Layla Unplugged by Eric Clapton | acoustic
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An acoustic guitar lesson on how to play “Layla” by Eric Clapton from the 1992 "Unplugged" album.
The original version of Layla was released way back in 1970 on the Derek and the Dominos album "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs". That recording featured Duane Allman on lead and slide guitar. Although Eric has many great songs, I think this one may be his best and the one he'll be most remembered for. He wrote the first part but the second section featuring the piano was written by Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordan. His story is a strange and sad one. Read about him here. It's a great song and as all great songs go, it really doesn't matter what style you play it in, it's always great! There are some really interesting chord changes in it. I go over some of the theory behind those in the rhythm lesson. I also go over both solos. Eric is such a great guitar player and IMHO a lot of that comes down to his excellent phrasing. These solos are a testament to that. Other than a great vibrato, which he's always had in spades, it's his phrasing that makes the difference. All of the great guitar players have that ability. It's something that you can't really teach but when you listen to someone play who has great phrasing, it's almost like they're telling you a story. There are a lot of licks in these two solos and some tricky timings. It might take a while to really learn them. Both solos are built around the D minor pentatonic scale but also use the E note which is part of the D minor scale. It moves between position four, five and one. I really enjoyed recording the demo and working on the lesson. It's always a pleasure when you're dealing with quality music played by great musicians! I hope you enjoy the lesson and have fun playing this classic tune. Cheers Andy |
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