Chords for Phil Manzanera - The Story of the 'No Church In The Wild" Guitar Riff + Guitar Tutorial
Tempo:
92.6 bpm
Chords used:
A
Am
C
Em
Ab
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
[Ab] My name is Phil Manzanera [C] and today I'm going to [A] teach you the definitive way to play No [Am] Church in the Wild.
I used to just [Em] noodle away at the guitar and I thought, well I need a track for tomorrow in the studio,
so I probably played it, came up with this sort of riff and I went in the studio and probably recorded it twice or three times and never played it again.
And 40 years later, Jay-Z and Kanye West discovered it, well actually they didn't, 88 Keys discovered it, played it to them, slowed it down and it became the basis of No Church in the Wild, their song.
But it's a very strange thing because it's something you just play once or twice and it's taken me a long time to learn how to play it again.
When I first heard what Jay-Z and Kanye had done to the original riff, I thought it was absolutely fantastic because what a genius, whose idea it was to slow it down, I don't know.
But one of the things a lot of people don't know is the ingredient X was that actually there is a harmonica on it, this very large harmonica which was given to me by the members of Ten C [A] C.
[A] [G] On every first note of the riff there is a harmonica, this harmonica in fact, and when it's slowed down, the combination of that harmonica with that guitar riff created something special and it was genius on their part actually to have slowed it down, I never would have thought of that.
When I cheekily thought I was doing a totally instrumental album and I thought, you know what, why don't I just [Ab] do a new version of No Church in the Wild?
And obviously I wanted to make it different from the Jay-Z and Kanye West version so I looked at the track and I thought, you know what, I'm going to get rid of Jay-Z and Kanye.
And luckily Sonia Bernardo, who is a wonderful, unsigned, very talented young singer, I said to her, why don't we take the bits that Frank Ocean and The Dream did and try and improvise on that and we'll add on a couple of new bits to the whole thing and then constructed this new version.
And then we decided to just go and play it live in the studio rather than do it on Pro Tools and bit by bit.
So thus we ended up with this version of No Church in the Wild.
I thought, you know what, I'm going to do the definitive how to play the riff from No Church in the Wild.
And really it's a lot simpler than people think because if you play it in A then it becomes quite easy really.
But if you try and play it in E flat, it's an absolute nightmare.
[Db] So I think it's impossible to play.
I've seen some wonderful players who are technically absolutely brilliant trying to play it in E flat and it's a ridiculous thing all over the keyboard but it's just a little guitar riff really.
I'm going to show you how to play No Church in the Wild in A.
Okay, here goes.
[Am]
[E] [C] [Am]
[A] [C] [Am]
So what it is basically [Em] is a series of what they call pull-offs.
You pull off the note but you hold the A chord with that finger there and then you just use it to bounce off the so-called pull-offs.
[Am] So
[E] that's the slow version of it.
[A] [C] [Dm]
[C]
[A] [Em] [Am]
And of course I put the ingredient X on it as well.
So there you go.
I used to just [Em] noodle away at the guitar and I thought, well I need a track for tomorrow in the studio,
so I probably played it, came up with this sort of riff and I went in the studio and probably recorded it twice or three times and never played it again.
And 40 years later, Jay-Z and Kanye West discovered it, well actually they didn't, 88 Keys discovered it, played it to them, slowed it down and it became the basis of No Church in the Wild, their song.
But it's a very strange thing because it's something you just play once or twice and it's taken me a long time to learn how to play it again.
When I first heard what Jay-Z and Kanye had done to the original riff, I thought it was absolutely fantastic because what a genius, whose idea it was to slow it down, I don't know.
But one of the things a lot of people don't know is the ingredient X was that actually there is a harmonica on it, this very large harmonica which was given to me by the members of Ten C [A] C.
[A] [G] On every first note of the riff there is a harmonica, this harmonica in fact, and when it's slowed down, the combination of that harmonica with that guitar riff created something special and it was genius on their part actually to have slowed it down, I never would have thought of that.
When I cheekily thought I was doing a totally instrumental album and I thought, you know what, why don't I just [Ab] do a new version of No Church in the Wild?
And obviously I wanted to make it different from the Jay-Z and Kanye West version so I looked at the track and I thought, you know what, I'm going to get rid of Jay-Z and Kanye.
And luckily Sonia Bernardo, who is a wonderful, unsigned, very talented young singer, I said to her, why don't we take the bits that Frank Ocean and The Dream did and try and improvise on that and we'll add on a couple of new bits to the whole thing and then constructed this new version.
And then we decided to just go and play it live in the studio rather than do it on Pro Tools and bit by bit.
So thus we ended up with this version of No Church in the Wild.
I thought, you know what, I'm going to do the definitive how to play the riff from No Church in the Wild.
And really it's a lot simpler than people think because if you play it in A then it becomes quite easy really.
But if you try and play it in E flat, it's an absolute nightmare.
[Db] So I think it's impossible to play.
I've seen some wonderful players who are technically absolutely brilliant trying to play it in E flat and it's a ridiculous thing all over the keyboard but it's just a little guitar riff really.
I'm going to show you how to play No Church in the Wild in A.
Okay, here goes.
[Am]
[E] [C] [Am]
[A] [C] [Am]
So what it is basically [Em] is a series of what they call pull-offs.
You pull off the note but you hold the A chord with that finger there and then you just use it to bounce off the so-called pull-offs.
[Am] So
[E] that's the slow version of it.
[A] [C] [Dm]
[C]
[A] [Em] [Am]
And of course I put the ingredient X on it as well.
So there you go.
Key:
A
Am
C
Em
Ab
A
Am
C
[Ab] My name is Phil Manzanera [C] and today I'm going to [A] teach you the definitive way to play No [Am] Church in the Wild. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I used to just [Em] noodle away at the guitar and I thought, well I need a track for tomorrow in the studio,
so I probably played it, came up with this sort of riff and I went in the studio and probably recorded it twice or three times and never played it again.
_ And 40 years later, Jay-Z and Kanye West discovered it, well actually they didn't, 88 Keys discovered it, played it to them, slowed it down and it became the basis of No Church in the Wild, their song.
But it's a very strange thing because it's something you just play once or twice and it's taken me a long time to learn how to play it again.
When I first heard what Jay-Z and Kanye had done to the original riff, I thought it was absolutely fantastic because what a genius, whose idea it was to slow it down, I don't know.
But one of the things a lot of people don't know is the ingredient X was that actually there is a harmonica on it, this very large harmonica which was given to me by the members of Ten C [A] C. _
[A] _ _ _ [G] On every first note of the riff there is a harmonica, this harmonica in fact, and when it's slowed down, the combination of that harmonica with that guitar riff created something special and it was genius on their part actually to have slowed it down, I never would have thought of that.
When I cheekily thought I was doing a totally instrumental album and I thought, you know what, why don't I just [Ab] do a new version of No Church in the Wild?
And obviously I wanted to make it different from the Jay-Z and Kanye West version so I looked at the track and I thought, you know what, I'm going to get rid of Jay-Z and Kanye.
_ And luckily Sonia Bernardo, who is a wonderful, unsigned, very talented young singer, I said to her, why don't we _ take the bits that Frank Ocean and The Dream did and try and improvise on that and we'll add on a couple of new bits to the whole thing and then constructed this new version.
And then we decided to just go and play it live in the studio rather than do it on Pro Tools and bit by bit.
So thus we ended up with this version of No Church in the Wild.
I thought, you know what, I'm going to do the definitive how to play the riff from No Church in the Wild.
And really it's a lot simpler than people think because if you play it in A _ then it becomes quite easy really.
But if you try and play it in E flat, it's an absolute nightmare.
[Db] So I think it's impossible to play.
I've seen some wonderful players who are technically absolutely brilliant trying to play it in E flat and it's a ridiculous thing all over the keyboard but it's just a little guitar riff really.
I'm going to show you how to play No Church in the Wild in A.
Okay, here goes.
[Am] _ _ _ _
[E] _ [C] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _ _
So what it is basically [Em] is a series of what they call pull-offs.
You pull off the note but you hold the A chord with that finger there and then you just use it to bounce off the so-called pull-offs.
[Am] So _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ that's the slow version of it.
[A] _ [C] _ [Dm] _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Em] _ [Am] _ _ _
And of course I put the ingredient X on it as well.
So there you go. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I used to just [Em] noodle away at the guitar and I thought, well I need a track for tomorrow in the studio,
so I probably played it, came up with this sort of riff and I went in the studio and probably recorded it twice or three times and never played it again.
_ And 40 years later, Jay-Z and Kanye West discovered it, well actually they didn't, 88 Keys discovered it, played it to them, slowed it down and it became the basis of No Church in the Wild, their song.
But it's a very strange thing because it's something you just play once or twice and it's taken me a long time to learn how to play it again.
When I first heard what Jay-Z and Kanye had done to the original riff, I thought it was absolutely fantastic because what a genius, whose idea it was to slow it down, I don't know.
But one of the things a lot of people don't know is the ingredient X was that actually there is a harmonica on it, this very large harmonica which was given to me by the members of Ten C [A] C. _
[A] _ _ _ [G] On every first note of the riff there is a harmonica, this harmonica in fact, and when it's slowed down, the combination of that harmonica with that guitar riff created something special and it was genius on their part actually to have slowed it down, I never would have thought of that.
When I cheekily thought I was doing a totally instrumental album and I thought, you know what, why don't I just [Ab] do a new version of No Church in the Wild?
And obviously I wanted to make it different from the Jay-Z and Kanye West version so I looked at the track and I thought, you know what, I'm going to get rid of Jay-Z and Kanye.
_ And luckily Sonia Bernardo, who is a wonderful, unsigned, very talented young singer, I said to her, why don't we _ take the bits that Frank Ocean and The Dream did and try and improvise on that and we'll add on a couple of new bits to the whole thing and then constructed this new version.
And then we decided to just go and play it live in the studio rather than do it on Pro Tools and bit by bit.
So thus we ended up with this version of No Church in the Wild.
I thought, you know what, I'm going to do the definitive how to play the riff from No Church in the Wild.
And really it's a lot simpler than people think because if you play it in A _ then it becomes quite easy really.
But if you try and play it in E flat, it's an absolute nightmare.
[Db] So I think it's impossible to play.
I've seen some wonderful players who are technically absolutely brilliant trying to play it in E flat and it's a ridiculous thing all over the keyboard but it's just a little guitar riff really.
I'm going to show you how to play No Church in the Wild in A.
Okay, here goes.
[Am] _ _ _ _
[E] _ [C] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ [C] _ _ [Am] _ _ _
So what it is basically [Em] is a series of what they call pull-offs.
You pull off the note but you hold the A chord with that finger there and then you just use it to bounce off the so-called pull-offs.
[Am] So _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ that's the slow version of it.
[A] _ [C] _ [Dm] _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Em] _ [Am] _ _ _
And of course I put the ingredient X on it as well.
So there you go. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _