Chords for Good Times by Chic | Guitar Lesson

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_ _ _ _ [N] _ _ Hey, how you doing?
Justin here.
Today we are checking out Good Times by Chic,
featuring, of course, the incredible Nile Rodgers,
one of the finest guitar players of all time,
an incredible funk master.
And this kind of shows a lot of his stylistic kind of things going on in this tune.
It's basically built around four chord shapes,
although during the song there are quite a few variations that he goes through as well,
which we might talk a little bit about.
But to start off with, let's get to a close-up.
Check out the chords and the funk strumming pattern.
OK, so let's start by looking at the four chord grips that you need to play the main riff.
So, the first one here is an [Em] E minor 7 chord.
OK, [D] hopefully many of you will know a regular E [Em] minor bar chord up here at the 7th fret,
which is nothing on the thicker string, then 7, 9, 9, 8, 7.
OK, it's normal E minor.
And from that you just lift off the little finger and you've got an E minor 7.
So it's muting the thicker string, then 7, 9, 7, 8, 7.
_ _ Now one thing to note here when you're doing your strumming pattern is that the first finger,
if you're touching right where the fret is on the 7th fret,
[E] you'll quite often get a harmonic rather than a string mute.
[G#] So, the only real solution I can suggest is moving the first finger back
a little bit more than you might normally, so it tends to mute it.
You're still getting a little bit of harmonic there,
but it's not [E] as _ _ dominant as you'll get if it's touching right at the [Em] 7th fret.
So, just be aware of that _ for that particular chord.
That's an E minor 7, that's the first chord.
Now the second chord is an _ E7sus4, so all we need to do there really is
add a little finger down on the 10th fret of the second string.
_ You no longer need this second finger as well,
so you can lift that off if you want, but you don't have to.
So, E minor 7, [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
E7sus4.
Next we've got this kind [G] of, it's got a few different names.
I kind of think of it as maybe an A9 chord with an E on the bass.
But it's basically the E minor 7 chord, but [A] lifting off the third finger.
[G] _
OK, I'm calling it an A chord because the harmonic movement of the song
on the bass is moving to an A note.
[A] So, _ [Em] now I was a little bit [E] _ _ baffled by this chord.
There were a few other chords that I thought it might have been.
[A] I thought it might have been this, for a little while, an A sus chord.
_ But I've watched numerous videos of Nile, and [Em] this is definitely what he's playing.
So, some of the other notes that you hear must be kind of other instrumentation,
kind of sneaking in there and confusing the chord.
And [A] the last chord _ _ [Em] is this an A13 chord, again with an E bass.
So, not playing the thicker string, then 7th fret, 5th fret, 6th fret, [F#m]
7th fret, 5th fret. _ _ _
OK, lovely, lovely chord.
Again, nothing on the thicker [Em] string.
7, [C#] 5, [F#m] 6, 7, 5.
_ Now, all of these chords were really focusing on the thinnest four strings.
So, you could kind of play that if you wanted to leave off that third finger there.
You could play just the thinnest four strings.
But it seems to kind of sound righter to me if I put that third finger down in there.
So, the chords, again, in order [Em] now.
E minor 7 to _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] E7 sus 4 to _ _ _ _ _ [G] A9 to _ _ _
_ _ _ [F#m] _ A13. _ _
_ _ And again, E [Em] minor 7 to _ _ _ _ _ [E] E7 sus _ _ _ _ _ _ to [G] _ A9 over E to _ _ _ [F#m] A13 over E.
You want to get technical. _ _ _ _
OK, now there's a very, very specific strumming pattern that happens with this as well,
for the main riff.
There's lots of variations that Nile uses during the song,
little kind of smaller versions of the chords and adding a few fingers in here and there.
But to play the main riff, very, very specific pattern.
So, we're going to do it one bar at a time, OK?
So, starting off with the E minor 7.
You want to play the chord, _ _ relax the chord, so lift the fingers up to mute the chord.
And then we've got two muted hits.
So, one and a two _ and a three _ and a four and a.
OK, very specific pattern.
_ Chord, mute, mute, chord, mute, mute, chord, mute, mute, mute, chord, mute, mute.
OK, _ one and a two and a three and a four and a.
OK, again, one and a two and a three and [Em] a four and a.
OK, so the next chord we go to is the _ [E] E7sus4.
_ And for this, we're using all down strums, one and two and three and four and a.
OK, and there's two little mutes at the end.
So, but what's really important here is the pumping of the chord.
So, we're just pressing the chord down and then lifting it up straight away. _ _
_ So, we get a nice tight chord sound as opposed to_
_ We _ want_ _
_ not doing any muting with the strumming hand, right? _ _
_ _ _ _ Note that you can hear ringing out that rogue [Cm] harmonic on the [E] seventh fret there on the E7sus4.
OK, so [C#] the first two bars, so E [Em] minor, _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ E7sus4. _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] OK, and there's just two mutes there at the end.
So, one and two and three and four and a.
OK, _ one, two, [G] three, four, _ [E] one and two and three and four.
And now it's exactly the same pattern but with the next two chords.
So, the A9sus4, _ one, two, [G] three, four and a.
[F#m] One and two and three and four [D#] and a.
OK, let's play that whole thing through then, nice and slow.
Again, if you [G] missed that, the A7, _ the A9 over E, or A9sus, whatever you want to call it, to the [F#m] A13.
Exactly [N] the same strumming as the first two bars but the chords are different, OK?
So, here we go, nice and slow.
So, three and a four and [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
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_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
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a.
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
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_ [Em] As the song progresses, Nile starts to chill things out a little bit in the verses.
So, you might want to just play a little bit less.
Definitely listen to the original recording and try to cop some of that feel and copy his riffs.
One of the things that you'll hear quite often _ [G]
is the [G#] little finger going down here on the tenth fret of the thinner string.
[Em] So,
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_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[F#m] _ _ _ little Asus, _ I'm pretty sure that's [C] occurring in the verses [F#m] going to the 13 [E] instead of this one.
[G] _ _ He's using that [A] sometimes, I think, 7, 7, 5, 5. _
_ [Em] OK, there's definitely sections where it sounds like he's playing just regular E minor [G] as well instead of E minor 7.
[E] OK, _
[F#m] and there, _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ you know, putting that finger [Em] on and off there for the 7sus4.
_ [G] _ Have a listen to the original recording and really just try and sus out some of these little variations for yourself
if you're that keen on playing this song just like the original recording. _
I really hope you dig on playing this tune.
Nile Rodgers is definitely a master funk guitar player and somebody you should be listening to a lot
if you're getting into your funk guitar.
You know, incredible guitar player, great feel, great songwriter, great producer.
He comes across as a really nice guy as well.
So, definitely be checking out as much Nile Rodgers stuff and, of course, his band Chic
[G#] as you can because it's really good food for your soul.
So, I hope you enjoy it and I'll see you for plenty more lessons very soon.
I will put the rhythm part for this song as well up on the website, so you might want to check that out.
Sometimes helps to see rhythms like that as well as being able to play and count them.
So, see you for more very soon.
You take care of yourselves.
Bye-bye. _ _ _ _
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