Chords for Jethro Tull - Teacher (Lesson) Part I

[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [N] _ [Db] Welcome [B] to Vanderbillie.com. This is in response to a [G] request for a lesson on Jethro [C] Tull's
Teacher from [G] the Benefit album. _
[A] It's [B] a song that has a few challenging parts, but those
are mostly embellishments [G] that you don't have to play if you don't want to.
[E] _ In this lesson
I'm [Bb] going to cover all aspects of the song.
[A] In part one [G]
I'll cover the opening chord sequence
[B] and the verse, and then in part two [Ab] I'm going to cover _ _ [B] the chorus, the signature [Gb] riff, and
[F] the jam, which includes a few brief lead pieces.
_ [Bb] _ _ This song is in standard tuning.
It uses some
[G] moderate overdrive, so let's get started with a play through that shows you some slightly
abbreviated versions of the main parts of the song.
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ [D] _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [A] _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _
_ [E] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Okay, the opening chord [Bb] sequence, _ which is played four times, starts with an A add 9
chord.
You take [Am] your first finger [Ab] _ to the [D] E string fifth [A] fret, and you're also going to
be [B] muting the A string with [G] that.
[Bb] Then you take your ring finger to the D string [Ab] seventh
fret, _ [A] _ and your [Ab] middle finger on the G string sixth fret.
So that should sound [Bb] like this.
_ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
You only play it [A] twice, _ _ and then [B] you have two beats, _ _ _ so [A] _ _ _ it's_and _ _
[D] then you slide the
whole thing down two frets to play a G add [G] 9, _ _ _ _ and then you have one beat, _ _
_ _ [Bb] and then you
make a C sharp bar [G] chord on the fourth fret, and you slide it immediately up one fret [Bb] to
D. _
[D] _ _ _ You play it three times. _
[Bbm] So it's very slowly from the beginning, [G] _ _ _ _ A [Bb] _
_ _ _ add [A] 9, _ _ _ _ G add 9, and
[G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ you're using down strokes [A] only for all of these chords. _ _
[Ab] So that's pretty much what it
[Bb] should sound like, _ [G] _
[Bb] and then we'll move into the verse.
[N] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ The basic [Db] verse is [Bbm] constructed [Bb] around three chords.
[D] There's an A sus 2, [A] which [Bb] is just
an A chord without the B string fretted, [Bbm] and it should [A] sound like this.
_ _ _ _ _ There's a G5, which
is just a G chord, [Bb] but you're going to take [B] your ring finger, you're going [Bb] to fret both
the E and the B strings [B] at the third fret, so that should sound like [G] this, _ _ _ _ _ _ and just the
open D [D] chord. _ _
Now the basic strum, [Bb] without any embellishments at all, and you can't play
it this way if you want, is to just play the _ _ A sus 2 chord freely, [B]
followed by [G] the _ G5 three
times and the D twice.
So that would be [A] _ _ _
_ like_
_ [G] _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ But in the [Bbm] studio, Morton Barr, Toll's [B] guitarist, uses some embellishments around that [C] A sus
2 chord, and here's what he does.
He [D] plays the A sus 2 _ [Am]
with a down-up-down strum, [A] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ and
then immediately moves up [Bb] to _ the 8th fret.
You put your first [A] finger on the B string
[B] 8th fret, and your [Bb] middle finger on the D string 9th fret, [Ab] and you're muting [Bb] the G string
in between.
_ [G] _ _
And you play it with an upstroke, you play it [Ab] once, and you don't slide into
it, you [B] don't [Bb] hybrid pick it, it just sounds [Em] like_
_ [B] So it's [Bb] just very brief.
_ [Ab] _ _ And once
[Bb] you've played that once, you move down to the 7th fret, you don't slide down, just move
down.
_ You switch your first [Ab] finger _
[Bb] to the D string [A] 7th fret, and [C] your middle finger
to the B string [Bb] 7th fret.
You mute the G [A] again, and that should just [G] be like this with an
[A] upstroke. _ _
_ [B] And [Db] then you move [C] down to the 5th fret, [A] you just slide that whole thing [Bb] down.
Don't get the sliding sound, just move down to the 5th [Em] fret.
So the whole thing is [D] just
_ [C] _ _ [B] [Bb] like that.
Not [B] _ hybrid [Bb] pick, [C] _ _
not_
[Em] None [Bb] of that. _ _ _
So the whole thing_
Oh, and then you
end it with the G5 and the D, the same way _ [G]
you would normally.
_ _ _ _ [D] _
So that whole thing slowly
should just [A] sound _ _ like_
[Em] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Em] _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ [N] So _ that entire [Bbm] pattern is played 8 times [G] while the verse is being
sung.
And on [Bbm] the 8th time, [A]
instead of ending with the 3 G5's and 2 D chords, _ _ [D] you end with
_ [Db] striking the G5 twice and adding an A chord.
So [G] _ that's_
[A] _ _ And then you move [Db] into what would
be the bottom of [B] a C chord, and you just play the A, D, and G strings in sequence like [C] this.
_ _ _ _ I [Bb] usually [G] use my first [Ab] finger _ [Bb] and my middle finger instead of the C form.
[C] _
_ _ _ And then that
takes you right into the chorus from there. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _