Chords for The John Mayer Song Nobody Can Play

Have you ever gotten to a certain place with a riff or a lick where you've got it just close and just good enough?
Kind of like a like a C-minus, a passing grade.
It's there, but you know, not great.
There's an old Seinfeld bit about doctors graduating at the bottom of their class.
Somebody had to graduate with the worst grade in the class and is still a doctor.
They can't all be the best.
There can't be this many bests. _
Someone's graduating at the bottom of these classes.
Where are these doctors?
I gotta say, for the [Abm] longest time I've felt like I graduated [E] at the bottom of the class with this stupid riff.
[Db] Yes, this stupid riff.
I'm not [Em] afraid to say it.
I hate this riff.
But like the great Tony Horton told me when I was doing [Ab] P90X in [E] 2014.
I hate it, but I love it.
Of course, I'm talking about the holy grail of groovy guitar riffs.
John [Eb] Mayer's Neon.
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [F] _
I had to fly to Miami for that shot.
I hope you liked it.
Anyway, I [G] know this riff has been [F] covered ad nauseum [Gm] by many people [C] across the internet.
In the [Bb] spirit of improvement, it's time to improve [Gb] upon what [F] I put out into the [E] world.
This [C] mediocrity.
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Bb]
Like [Ab] I said, myself and many of my peers have tackled this little bastard of [G] a riff.
I gotta say, I think we're all pretty much around the same grade.
Except for that one person [Eb] who screwed up the grade curve for all the rest of us because he got an A+, like a 97%.
Of course, if you've ever tried to learn this riff on YouTube, you've probably seen my videos.
But you've definitely seen this guy named Jamie.
[C] _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [F] _ _ I always [Gb] knew that he was the master of this riff next [Eb] to John himself.
And I also knew that he had like a video [Gb] tutorial course on how to actually learn [F] it note for note.
But I was content with being a C- [Gb] student.
I didn't want to hang out with the nerds.
Rock and roll, baby.
But that feeling quickly [Dm] morphed into a small obsession.
I was missing the joy.
The joy of learning, nay, [A] mastering something.
And so it began.
The one [F] piece of [E] lore I knew I must [Dm] study in order to achieve [D] my potential valedictorian grade.
A technique [E] that many know but few [Gb] can truly demonstrate.
I call [Gb] it the [A] John Mayer bounce, or the Mayer bounce.
Simple [Dm] on paper, it takes actually a [Gb] lifetime to-
or until the end of this video to master.
Now, of course, I've tried to put a little visual stimulation within this video so far.
Because the truth is, learning this riff the right way takes [F] a little bit-
It's kind of boring, I'm sorry.
There's really only one thing you truly have to practice.
You'll get the chord shapes, you'll get the rhythms, but the bounce.
This is a reason that [Am] John Mayer only goes over this one technique [G] when he demonstrates how to play Neon.
I'm gonna show you a technique called Neon.
I think like, about-
_ _ That [N] sound. _
_ _ _ _ That took so long to get-
It sounds like a freaking machine gun when he does it.
This happens naturally now, [E] but it took a while.
Like [G] to get this sweet spot before [B] I was like, [Em] smacking into the thing.
You know, it's less and more with this.
It's very [Eb] light.
_ [D] _ _ _ [Eb] _
You [Ebm] hear that?
Packing.
Your picking [Gb] hand has to bounce [G] a little bit in order for this to truly groove.
It's how you get this percussive [C] slap sound.
You know, you can't get that by picking.
You gotta [G] bounce and slap on this thing.
But this technique, once you get it down, will actually maintain your equilibrium [Gb] between string sets.
This bounce, [Em] it's all that matters.
So with that in mind, I just tried to practice this technique [Eb] on any instrument that I could find.
[N] So of course, I started with the acoustic. _ _
_ _ _ _ So the motion is this.
Slap, index, thumb on the [Ebm] G, index or middle, [Gb] and then a little chuka there.
So it ends up being eight strokes. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ Oh _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] _
_ yeah, [C] this is a half step down.
And so C flat.
Wait.
Uh, wait, wait, wait.
B.
Now understanding harmony is a valuable tool as a musician,
which you can learn about in my app, Guitar Super System, if you're interested.
All the guitar knowledge I've learned after a Berkeley degree and 15 years of teaching guitar.
Check out the link [Gb] in the description.
[Eb] Thank you for your support.
Anyway, the harmony is [F] important because you can transpose this to other stringed instruments.
I mean, if you can't do the mayor bounce on a ukulele, can you really do the mayor bounce at all?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ [C] _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Cm] _
_ _ [Fm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] Mastering the harmony and even embellishing on [G] it will improve your muscle memory.
So when you [Ab] actually do go to play [F] the riff verbatim and [Eb] simplified,
it'll be a little bit easier for [A] you. _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ You hear that con?
_ [C] _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ _ _ That part right there kind [Cm] of rings across the measure.
So you [F] go, _ _ _ _ _ that's the really cool minor third sound.
It just sounds really nice to [B] complete this chord progression.
Give it a nice middle ground to eventually [Ab] resolve.
_ And I play [Bb] it differently than John here.
[Gm] _ I play it like this instead of [Am] this.
_ [A] _
_ For whatever reason, my thumb just doesn't quite get there.
I can do this chord [Eb] weirdly enough.
[Ab] _ _ I could kind [Fm] of grab it, use the [F] leverage of my pinky like an [Fm] anchor and kind of pull myself up.
[Abm] And it kind of ergonomically fits.
But yeah, this one, this is how I go.
[Ab] _ _ [Gm] Seems like I'm really [D] getting the hang of this thing, right?
But I got to be honest, looking back at the footage,
my wrist, it's not floppy [Bb] enough.
It's not snapping.
[G] It was stiff.
All the mechanics [A] were there, but it wasn't quite right.
And I understand that there is nuance to every human mechanic.
But at this point in the video, I'm not there yet.
I'm still kind of [Bb] like a B student.
I just needed to loosen up the wrist, [Gm] which meant practice.
Because you loosen up when you get comfortable with something.
You tighten [Dm] up when you're learning something new your muscles [G] aren't used to
letting go and just allowing your [Eb] body to take over.
So yeah, [D] loosening up [C] comes with time, but it's time that I have.
[Eb] And I'm going to use [Dm] an age-old YouTube transition [E] move.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Turns _ _ [C] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Ab] out it's actually harder to learn this riff just on guitar than to
sing and play it.
Who knew?
[Db] Anyway, I guess I'll just never practice this riff again because I hate it, right?
No, you see, a great student is constantly learning, constantly evolving.
Sometimes that means returning to a place you were and shoring up that [Ab] foundation.
I think the John Mayer bounce could be applied to other chord [E] progressions and,
[Ab] you know, different rhythmic ideas.
The sky's the limit, but we'll save that experiment for another video.
I hope you enjoyed this one.
Until next [C] time, _ keep shredding.
[Gm] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ I'm a high on peach tree, straight.
_ [C] Make strength techno [F] beats, it's always.
_ _ Yeah, the end to everything. _