Chords for Muddy Waters Slide Riffs | Reverb Learn to Play

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[F] _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [G] _
[A] _ [G] _ _ _ Hey everybody, this is Jeff from Reverb, and today I'd like to show you some licks inspired
by the legendary blues man, Mr.
Muddy Waters.
Muddy Waters, you know, one of the true greats, probably one of the best remembered and most
loved blues guys of all time, not only for his singing, but for his guitar playing.
He mainly played a Telecaster, but he'd been known to play other things as well.
I have my Gibson Les Paul Custom with me today.
I know in the early days Muddy played a lot of open G tuning, but later on, some of the
later videos I noticed in the late 60s and 70s, he played a lot in standard tuning and would capo.
So today, just to kind of get that Muddy sound, I'm in standard tuning, but I'm capoed at
the 3rd fret playing in the E position.
I've got a Thorpey Peacekeeper pedal, just on the verge of break up, going through a Magnetone amplifier.
Now I know Muddy primarily played with a thumb pick and his index [A] finger.
I don't have a thumb pick with me today, but I'm going to play with my thumb to kind of
mimic the sound that Muddy got and the way he approached it. _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ [Bb] This lick that I'm doing here would be typical of something that Muddy would do, maybe on
a turnaround at the end of a blues progression, but you know, it really works anywhere.
But he's playing a single note [G] line, _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ and again I'm capoed at the 3rd fret, but technically
I'm at the 10th, 8th, and 6th with the capo. _ _
_ _ Sometime Muddy would even bump the string next to it and it still would sound good.
It still gives it that raw feel.
Muddy had an edge, you know, it's not all about being totally [G] clean with Muddy's playing. _
_ [Gm] _ _ And then he would do these cool things like a turnaround. _
_ [D] Kind of a little [Bb] subtle trill there [B] into a 7th chord.
So again, [D] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ [G] _ _ [Bb] another Muddy style lick would be coming farther up the neck, you know, basically
using pentatonic and blues scales.
And he would always vary them a little bit, but something along the lines [Eb] of_
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
[G] _ Again, so keep in mind I still have the capo on the 3rd fret.
I'm going to the [Bb] 18th fret, _ [D] 15, 13, back to 15.
_ [Gm] _ So I'm kind of picking out the single notes, but it sounds kind of cool when you let those
other strings kind of bleed into it to give it that [D] rawness. _
[Gm] _ _ [F] _ [Bb] And I'm going right down the pentatonic scale here.
[D] _
[G] _ _ _ _ [D] 15, 13, 15, 13 on the B string, 11, 12.
_ [Gm] _ _ You could always [C] follow up with [G] a_
_ [D] _ Sometimes when Muddy would really get going on a slide solo, he'd do this thing, I kind
of call it the circling B or the mosquito in the ear kind of lick.
[G]
It's just like a flurry of notes where he's kind of going crazy with the slide up and
down, you know, a lot of times on the G string, but something kind [D] of _ [G] _ [D] like_
_ [G] _
[D] And always throwing that little trill in there.
_ [F] _ _ [B] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ And you know, I'm not really being real exact about where I'm going.
I'm trying to [Gm] stay kind of in the blues scale, but he would randomly just slide up the neck
and back at times too.
So really just feeling [D] it, you know?
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ Thanks for tuning in today.
I hope some of these Muddy Water Licks inspire you, and I hope you can incorporate them into
your [Eb] own playing ideas.
Until [G] next time.
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