Category Archives: Classic Rock

LIVE 005 • Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton

Classic Rock, Live, , ,

Wonderful Tonight was written by Eric Clapton about his then-wife Pattie Boyd, who had already inspired great songs from Eric and previous husband George Harrison. This song has been the theme to many a high school prom, and its simple yet tasteful melody has held up over the years. In keeping with that, my arrangement here is fairly straight forward: it doesn’t move around the neck very much or have any unusual chord voicings. Hope you enjoy it.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.

Coincidentally, I also did a lesson on Eric’s break-up song with Pattie, here.

LIVE 004 • I’m on Fire by Bruce Springsteen

Classic Rock, Live, , , , ,

My mom is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and used to play the Born In The U.S.A. album a lot. Listening to it again as an adult, it’s a sad, powerful album with some great tunes. I’m on Fire is a really cool little song – almost a sketch at under 3 minutes long, but it really creates a great atmosphere in that short amount of time. I had fun playing it fingerstyle and hope you enjoy my arrangement. Here’s to The Boss.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.

All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.

SONG 200 • Old Love by Eric Clapton

Classic Rock, Songs, , ,

Today’s guitar lesson covers how to play the rhythm guitar parts for “Old Love” by Eric Clapton. Old Love was written by Clapton (co-written with Robert Cray) about his split with then-wife Pattie Boyd. The song originally appeared on Clapton’s Journeyman album, though most people are familiar with the version from the Unplugged album. “Old Love” has also been covered by John Mayer. I recently noticed that I neglected to give some examples of the strumming, but the pattern is pretty simple. Watch the live version of the song from Eric Clapton, below, to get a feel for how you might strum the chords.

Here is the Lesson:

Here is the live recording from Unlpugged: