Chords for Nowhere Man - Beatles Guitar Solo Lesson

Today we're going to be looking at the solo from the Beatles classic Nowhere Man.
The original recording was played by John and George in unison, and I've heard that
it was on their Sonic Blue Stratocasters that they had just received from Fender, their first Fenders.
If anyone can confirm that, I'd appreciate hearing about that.
I chose this for a couple of reasons.
One is it furthers our study of how _ solos are formed out of chord shapes.
It's another perfect example of that.
And it's so perfect an example, I think it'll be really _ useful for guitarists who _ think
they can only play chords.
If you're one of those guitarists who says, oh, I just play chords, _ you'll see here that
you can play a solo, all right?
Because this solo is chords.
Chords with a little bit of arpeggios, chords with maybe a hammer-on thrown in here and
there, but essentially a chord solo.
So to begin, I think I will attempt to just play it through more or less at speed, [E] and
then I will break the whole thing down for _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ _ [A] _
_ [C] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
you.
Okay, that was far from perfect, [N] but it gives you a little bit of an idea.
Let's go ahead and break it down, because again, the main idea is to show you how to do it.
_ Starts on an E chord, and of course this is following the chord progression, right?
Everything he plays here is right out of the chord [E] progression. _ _
Start by playing an E major chord, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and then doing a little arpeggio, coming back on the
first two strings. _ _
_ _ _ _ They're open, of course.
_ This second [Em] chord is a B major, and I've seen it played a couple of different ways.
[A] _ [B] _
_ [E] _ [F#] _ Would be one way, _
[A] right?
This is your movable A shape, [E] so you're bringing it up two frets to make it a B.
_ And essentially
what you're doing is [B] _ you're _ _
[N] _ playing the three notes of the B major triad.
I played it this way, at the fourth fret, 4-3-2 are the strings we're playing, all at
the [E] fourth fret.
So again, taking your A shape, moving it up [B] two frets, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
playing the open [E] E, _ _ which is the
sus4, so in the key of B, [G] what you're doing is you're [F#] playing [B] _ the _ _ _ _ _ major triad, [E] _ _ the 4 _ [F#]-5.
_ So [D#] basically you're going [E] 3 [F#]-4-5 in the B major scale.
_ [C] Again, this is showing you how simple a beautiful guitar solo can [B] be. _
It's nothing complicated.
You've got a B chord, and you've got the B major scale, and you're going 3-4-5 in the
B major scale.
3-4-5. _ _
_ _ [G] [D#] Okay?
D [Em] sharp, E, [Bm] F sharp.
_ [E] So again, _
_ [B] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [E] I think you can hear that [Em] ringing, open note.
There's a lot of ringing, chiminess on the original, which is [B] why I think he's _ _ doing
it this way.
So [G] then you go down two frets to your A, _ and you're playing notes just in this A major
triad this time.
So hit the three [A] notes, _ _ _ _ and then hit the B string and the G string. _
_ _ _ _ So chord, _ 2, 3, _ and then right before he shifts back to [Am] the E chord, [B] he hits that third string
again, which is of course an A note.
He [A] goes, _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
okay, [A] so now _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ notice what he's doing on the E chord.
It's the [Em] exact thing he just did on the B chord here. _
He's going 3-4-5.
Here's your E major [E] chord.
_ _ _ Third, [A] of course, is G sharp.
_ 4, [Bm] which when we play it, we usually call it a [E] sus 4, right? _ _ _ _ _ _
[C#m] But he's going [G] 3-4-5, [C#m] the 5 being the open B string.
[C] So [E] again, _ you're _ _ _ hitting that A note with your pinky, which I didn't do very well just there. _
3 _ -4 [Bm]-5, just [B] _
like_
4-5.
_ My singing voice doesn't keep up with this, _ but_
Okay, so so far we [E] _ have_
[B] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
_ _ Now the chord shifts to an [B] F sharp minor.
If you're a beginner, this might be one of the few chords here that you don't know.
[Em] Just an E minor taken up two frets.
[Fm] E minor, F [F#m] minor, _ F sharp minor. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ [D#] So you're just playing 5 [F#m]-4-3 here. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] Ending on that F sharp, fourth string, fourth fret, the root [F#m] of the chord.
_ _ Then going down to an A minor.
_ [Am] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _
This is one of the only add-ons here, _ [A] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ which is this C note, right?
So basically, _ _ all you're doing is adding the C that's already there.
It's your flatted third, right?
Your minor third. _
[A] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ [F#m] _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [C#m] C, [C] B on the fifth string, 3-2.
[B] _ _ And [E] then_ _
This is just a slide on your sixth string from the B note at the seventh fret down to
the open E.
It's _ _ a beautiful resolution, as is the final _ _ _ harmonic, _ which is at the fifth fret.
_ If you're new to harmonics, [C] you're just lightly _ touching.
You're not fretting.
You're just lightly touching the string right on the fret, _ okay, at the body side of the
fret that you're wanting to hit the harmonic on.
In this case, the fifth fret.
So you're hitting _ the_
You're touching the string between the fifth and sixth frets.
[E] And play around _ with where you pick this, because that will _ affect how effective your harmonic is.
As you can tell, if I go like this, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ you can tell in some places it rings out better.
_ Right there, close to the bridge pickup, whoops, _ _ _ _ seems to be most effective.
And I was [D] trying to play this whole solo, picking it further back to get that brighter,
[E] janglier, chimey sound, which is, of course, on the bridge pickup, _ because _ in _ _ _ [A] here you
get a very different tone depending on where you pick.
And your harmonics are also different depending on where you pick.
So play [B] around with that.
[E] Again, _ _ _ _ _ slide, _ open, and then the harmonic.
_ [N] _
All right?
_ _ You know these chords.
You can play these chords.
You can add a note or two here or there as a hammer-on or just an add-on to the chord.
You can do this.
You can play a guitar solo if you know these chords.
Play along with the original.
Have fun with it.
And thanks for joining me.
I will see you next time. _
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