Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac | acoustic - electric
A guitar lesson on how to play "Oh Well Part 1" by Fleetwood Mac released as a single in 1969.
When Peter Green wrote "Oh Well", it was originally a sombre classical guitar piece (now known as "Oh Well part 2"). He was pushing for it to be the A side of their upcoming single. Every A side needs a B side, so he came up with "Oh Well Part 1" for that. He considered it a throwaway rock lick. Much to his disappointment, the record company decided to reverse the order and issued the single with "Oh Well part 1" as the A side, which subsequently went on to become a major hit! The song has inspired so many artists and guitar players throughout the years. One of the most obvious tributes (ripoffs?) was AC/DC's "Beating Around The Bush" which is really close! I have a lesson on that here. For me, I don't care about any of that as all artists are inspired by other artists and borrow licks and ideas. That's pretty well all the old blues guys did!
Anyways, playing this smoothly is almost like a right of passage for rock guitar players. It's a lot tougher than it sounds and will take some practice even for experienced guitar players. The part that just about everyone seems to miss is the flat 5 on the second time through the cycle. I go over this in the video. You'll notice the difference right away when you do that. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers did a version of it and although Mike Campbell puts his own spin on it, he's the only one I've seen that plays the flat 5, although he seems to play it every time... I had a lot of fun working on this video so I hope you get something out of it. Cheers Andy |
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