days, in the late 60s.
[E] And it really is just a typical 12-bar blues tune with a _
[G] bass [Eb] riff, kind of, that happens.
A lot of other Cream tunes are even based on [D] stuff like this, Sunshine of Your Love.
Really nothing [G] but 12-bar [D] blues with [Bb] a little more complicated riff than Eric and Jack put together
for [D] their version of Crossroads.
And so in Crossroads, what's happening, to get the sound that they did,
you're going to play it in the key of A, and play your A chord [F] as a power chord,
basically as a power chord, but with your first finger flattened out across the second, third, fourth strings.
[D] But we're really only playing the fifth, fourth, and [A] maybe third strings.
But the riff, the little [Db] melodic hook that you hear in this song,
is gotten by, on the very first beat of the measure, you hear the note C. _ _
[A] _ _ _ [C] _ C to A, [N] and those are all downs.
So I'm reaching that C with my second finger at the third fret of the fifth [A] string.
_ _ [A] _ _ [F] Five consecutive downs [C] on [A] C, A, [G] A, G, reaching down to the sixth string, _ _ to the A again,
then, _ _ basically sixteenth notes, _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [N] except the down of those sixteenths is [G] very [Eb] barely hit.
So what you [C] really hear is this.
[A] _ _ [G] _ [A] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [Bb] _ There's essentially [C] a missing down right [E] there.
_ _ _ [C] _ So it's really [F] important that you get that one stroke as an up.
No way is it going to work like [E] this, _ _ _ [C] _ [A] _ _
_ [G] _ [F] doing it as two downs.
So it's really important that you get that technique of keeping the down-ups going.
Other than that, it's just [E] standard 12-bar blues.
After four measures of A, it [Gm] goes to D, play the D as a power chord up at the fifth fret,
[Dbm] back to the A for [F] the two measures that are at the end of,
that are measures seven and eight in the 12 [E]-bar blues,
to an E chord for measure nine, [D] measure ten, back to D, _ [G] measure [E] eleven,
back to our A [A] riff, _
_ [Em] _ which you could just pound [A] on the A,
and [E] then chord five, E, [F] for the twelfth measure.
If you want to learn more about 12-bar blues,
I've got all kinds of lessons at Totally Guitars on this,
and if you want to learn more specifically about what's happening in Crossroads,
be sure to come over there and hit the Recommend a Lesson button,
because that kind of helps me decide what songs we're going to take a look at
and what songs we're not going to take a look at.
I'm trying to do everything, but there are thousands and thousands of great songs out there.
We have hundreds and hundreds of them at the site already,
but we're working on getting to thousands.
And Crossroads, a [Cm] lot of Eric Clapton tunes, a lot of Korean [Bb] tunes,
George Harrison, Beatles, all [N] that kind of stuff.
And a great little community, well, a [E] great big community, actually,
of people that check in every day and help each other out
with questions and problems related to guitar playing.
People upload videos of them practicing songs,
and there's just a lot [F] of stuff to do,
but if you'd like to see a lesson on Crossroads,
be sure to come check
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [D] Blues.
It's all the same.
_ [N] Or is it?
_ If it's all the same, you probably knew what song that was.
It didn't sound like every other blues tune.
Well, it kind of did.
It sounded [F] familiar.
Of course, that was Crossroads, similar to the way that Cream and Eric Clapton did it
back in the early days, in the late 60s.
[E] And it really is just a typical 12-bar blues tune with a _
[G] bass [Eb] riff, kind of, that happens.
A lot of other Cream tunes are even based on [D] stuff like this, Sunshine of Your Love.
Really nothing [G] but 12-bar [D] blues with [Bb] a little more complicated riff than Eric and Jack put together
for [D] their version of Crossroads.
And so in Crossroads, what's happening, to get the sound that they did,
you're going to play it in the key of A, and play your A chord [F] as a power chord,
basically as a power chord, but with your first finger flattened out across the second, third, fourth strings.
[D] But we're really only playing the fifth, fourth, and [A] maybe third strings.
But the riff, the little [Db] melodic hook that you hear in this song,
is gotten by, on the very first beat of the measure, you hear the note C. _ _
[A] _ _ _ [C] _ C to A, [N] and those are all downs.
So I'm reaching that C with my second finger at the third fret of the fifth [A] string.
_ _ [A] _ _ [F] Five consecutive downs [C] on [A] C, A, [G] A, G, reaching down to the sixth string, _ _ to the A again,
then, _ _ basically sixteenth notes, _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [N] except the down of those sixteenths is [G] very [Eb] barely hit.
So what you [C] really hear is this.
[A] _ _ [G] _ [A] _ _
_ [G] _ _ [Bb] _ There's essentially [C] a missing down right [E] there.
_ _ _ [C] _ So it's really [F] important that you get that one stroke as an up.
No way is it going to work like [E] this, _ _ _ [C] _ [A] _ _
_ [G] _ [F] doing it as two downs.
So it's really important that you get that technique of keeping the down-ups going.
Other than that, it's just [E] standard 12-bar blues.
After four measures of A, it [Gm] goes to D, play the D as a power chord up at the fifth fret,
[Dbm] back to the A for [F] the two measures that are at the end of,
that are measures seven and eight in the 12 [E]-bar blues,
to an E chord for measure nine, [D] measure ten, back to D, _ [G] measure [E] eleven,
back to our A [A] riff, _
_ [Em] _ which you could just pound [A] on the A,
and [E] then chord five, E, [F] for the twelfth measure.
If you want to learn more about 12-bar blues,
I've got all kinds of lessons at Totally Guitars on this,
and if you want to learn more specifically about what's happening in Crossroads,
be sure to come over there and hit the Recommend a Lesson button,
because that kind of helps me decide what songs we're going to take a look at
and what songs we're not going to take a look at.
I'm trying to do everything, but there are thousands and thousands of great songs out there.
We have hundreds and hundreds of them at the site already,
but we're working on getting to thousands.
And Crossroads, a [Cm] lot of Eric Clapton tunes, a lot of Korean [Bb] tunes,
George Harrison, Beatles, all [N] that kind of stuff.
And a great little community, well, a [E] great big community, actually,
of people that check in every day and help each other out
with questions and problems related to guitar playing.
People upload videos of them practicing songs,
and there's just a lot [F] of stuff to do,
but if you'd like to see a lesson on Crossroads,
be sure to come check