Chords for Freddie King Blues Licks on Guitar | Reverb Learn to Play

_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ [F] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [C] Hey [F] _ _ _ _ _
[Gb] _ _ [D] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ [G] _ everybody, this is Jeff at Reverb.com.
Today I'd like to talk [Eb] about some of the licks and playing [G] ideas of my [C] favorite blues man,
Mr.
Freddie King.
Freddie King of course, one of the Texas [D] blues greats.
He stood out from a [Eb] lot of the other players at the time because he had such a modern for
the time, a modern style, an aggressive style _ that influenced all your Eric [B] Clapton's and
Jeff [D] Beck's and Jimmy Page.
He really [A] stood out from the pack because he put so much soul and feel into what he
did and really had a million different licks with a minimal amount of notes.
[D] Freddie in his early days initially played a gold tablez Paul with P90s, but he's more
known for his later work where he switched to a [G] Gibson 355, a bigger semi hollow [A] body guitar.
Today I'm playing an [Gb] Epiphone Dot Deluxe.
[F] So basically if you're trying to get Freddie's [G] sound, [Eb] you're shooting for anything with humbuckers.
I'm using a Manicore drive pedal to drive a Magnatone amp because I'm playing a little
lower volume, but Freddie would [D] play at high volumes [A] usually through Fender Super Reverbs
or even the Super 6 Reverbs, which is the Super Reverb [Bm] with the 6 speakers rather than a 4.
[A] _
[Db] Sometimes even pointed to the side [Gm] I think because he had them so loud.
Freddie licks can be played with a flat pick of [Eb] course, which I'm using today, but if you
watch video footage of Freddie you'll see that he used a metal thumb pick and he used
his index finger.
But it could come across [Ab] either way.
I'm more comfortable myself with a flat pick, so that's what I'll be using. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ So it's really about how much feel he put into it and how great his vibrato was.
But if you look here, I'm in the key of C _ and I'm playing in this section right here
in the pentatonic scale.
_ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ [Abm] _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ _
So I'm not really using a lot of notes, I'm basically using 3 notes and bending up, but
that first lick, it's kind of got a real jagged feel to it.
_ _ [F] _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [G] And I'm starting at the 13th fret with my ring finger, then I'm going to the 11th fret
with my index finger on the E string, the ring finger is on the B string, and then up
to the 13th fret on the E string and bending.
But the lick itself is, _ [F] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Ab] and then when I get into the bend it's two real jabby full bends. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ And that's something that Freddie would do with a million other combinations in a slow
blues, in a boogie, really anything, it works for either.
The second half of that lick, it appears to be simple, but again, you know, Freddie makes
it look so easy, he's only playing a couple notes, but he's putting so much feel into it.
But basically what I'm doing after I do the, _ _ is I'm going from 11 to 13 and I'm [B] bending
on the 13 repeatedly. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] And a lot of times Freddie would just hold a bend after that. _
[Db] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Abm] And then he's finishing off with a full bend at the 11th, which can be kind of tricky.
So I'm actually, [C] _ _ two full bends right there.
So all in context.
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ [F] _ Alright, the second lick I'd like to talk about, I'm still in the key of C.
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
I'm [Cm] more playing off of C pentatonic position as follows, like [F] C _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ [Cm] _ minor [D] pentatonic.
I'm at the 10th fret and I'm bending _ [Eb] back to the 8th, _ _ [C] and then kind of doing a little
half bend at the 10th and then hammering from the 8th to the [F] 10th.
_ _ Then just basically going right down the pentatonic scale.
8, _ [C] 10, _ [Bb] 8 on the D string, sliding [G] from 10 to 8 on the A [F] string.
_ [Eb] _ 6th fret on the A string and [G] then sliding back up to the 10th on the D string.
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [F] _ _ The next lick that I'm going to show you is one of my favorites, and you've heard all
kinds of other rock guitar players take this one for their own, and it's a great lick because,
you know, you kind of look at it like you're in the pentatonic box, but I'm [D] adding [Eb] these
notes to it.
[Ab] So rather than [G] just, _ _ _ _ _ [Gb] those are basically the six [B] notes that we're using.
[A] _ The lick [Eb] is, _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [E] _ and what I'm doing is I'm keeping this index finger here at the 8th fret of
the high E string and then pulling off from the 11th and the 10th.
[C] And I guess I'm starting the phrase from the 11th on the B string, so [Cm]
that _ [Em] _ _ would be the whole sequence.
[C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And then, a lot of times, Freddie would do the same lick again and move everything [D] over
one string, _ [Gm] _ _
_ fluctuating between this, the 11th fret and the 10th fret, depending.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[Db] And then [Ab] finish it off with a bend of some sort or some kind of lick. _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] Alright, so there's a few of the licks that I've taken from Freddie King and tried to
incorporate in my own playing, and I hope you can do the same.
Make sure you check out, you know, there's a bunch of cool YouTube videos of Freddie playing live.
His studio records are great, but I especially like the live recordings.
So check it out, I hope you learned something today, and we'll [F] see you next time. _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _