Chords for My Maria - Guitar Lesson and Tutorial - Brooks and Dunn

_ My Maria was written by B.W. Stevenson and Daniel Moore.
B.W. Stevenson actually released this song in the 70s
and it was a pretty big hit for him long before Brooks and Dunn ever cut it.
When they cut it in the 90s, it was then again a huge hit on country radio and went to number one.
We're gonna teach the Brooks and Dunn version which is in the key of E flat.
So in order to play that lick that we do in the intros and the verses and for it to sound right,
we're gonna have to tune our guitars to E flat standard tuning.
We're gonna leave the electric guitars in standard tuning and most of the electric guitar part is pretty subtle until we get to the end
when there's a great lengthy outro solo that we're gonna learn. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
[Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Cm] _
_ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
All right, that was the intro riff for My Maria.
To do this, we're gonna need to be in E flat standard tuning.
And so when you're in that tuning, you can do that in the guitar basics section and E chord should sound like this.
_ _ _ _ _ We're gonna start by learning this very first riff.
To start the whole song and then to start the second verse, we do this riff.
It starts on an open E string, _ then ring finger on the second fret slide up to [G] four, _ _
and then pointer finger on the second [Eb] fret of D. _ _
_ And that's kind of like the intro to the intro riff.
So we're gonna start with that and then hit an open E string and now here's where the intro riff really starts.
So _ _
[Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ _ we've got the open E and we've got a B [Bb] bar chord here.
_ [Eb] _
_ _ _ To _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Eb] play the chorus, we're gonna need the same three chords that we used in the verse.
An E standard E chord, _ _ then we have [Bb] a B bar chord, _ and an A [Ab] bar chord, _ _ and [Eb] that's it.
Here's how the chorus sounds nice and slow starting with the E.
_ _ [Bb] _ _ [Ab] _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Ab] _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ All right, the first thing that we play on the lead guitar for My Maria _ is the first chorus.
So what we're gonna do is we're basically just gonna be following the chord progression,
but we're not gonna be playing the same thing that the acoustic does.
That would just kind of muddy it up.
So we're just gonna be playing this.
We have E flats, [Ab] B [Bb] flats, _ [Ab] and A flats. _ _ _ _ _
And so at the top of the chorus, it would sound like this. _ _
[Bb] To B flat, [Ab] to A flat, back [Eb] to E flat.
_ And then we're gonna do a little walk up [Ab] starting on this A flat,
then we've got ring finger up [D] on third fret of B, pinky finger [Eb] on fourth fret,
_ and we're gonna pluck that with the third.
All right, this is a great classic country guitar solo.
It's on the lengthy side, and it's also on the advanced side.
But if [N] you're up for a challenge, it's the kind of solo that if you get your fingers
on all these things, it's gonna make you a better player for doing it.
So don't get frustrated.
It took me a long time to transcribe it and even learn a couple of these licks.
I had to work them up slowly with the metronome.
So be ready to do that.
It's not the kind of solo that we're gonna get right the first time we put our fingers
on these licks, but we're gonna go through it one time all the way through nice and slow.
Then we're gonna go through kind of note by note,
and then we'll play it at full speed along with the metronome.
Here's how it sounds.
_ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ [Cm] _ One, [Bb] two, three.
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [F] _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _