Into the Mystic by Van Morrison | acoustic - electric
An acoustic/electric guitar lesson on how to play "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison. From his third album "Moondance" released in 1970.
"Into the Mystic" has always been one of my favorite Van Morrison songs, in fact the whole Moondance album is awesome. Apart from the beautiful songs, a lot of what makes the album so good is the great musicians that played on it. The guitar fills on "Into the Mystic" played by John Platania and the piano fills played by Jeff Labes really make the song. That guitar fill on the E minor to me is the signature of the song. A huge part of the groove of the song is the excellent bass part played by John Klingberg. Gary Mallabar, who played with Steve Miller for many years among many other artists is the drummer. There's not much to the song. There are only four chords and the fills aren't hard to play, but it's the feel that makes the difference. Van Morrison is all about feel. When they reissued this album in 2013, there were 3 cds of the sessions. Here's a couple of "Into the Mystic" takes that are interesting to listen to. Take 11 Take 14-16 Take 17 This one sounds like the actual record to me, maybe just a different mix. Artists like this are not really about playing exact parts they're more about being in the moment and you can hear that as each take is different with the musicians just feeling their way through the music. I was only planning on doing the acoustic parts for this one but it sounded so empty without the vocal, so I played the melody on my Les Paul. There's not much too it really. It's more about trying to feel each note. I played it with my fingers and thumb as I always think I get better feel when I play that way. Anyways, it really is a fantastic song and with all of the craziness in the world right now, it always feels good to listen Van Morrison! I hope that my lesson helps you to play it and I hope that you get something from the videos. You can download my version as a stand alone audio track below if you're interested. Stay safe everybody. Cheers Andy |
If you find this video useful, please consider making a donation. Thank you.