Chords for Gary Clark Jr. | Blues Guitar Lesson | Bright Lights | Tim Pierce

_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ Hey, this is Tim Pierce.
That was the rhythm [Eb] part to Bright Lights by Gary Clark Jr.
I studied his solo and I brought in some elements into my solo that were definitely from his
solo on that song.
We're going to look at those.
We're going to look at the rhythm part and the sound.
Click the link below if you want to check out the online masterclass.
We're up to over 100 hours of lessons and [Ab] content.
There's four elements of his solo in Bright Lights that I want to call attention to.
One is these [E] really, really long, slow pulls.
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
Another thing he does [Em] is this ninth. _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] Rather than do the standard pentatonic, _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ [Em] _ that's the exact riff. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ Another thing, [D] _
[G] he comes up to the E note and does a step [Cm] and a half bend, _ [F] which once again
is [G] great with an Octavia, [C] a really heavy fuzz pedal.
_ If you have just a fuzz pedal, you'll get there with this.
The Octavia or any Octavia iteration is a nice choice for this.
_ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[N] Even the artifacts that show up when you're in the middle of stuff, even if you grab a
second note by mistake, _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [G] _ _
_ you get a sound you've maybe never heard before.
[B] Another thing he does that I really like are these [Em] hammer-ons.
[E] _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
We all do hammer-ons, but making a point, making the stylistic [A] point feature style-wise, _ _ _ _
maybe stepping out [F] of time with it too.
_ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ So I have a pretty wooly sound, [Am] quite a bit of _ grunge.
[G] I'm using the middle position.
[Gb] You could use the bass pickup or the treble pickup, but it sounded just right to me to
use the middle position using both pickups.
[Am] I have reverb on it too, so you get that nice [Ab] trail.
And indeed, when you stop [Am] this part, there's a place in the song on the record where the
band stops all at once and you hear the reverb trail from his guitar printed.
You can tell it's coming through the amp.
It's pretty great.
_ So I'm alternating just A minor up here, and I lift off to make it staccato, and I come
back and play the A note in the bottom. _
_ That's the heart of it.
_ _ [D] _
And he brings it [Am] up to A sus.
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ _ [D] Now the trick for me is I'm [E] avoiding the A string and the D string.
So I think the important [Gm] elements here are keeping your aim good so that you [Am] hit these
top three notes with one pick stroke, and then you hit the bottom [B] A note one [Am] pick stroke. _
_ _ [A] Grabbing the suspension, not playing [Am] too hard over here, keeping a [E] strong and steady rhythm,
and muting by lifting up your fingers wherever [Am] necessary. _ _
_ _ I'm even lifting up the thumb and making that note short duration.
_ _ _ [D] _ It's important to grab all three of [E] the top strings with each stroke too.
[Ab] That time I hit two of them, and it loses [E] some of the richness of the A minor chord,
[Am] the triad. _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [D] And I think I'm getting a little bit of a [A] squawk playing the open A string, [Am] which is
just a lucky mistake.
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _