American Woman by The Guess Who | acoustic electric rhythm and solo
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An acoustic and electric guitar lesson on how to play “American Woman” by the Guess Who from the album of the same name released in 1970.
This will probably go down as the Guess Who’s signature song. Not only is it a great tune, but the entire album is excellent too. I’ve played this in bands before, but we never played the intro, so this is the first time I’ve learned it. After struggling away trying to get it to sound right in the key of G, it eventually dawned on me that it wasn’t in G at all, but open G! Once you get that, it’s super easy to play and sounds great. I go over all of this in part one of the lesson. There’s an interesting story about how this song came about and I talk about that in the video also. I’ve always thought that the solo in this song is one of the best ever.
It’s a classic major pentatonic/mixolydian style melodic solo that really evolves around the major/minor third and the minor seventh. These are the kind of solos that sound really easy, and essentially it is technically easier to play than some, but to get the feel and the right sound is always tougher than the actual notes. You really have to squeeze out each note and make your guitar sing. I really love this kind of playing… I had a great time making the demo for this one. I hope you enjoy the lessons. Cheers Andy |
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