Chords for How To Play Celebration On Guitar | Kool & The Gang Guitar Lesson + Tutorial

_ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C#] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
_ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
[C#] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ [G#] _ _
[C#] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
[F] How's it going everybody?
John McClennon here and in today's video I'm going to teach you how to play Celebration
by Kool and the Gang on guitar.
I've played this song countless times on gigs and New Year's Eve parties so I thought it
would be appropriate to post this song today.
I want to wish everybody out there a happy new year and thank you so much for the support
here on my channel.
I hope you're getting a ton of value out of these lessons.
This is the _ 365th video that I've posted this year.
So thank you so much to everyone for supporting the channel here and I hope that we can keep
growing into 2021 and I can keep helping you improve your guitar playing.
In today's video we're going to learn this classic funk guitar riff that uses an octave
at the top of this song.
Then we're going to go into how to play the keyboard part on guitar and also the rest
of the changes for the tune.
But before we get started, if you're new here make sure to download my free book all about soloing.
It's a book I wrote called Melodic Expressions and it's got over 100 licks and exercises
in it that are really going to help you unlock the fretboard and learn to solo freely over
major, minor, and dominant chords.
Alright well with that said let's dive into today's lesson.
Let's break down how to play Celebration by Kool and the Gang on guitar.
Now we're going to start off with the intro guitar part which uses something called an
octave as we play this really funky part.
Here's what it sounds like.
One, two, three, [G#] four. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Now what I'm doing here is playing the sixth fret on the fourth string and then the ninth
fret on the second string.
So those two notes together are what we call an octave.
_ _ And they're the same note.
They're the note A flat.
_ _ _ _ [E]
Now my hand is really going back and forth and a lot of this is in the rhythm which is
sixteenth note based.
So if we count one, two, three, four we're going to think one E and a two E and a three
E and a four E and a.
[F#] _ _ _ _
Just a back and forth rhythm.
Really the strumming pattern is down up.
_ _ _ _ [G#] Now when I play this octave part of really getting the sound is using muting.
So _ I'm able to strum those two notes but mute every other string.
So you see I'm using my middle finger there and I'm using other parts of my hand just
to get a really clean sound.
Now if I count out the rhythm what I'm mainly playing again is sixteenth note based.
But I'm thinking something like this.
One E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three E and
a four E and a.
So you can notice that I'm _ applying this pressure and release technique here where I push down
the notes to get them to sound but a lot of the sixteenth notes are actually just what
I call a scratch strum.
You know the chicka chicka chicka sound.
So one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three E and
a four E and a.
So I'm going to speed that up.
It sounds like this. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Bm] And so many classic, you know, kind of funkier or disco tunes have like an octave guitar
part that's just staying on one note but it's creating this really cool rhythmic driving effect.
And that's really what this guitar part does.
It's pretty awesome. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ Now, the keyboard underneath and basically the changes that are happening under this
sound like this. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C#] _ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C#] _ [G#] _ _ _ So what I'm playing here is really just primarily triads.
[C#] _
We're going to start on a D flat chord and that's just one finger on the sixth fret playing
strings four, three, and two.
_ _ _ _ And then we'll go to a G flat chord [F#] _ _ _ which [A#m] is eight, _ _ [F#] six, seven.
Again those same strings.
All [C#] these chords are going to be on the same _ _ strings.
[C#] _ [F#] _ _ [C#] So D [F#] flat, G flat, [C#] D flat, G flat, D [G#] flat, A flat.
[F#] Now A flat [G#] is the same as G flat just two [C#] frets higher.
[F#] And _ _ _ _ [G#] _ the rhythm is [C#] one and [F#] two and three and four [G#] and one and a two and three and four
and [C#] one and [F#] two and three [C#] and four and one and [G#] a two and three [Fm] and four and.
Now again if I keep my sixteenth note groove going with [C#] that.
[F#] _ _ _ _
[G#] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _
[G#] _ Now sometimes I'm getting that extra string in there on the first string when I'm barring.
And that's cool or you could just keep it three strings and get that extra note in there.
It's still an A flat [F#] chord or [G#] a G flat chord.
[F#] _ Now here I'm not going [A#] to bar that extra string because that would make it [C#] a D flat six chord.
But I just want that D flat triad.
[F#] _ _
_ _ [G#] _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _
[C#] _ _ [G#] _ _ And again on top of that is.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ [C#] _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [G#] Then we get to the verse. _
_ _ [C#] _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [G#] _ Such a great progression here.
So what this [G#m] is is [F#] a G flat now [G#] with an A flat in the bass.
_ _ Now I'm [C#] going to a D flat with an A flat in the [G#] bass to an A flat. _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [G#] _ _ _ [F#] _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [G#] _ _ _ _
_ And that ends up _ being our chord progression for the verse.
So it's really two _ bars of a progression that are repeated over and over.
So one two three four.
One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four.
One and two and [A] three and [G#] four and one. _ _ _
_ We end up doing this eight times. _
Then after the eighth [C#] time we go _ back _
[Cm] _ _ _ [E] _ [F] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A#m] _ _ _ _
[D#] _ _ _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _
[F#] _ _ [G#] _ _ _ to the chorus part.
So for the pre-chorus this is the it's time to come together.
It's up to you what's your pleasure that that part there vocally.
[C#] _
We go to a D flat major nine for a bar.
[Cm] Then C minor seven.
_ Then F seven sus [F] four to F seven.
[A#] So that's like one two three four.
[Cm] One two three four.
One two three [F] four.
One two then B [A#m] flat minor seven [D#] to E flat nine.
One two three and four.
[F#] _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
_ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ [G#] _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ _ [G#] _ _
_ _ [F#] _ _ _ _ _ [D#] _
Have fun practicing Celebration by Kool and the Gang.
I hope you got some value out of today's video.
Be sure to keep those sixteenth note rhythms just going back and forth
and working on your scratch strums.
Before you go don't forget to download my free book Melodic Expressions.
If you haven't downloaded it yet it's all about soloing.
So if you want to improve your lead playing check that out.
With the book you also get some free blues training videos that are not on YouTube.
Those also come with tabs as well.
As always leave any song requests down below in the comments.
Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you in 2021.
[G#] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _ _
[G#] _ _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ _ _ _
[G#] _ _ [C#] _ _ [F#] _ _ _ _
[G#] _ _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ _ _ _