[00:00] hey what's up welcome back y'all today
[00:01] we're going to talk about this really
[00:03] beautiful song by junior kimbrough
[00:05] called meet me in the city now i picked
[00:07] this song because this is a really
[00:09] perfect song for you guys to work on
[00:11] your monotonic bass patterns and that
[00:13] means where you're just clicking away on
[00:15] a root note while the melody is playing
[00:18] something else
[00:24] in this video i'm going to teach you how
[00:25] to play all the parts of this song but
[00:27] with a big focus on the intro which is
[00:30] the first 18 bars the other sections are
[00:33] going to be a lot easier to learn
[00:35] because they're similar variations so
[00:37] first let's just hear how it sounds
[00:39] [Music]
[00:49] do
[00:51] [Music]
[01:03] do
[01:05] [Music]
[01:20] so this song is made from a bunch of
[01:22] different call and response phrases
[01:24] let's take a look at the first four bars
[01:26] that's going to be a variation of our
[01:28] call phrase so it sounds like this
[01:31] [Music]
[01:39] [Laughter]
[01:41] [Music]
[01:45] that's the first four bars and that's
[01:46] kind of like our call phrase i'm barring
[01:50] the second fret across the top four
[01:52] strings if you can bar it like this
[01:54] [Music]
[01:58] that way you're not going to have to go
[02:00] [Music]
[02:04] it's always coming back to the second
[02:05] fret so all those notes should just be
[02:07] kind of
[02:09] barred down
[02:12] one
[02:14] two
[02:15] and three
[02:16] and four and one and two and three and
[02:21] four
[02:22] and that's those first two bars you can
[02:25] add a little hammer on
[02:28] on that part right there and the same
[02:30] thing here
[02:32] [Music]
[02:36] okay let's go over measures three and
[02:38] four so we have like this
[02:40] one
[02:41] two and
[02:43] and four and one and two and three
[02:47] four measure four use these two fingers
[02:51] like that
[02:53] otherwise you're gonna have to do a
[02:54] finger roll like this
[02:56] [Music]
[02:59] measures five six and seven
[03:04] [Music]
[03:10] okay just those three phrases you can
[03:13] hear the melody sounds like this
[03:18] [Music]
[03:22] okay so it's basically the same thing we
[03:24] start with
[03:28] okay and then the second part of the
[03:30] phrase the first time we'll go sliding
[03:32] up to the sixth
[03:34] the second time it'll go up to the four
[03:36] so the phrase sounds like this
[03:37] [Music]
[03:41] and then the third time we're going to
[03:42] play this phrase that lands on the
[03:44] second fret the two
[03:48] okay so putting those three together is
[03:50] the answer phrase so we have the call
[03:52] phrase that we played from before and
[03:54] then after you play those call phrases
[03:56] it goes to this answer phrase now we're
[03:58] going to come back to this answer phrase
[04:00] in the verse sections and the chorus
[04:03] sections and the rest of the song he
[04:04] plays this
[04:05] measures 5 through 11 we have a simple
[04:08] variation on the first call phrase and
[04:12] that sounds like this
[04:15] [Music]
[04:20] it's very similar to our first two
[04:22] measures the difference here is we have
[04:24] uh
[04:25] [Music]
[04:28] okay we're going to that second phrase
[04:32] [Music]
[04:34] okay
[04:36] measures 10 and 11 we're basically kind
[04:38] of doing that same phrase again but it
[04:42] ends a little differently and that
[04:43] sounds like this
[04:45] [Music]
[04:52] okay that time we're going sliding up
[04:56] you're gonna go two
[04:58] four
[04:59] with the third finger slide up to six
[05:01] with that same third finger and use your
[05:04] second finger to play the fifth fret of
[05:06] the b string so one more time measures
[05:08] ten and 11.
[05:09] [Music]
[05:17] we're going to go to measures 12 through
[05:19] 18 and it's exactly the same as measures
[05:22] 1 through seven so now let's play it
[05:25] together with the metronome
[05:28] with the tabs on the screen
[05:31] one
[05:32] two
[05:33] three
[05:34] four
[05:36] [Music]
[05:56] do
[05:58] [Music]
[06:24] do
[06:26] [Music]
[06:50] okay great
[06:51] so
[06:52] that's the intro phrase really guys
[06:54] focus most of your effort on that intro
[06:56] phrase these other parts of the song are
[06:57] going to be a lot easier if you can do
[07:00] that first
[07:01] so let's check out those other parts of
[07:03] the song now the other parts of this
[07:04] song we have a verse section we have a
[07:06] verse outro that leads into the chorus
[07:10] uh then we have this shuffle part that's
[07:12] kind of like a bridge
[07:14] and then there's just a really short
[07:15] ending tag that's two measures long so
[07:18] the first part is where he's singing and
[07:21] the notes that he's playing um are
[07:23] identical to the intro he's syncopating
[07:26] the notes a lot more so he's putting
[07:28] these melody notes in between the bass
[07:31] notes
[07:32] here's what i mean by that
[07:33] let's check out measure 19 and 20 and
[07:36] then i'll play 21 22 and 23 which is the
[07:39] answer phrase so it sounds like this
[07:42] [Music]
[07:55] so you can hear they have two measures
[07:57] of a call phrase where he's literally
[08:00] singing those notes
[08:01] and then three measures of an answer
[08:03] phrase
[08:05] now when he plays this song he plays it
[08:07] differently every single time
[08:09] furthermore sometimes he's going to be
[08:11] adding extra beats not just in 4-4 time
[08:14] signature some of the measures when he's
[08:16] singing he'll play it actually in six
[08:18] four times so we'll play six beats in a
[08:20] measure sometimes he plays five beats in
[08:22] a measure sometimes he plays just three
[08:25] the thing that you have to realize here
[08:27] is that what he's doing is he's always
[08:29] matching
[08:30] his lyric
[08:32] so if his lyrics are longer he has to
[08:34] add some extra beats for the call phrase
[08:37] the way i've arranged it here since
[08:39] we're not singing along is just every
[08:41] measure is going to be in four four now
[08:43] sometimes when he plays it he does play
[08:45] every measure in four four it just he
[08:47] plays a lot of different variations each
[08:48] time he plays it let me go through
[08:50] measures 24 25 which is basically
[08:53] almost exactly the same we have just a
[08:55] different call phrase and that sounds
[08:57] like this
[08:58] [Music]
[09:04] and then the answer
[09:08] [Music]
[09:10] third phrase sounds like this
[09:12] [Music]
[09:17] answer
[09:18] [Music]
[09:24] so the last phrase that he plays over
[09:26] the verse section we're calling this a
[09:28] verse outro and it leads very nicely
[09:30] into the chorus before i play it you
[09:32] need to know that in the chorus he's
[09:34] actually changing the bass note to d
[09:37] okay so listen to that part the chorus
[09:38] is only six measures long let's
[09:41] let's check it out
[09:43] [Music]
[09:53] then the answer friends
[09:57] [Music]
[10:00] to the chorus
[10:03] [Music]
[10:19] and then then it goes into the shuffle
[10:21] part the verse outro phrase let's just
[10:23] kind of jump to the end where we have
[10:25] measure 40.
[10:26] um that's where we have the change it's
[10:28] just the verse outro into the chorus
[10:30] that's important so we have this
[10:37] and then these two notes here on beat
[10:39] four
[10:41] lead into the chorus which is basically
[10:42] going to be over a d he got his pinky
[10:44] here on the fifth fret of the b string
[10:46] and we're holding that like this one
[10:49] two
[10:50] three
[10:54] [Music]
[11:00] okay measure 43 is kind of weird because
[11:02] we have this
[11:08] so you have to kind of double up your
[11:09] thumb there
[11:14] okay then it goes back to the a
[11:20] okay and then over to an e so then we're
[11:22] plucking the e bass note
[11:25] with this note fourth fret note b on the
[11:28] g string
[11:31] last measure one
[11:33] two and then the little outro phrase
[11:37] goes into the shuffle part which is
[11:39] going to be over an a let's jump into
[11:41] the shuffle part this is a fun part to
[11:43] play too this is where you sing in the
[11:44] bridge part and this part definitely has
[11:47] some percussion in it
[11:49] so this is a little extra step for you
[11:51] guys it's very similar to the
[11:53] answer phrase that
[11:56] [Music]
[12:00] it's similar to that phrase except we're
[12:02] starting the notes here
[12:05] [Music]
[12:12] okay except we're starting that phrase
[12:14] on that note and the melody kind of goes
[12:17] [Music]
[12:23] like that but here we're actually adding
[12:26] some percussion okay you can hear that
[12:28] he definitely is it you can hear him hit
[12:30] his hand down on the guitar um and it
[12:32] sounds like this with the percussion you
[12:34] can see that written in the tabs with
[12:36] those x marks
[12:39] [Music]
[12:44] basically it's the same thing it's just
[12:45] on beats two and four we're going to
[12:47] kind of hit it a little bit harder
[12:50] and then kind of stroke with the backs
[12:52] of the fingers like that okay that'll
[12:54] give you kind of a click you can also
[12:56] kind of just hit your hand down here to
[12:58] get some kind of percussion that'll
[13:00] sound like this
[13:02] [Music]
[13:08] okay the second half of that phrase he's
[13:10] going over a d
[13:11] again and he's just gonna keep that
[13:12] percussion up this is kind of like a d
[13:14] uh major seven chord
[13:20] [Music]
[13:24] back to that answer phrase
[13:30] so the very last part is this ending tag
[13:32] that he'll add and he basically just
[13:34] kind of places this when he's ready to
[13:36] end the song usually he'll kind of do
[13:38] that shuffle part for a while sometimes
[13:41] he'll go back into the intro phrase and
[13:44] then he'll play this out this sounds
[13:46] like this it's basically just an ending
[13:48] tag and it sounds like this
[13:50] [Music]
[13:56] okay so he's just kind of going down
[13:58] this major blues
[14:00] [Music]
[14:05] and then kind of just strumming on a
[14:06] long a
[14:09] all right
[14:11] so those are all the parts to this song
[14:12] guys have fun with the song guys this is
[14:14] a really fun one to learn but be kind to
[14:16] yourself this is not super easy if you
[14:18] haven't done this stuff before it's
[14:20] going to take you a while i mean
[14:22] sometimes it takes people months to kind
[14:24] of get comfortable doing this type of
[14:25] thing even with regular practice so if
[14:28] you're just starting off please be kind
[14:30] to yourself it's
[14:32] it's not super easy and it'll take some
[14:34] time give yourself plenty of time to
[14:36] learn it and it's worth it it's really
[14:38] fun to play this is one of those songs
[14:40] that really sticks in your head once
[14:41] you've learned it and
[14:43] it's really fun to play i love playing
[14:45] it and i think people love listening to
[14:46] it too
[14:47] so thanks so much for watching and if
[14:50] you want some more stuff check out this
[14:51] video over here and i'll see you over
[14:54] there
[15:08] you