Chords for Light My Fire Chords And Guitar Lesson (The Doors)

Here's a legendary song that got the Doors banned from the Ed Sullivan show in 1967.
The producers didn't want Jim Morrison to sing the lyrics,
"'Girl, we couldn't get much higher' because of the drug references."
And so he agreed, but then he went out there and sang the original lyrics.
Now the song all started with guitarist Robbie Krieger.
He wanted to write a song based around the idea of fire,
and he came up with sort of the initial idea, then took it into the band,
and they all put their own touches on it.
But in this video, I want to break down the guitar part.
Now it starts off with this really cool kind of winding chord progression.
Here's what it sounds like.
One, two, three, four.
_ _ [F] _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ [Am] You know that it would [Gbm] be untrue.
Then you're into the verse [G] there.
So we start out on a G chord, and Robbie Krieger played without a pick,
so I'm just, you know, playing without a pick for this lesson.
You [D] can use a pick if you want, but [G] either way is fine.
So let's check out those chord shapes.
We've got a G, which is using all six strings.
Three, two, open, open, three, three.
Then go [D] to a D from the fourth string down, open, two, three, two.
[F] Then F, and I like to play that just a lot of times here from the [C] fifth string down,
so three, [F] three, two, one, one.
[Bb] Then go to B flat, bar chord here in the first position starting on the fifth string.
One, three, three, three.
Then [Eb] bring that up to the sixth fret for E flat.
[Ab] Then A flat is just like F, but in the fourth position here at the fourth fret,
[A] and then bring it up one more fret to the fifth fret for A. _
Then we stay there for two bars.
So the timing on this is every two beats the chords change
until we get to the A chord.
Then we stay there for two bars.
So it's [G] going to go one, [D] two, three, [F] four.
One, [Bb] two, three, [Eb] four.
One, [Ab] two, three, [A] four.
Then one, two, three, four.
And here once I get to that A, I play eighth notes.
One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and.
[G] For the first part where the chords are changing every two beats,
you could play just a simple down, down, up.
One, two and three, [F] four, and one, [Bb] two and three, four,
and [Ab] one, two and three, four, and one and two.
And then all downs. _ _
_ [Am] _ _ So that's the first part.
And if you've struggled to understand the fretboard for rhythm and lead,
then go to johnmclennan.com slash fretboard guide
and get your hands on my free fretboard guide PDF.
On this I'm going to show you five chords and five scales
that unlock the neck for rhythm and lead guitar,
and it's completely for free.
Just go to johnmclennan.com slash fretboard guide
and grab that now as my gift to you.
From there we've got the verse, and we play a couple new chords here.
We've got an A minor 7.
So it was on an A, and then what you do is you just take off
your middle finger and your pinky finger, and now you get the A minor 7.
[Gbm] Then you drop it down to F sharp minor 7 on the second [Am] fret.
We're going to go one, two, three, [Gbm] four,
then switch every four [Am] beats. _
And that's [Gbm] basically the verse, right?
[Am] The melody on top is _ [B] like_
[Am] _ Two, three, four_ _ _ _
[Gbm] _ Same chord, just shifting it around [Gbm] the neck. _
_ _ Now the strumming pattern here, [Db] you can do just a [Am] classic pattern.
Down, down, up, up, [Gbm] down, up, down, down, up, up, down, up.
[G] Then we go to the chorus.
Come on [A] baby, light my [D] fire. _
Here we go to [G] the G chord, [A] then A, [D] then D.
[G] And that's two beats here.
One, [A] two, switch, [D] two, then one, two, three, [G] four.
Then again.
[A] Baby, light my fire.
Then you go [B] to B.
_ That's a cool change right there.
Second fret, fifth string, then two, four, four, four.
_ _ [G]
Then the third [D] time, go G, D, _
[E] E. _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] So here's the whole chorus.
Come on [A] baby, light my fire.
[D] _ _ Come on [A] baby, light my fire.
_ [G] Try to [D] set the night [E] on E. _ _
_ _ [Em] Then back [Am] _ [Gbm] to the verse.
_ Now when I play [G] those chords when you have two in a bar,
like one, two, [A] three, four, and_
[G] I'll just go the first part of the pattern, the strumming pattern.
I'll go down, [A] down, up, switch, down, [C] up.
Then I did do this little lick on [D] D.
I went_
You can hear that on the recording.
You take the D chord, and then [G] you just add your pinky
on the third fret of the [D] first string for a second there.
_ [D] _
One, two, and three, and four, and_
That's a Dsus4.
Just a [G] little move in there.
_ [A] _ _ _ [B] _
[G] Then G, [D] D, [E] E.
All _ _ _ _ right, so the first time right there, we go back to_
[Am] Da, da, da, [Gbm] da, da, dum.
Back [Am] to the verse.
But later in the song, we go to _ _ [Bm] the instrumental section.
[Am] Now live, they often extended this part
and played some mesmerizing solos.
Ray Manzarek would take a long solo, and then Robbie Krieger.
So here, we have [Bm] one new chord.
We bring in this Bm7, which [Am] is the same [Bm] shape, right?
You just bring it up to the seventh position.
We're going to go one, [Bm] two, and three, [Am] four, and_
This is the [Bm] whole solo section.
[Am] It's just [Bm] two chords.
_ And there's this cool bass line.
_ _ _ _ [B] You can just play as like [Am] a vamp.
That's the notes A, [E] C, E.
Just [B] an A minor chord, then B, D, F sharp.
[C] _ So it's just a walking bass [Bm] line over those chords. _ _ _ _ _
_ [Am] _ _ [G] So that goes over and over, but then you come back out
and you put into the _ _ [F] _ _ [Eb] keyboard part
[Ab] that instrumental that we [A] did at the top.
_ And then you go [Am] back.
The time to hesitate [Dbm] is through.
[Gbm] Okay, then we go back to the verse, [G] same as before.
The final chorus, there's a little variation here.
So it starts off the same way.
We go, _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _
_ come on baby, light my fire. _
Okay, then he starts going up and he starts singing this melody.
Try to set the night on fire, and it [F] really just ramps up the energy.
Here we do this progression four times.
We go F, [C] C, [D] D.
_ Two [C] beats, [A] then four beats.
So like, [C] one, two, switch, two, then one, two, three, four.
[F] Then the final time he sings this high melody.
He goes, try [C] to set the night [D] on fire. _ _
And you hear the snare crack.
_ _ Back to [Bb] the intro.
_ _ [Ab] And then [A] _ end on the A chord there.
Just a genius ending.
Because it's kind of like in A minor, and then in G major in the verse.
So adding that twist at the end just really makes for a cool ending.
So take your time with these parts,
and if you've struggled to play rhythm and lead like this
anywhere on the fretboard,
then go to johnmcclennon.com slash fretboardguide
and get your hands on my free fretboard guide PDF.
This is going to show you five chords and five scales.
You probably already know the chords.
They're simple chords, but you can use them to unlock the neck for rhythm and lead.
And it's completely free.
Just go to johnmcclennon.com slash fretboardguide
and grab that now as my gift to you.
As always, hope you enjoyed this video.
If you did, you might like this one next. _ _ _ _ _
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