You are spot on when you say it doesn't have to be note perfect. I've seen Clapton in the 60s 70s and 80s. He NEVER plays the same solo twice when he plays the same song. He plays from his soul and how he feels not a musical score

All these youtubers who say "Clapton is overrated and these other guitarists are better." I'd like to see these other guitarists play with a slide, or maybe with an orchestra band, how about some Jazz and reggae and we all know about the blues, rock and pop playing ability of Clapton. Enough with the tricks of these one trick pony speedsters being labeled as better players. Most of them aren't near as lyrical with their guitars. Clapton sings to me with his guitar. Feeling.

My light bulb moment in this is that by simply playing the major pentatonic over the root chord and the minor over the other chords you can (relatively) easily slide into 2 more advanced soloing techniques - chord following and mixing major and minor scales. Great insight. Thanks!

Clapton doesn’t even worry about playing like he did before. Someone pointed out he doesn’t play songs the same way twice. He said, “isn’t that the point?”

Thanks man simple with no dirt which to me just stuffs it up. Great!!!!

Your absolutely right, the why is just as important if not more than the how. So basically you can go major over one chord minor over four chord and either major or minor over the fifth. And for fun mix them all around, really the essence of British blues in the 60s

Historically, Clapton is one of the top three guitarist of all time without a doubt people need to know their musical history and to know something about playing guitar before they judge Eric Clapton

Great lesson, well delivered! Major pent over the root, minor pent over 4&5. I always liked how Clapton switched between major and minor but didn’t actually realize this was the ‘secret sauce’. Thanks!

Great lesson!

hahaha.. The beginning of this video is comedic gold.. But the lesson is worth even more than gold.. Thank you for teaching these licks.. Peace..

Just subscribed. Great insights Tim! Look forward to diving into your posts.

Thank you very much for sharing this mate.

Very helpful lesson!!

Excellent explanation of a music concept that had eluded me for years. While my ear grasped it it was not till this lesson that I understood it.

I recall reading in old guitar mag interviews where EC,Beck and others saying they worked in and around chord shapes and trying to emulate who they dug....Clapton said that he had "wood-shedded" a whole lot after his Yardbirds stint.He also said that his fab version of Freddie Kings's "Hideaway" was just his attempt at it.... great vid this btw!

awesome, you got it. subscribed. great lesson there. I don't read music so this helps a lot. I improvise and play in the style of the song and player. phrasing is a great point.

VERY GREAT, MATE. i REMEMBER PLAYING THIS SONG LIVE MANY TIMES, AND DOING IT, BUT NOT REALLY AWARE THAT i WAS SWITCHING BETWEEN MAJOR AND MINOR. IT JUST SOUNDED RIGHT IF I HIT THOSE NOTES. ☺

Very nice. Good ears, Tim.

Cheers from New Zealand

So good , I had to sub

loving those licks, my ears are picking up a few i know :-)

Tim Pierce is not just awesome - its also his joy ! whilst hitting the spot ! .

Very good

That''s exactly what I needed. I don't want to be a Clapton clone, but a better blues player. Thank you so much!

As for me, Clapton's distinctive moments are his vibrato, his beboppish explosive lines and syncopes even in slow blues and his 3-note legatos as mordent for examle a-c-a instead of just playing A

Clapton also had a distinct vibrato technique that helped to give him his style of playing.

Great lesson...I like to know why players play what they play. I don't understand why play A minor over D major

Massively exciting - such a refreshing presentation - particularly regards Jimmies comments/contribution ! . But ! . . dun , dun duhh . . I cringe at the idea that someone can imagine what another is "thinking" . . That can be left to Noel Harrari and the cranky bst'ds that are planning to put chips in us . . Have you personally met " GOD " ? . I was once in the same room as him and , due to atrocious sound issues he could have been . . You fill in the blanks - - I Love the way that you play - I always wished that I had a mate that plays so well .. Guitar pilgrim to me is as good as it gets ? . I am grateful to be able to subscribe - thank you ! . Glancing across my screen here , I am looking toward your window " 5 licks to instantly sound like J Winter . . I wonder ? . . My most cherished ( without any reserve or doubt ) " lick " is during " Last night " I lost the best friend I ever had . . Can you , Would you teach this one ? .

Really enjoyed this lesson. Very informative and well written/performed. Thank you. Could you pleas tell me if you are using any FX or is your sound coming from the amp/guitar. Thanks again.

Often Clapton Cream era would play ROOT-less V7 chord triads for the "closing notes" or cadences like M3-5-b7 = Tritone. He does this in the guitar solo of Strange Brew when adding in the M3-5-b7. The Root less V7 chord has a diminished triad. Ritchie Blackmore will using the harmonic minor scale over the V7 chord which the harmonic minor scale is the same as the mixolydian b9 b13? 1-b2-3-4-5-b6-7b. I'm confused about how to play the harmonic minor scale that will be a mixolydian b9 b13 when played over the V7 chord?

hi tim nice vid thx! where can i buythat lilhendrix statue looks so cute !!! :)

Man, your guitar tone sounds so rich and creamy. It's like eating a big piece of triple layer chocolate cake.

Tim could you do some stuff on mick taylor great vid btw.🎸

he would set the tone low on one end and high on the other

This is very interesting. I was wondering, however, what he would play over an E Chord in order to highlight the change from E to D.

What about the V chord (E)?

Sound like Clapton?.........and immediately we're into Crossroads............so we know we're thinking about his time with Cream and the 60s generally. For the tone, he didn't use the neck p/up much at all. He mostly dialled all his tones in on the bridge p/up using the tone control - even the "woman" tones. He himself (unusually) described this as using the tone control to "Put the bass on" rather than the way most of us think of it. For the style - Clapton was and is a very stylish player of the kind that is usually a phrase player. He doesn't go in for extended passages much, it's paused and punctuated almost "conversationally" (it's a "blues" thing). His style and distinctiveness comes from decent sustain on the sound and the left-hand vibrato. Between Blues Breakers and Cream, we can hear on recordings that he's working on this. To imitate him, you have to work on the fretting hand taking the time to "work the string" rather than speed. It's........quite....difficult. The same goes for players such as Paul Kossof - you need to take hold of the string with your finger and control it, not just shake your hand/wrist/whatever, and practice slowly on the easier strings (G, middle on the fret scale) until you can bash in a screaming, climactic vibrato on a high note on the top string, way up the 'board. It's muscular - to watch someone do it, you see forearm muscles at work, you need to have your hand well based around the neck, the "thumb behind" thing won't provide that - you have to grip, push and pull with pitch control through the whole note. It's precise. "While my guitar gently weeps" is (effectively) Clapton practising vibrato over the whole fretboard. "Come together" is Harrison concentrating like f*ck to get the same effect and not quite making it on the higher notes. It's not something that depends on notes, speed etc - it's a valid technique for playing electric guitar and it doesn't come overnight. Clapton dumped all this to start singing and playing at much lower volume using Fender guitars. This vibrato doesn't work so well on briefer notes at lower volumes and Clapton then played more economically and concisely, even on solos such as "Cocaine". Hendrix used to homage/mock Clapton by playing "Sunshine of your love" and doing exactly that sort of polished vibrato on the well known solo but..........that was Hendrix. He did similar on Noel Redding's "Little Miss Strange" from Electric Ladyland.

My advice would be to listen to Claptons songs as much as you can. Use your ears.

Play like he plays, just don't say what he says or think what he thinks.

Little Jimi should know that he still blows away Clapton… He just does it as Morgan Freeman

Clapton..😂 The “Epiphone” of guitar players ..🙇🏽

LOl. This is not a unique concept to Clapton this is a concept to to the blues that every single guitar player on the planet has their tool. You still do not know what is going on in Clapton's head and he's not noodling he's playing off the chord which is indicative of what jazz guitarists do! Peace

Damn, those are great. Now do "5 racist statements to say in public to sound like Clapton".